Huge swamps ("ci?nagas") take up part of the south coast.
In these lonely places of mud and mangroves, "carboneros" make the charcoal essential for local cooking.
Since mangroves grow back very quickly, the source is not threatened in any way. However, it takes several hundred men living under very tough conditions at constant risk of malaria to make the charcoal that will sell for sixty "centavos" (cents) for a large bag. They are the numberless army of sacrificed men who have to live under inhuman conditions to maintain this fragile lie, shiny on the outside and hollow on the inside, that we call civilization.
Huge swamps, that one could call Cuba's "Everglades".
Charcoal maker's boat in a Zapata swamp.
