MIAMI In a country that once considered breeding

mini-cows, Cubans have become masters of invention.

They punch holes in the bottom of a water bottle. And
presto, its a shower head. If they cant find AA batteries
for the TV remote control, they use a rubber band to
attach a C battery and surf away.
They roast hot dogs and hamburgers on a metal chair.
Raw eggs are repurposed to plug leaks in car radiators. To
stop a car from leaking oil, they get out a bar of soap.
People may think that Cubans are really smart, said
Ernesto Oroza. Born in Cuba, Oroza has collected the
inventions since the mid-1990s and now lives in Miami.
But, he said, Cubans have figured out how to make what
they need out of whatever is at hand.
Making Their Own Parts
Cubans have been resolviendo loosely translated as
making do since the early 1960s. This was shortly
after the U.S. government stopped U.S. companies from
doing business with Cuban leader Fidel Castro's
government. This meant that Cuba couldn't import many
goods, from building supplies to car parts. And so they
had to improvise.
The state-controlled media regularly celebrate Cuban
cleverness. They featured farmers who build their own
windmills and parts for their tractors.
The revolution injected Cubans with inventiveness to
survive the shortages created by the Americans," Oroza
said. And now they use that inventiveness to survive the
problems caused by the Cuban revolution.
The Cuban revolution of 1958 led to a lower standard of
living for the Cuban people and little freedom.
Castro had some ideas that failed. In 1987, he proposed
breeding cows down to the size of dogs. He thought
families could keep them in city yards and use them for
milk. That was another thing Cubans didn't have enough
of milk for children.
Dangerous Inventions
But the shortages hit crisis levels in the early 1990s. That
was when the former Soviet Union stopped giving the
Caribbean island money every year. At the time, the Soviet
Union was one of Cuba's few friends and gave Cuba up to
about 6 billion dollars each year. The Cuban economy
shrank by 35 percent. Items imported from other countries
just about disappeared from store shelves.
Some of the inventions are dangerous.
When gasoline became scarce and expensive, Cubans
figured out how to run their cars on natural gas. They
then placed the potentially explosive gas containers in the
trunks.
Bare electrical wires connected to cans heat water for
showers. People used a couple of plastic jugs to replace
worn out gasoline tanks in their cars. The jugs, though,
were set dangerously close to the hot motor.
Other inventions were simply ingenious.
An iron turned upside down became a frying pan. Paper
clips held up a shower curtain. A 55-gallon metal
container became a pizza oven. To provide light when the
electricity failed, a wick was pushed through a tube of
toothpaste.
Colored Classroom Chalk
Part of a car became a system for hanging a TV on a wall.
They even figured out how to recharge batteries that are
not supposed to be chargeable.
In the best-known inventions, metal food trays were stolen
from cafeterias. They were turned into TV antennas. Also,
small gasoline motors added to bicycles became basic
motorcycles. They were called Rikimbilis.
Women used colored classroom chalk as face powder and
shoeshine paste for their eye liner. Ground charcoal
darkened their hair.
Oroza recalled that in the early years of the revolution,
there was even a group created to promote the
inventions.
Even in 1991, he said, the Cuban military and the
Federation of Cuban Women printed a book on making
do. The book gave instructions on how to make items
such as slingshots.
A year later, they published a second book with the ideas
for devices, work-arounds and homemade medicines that
had been sent in by readers. They proudly titled the book
With Our Own Efforts.

"Making Do"
Shower head: a plastic bottle with holes
Eye liner: shoeshine paste
TV antenna: metal cafeteria trays
Cooking griddle: iron turned upside down
Makeup: colored classroom chalk