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"Perga" — paraffined-paper disposable cup for bulk beer/malta, green cartoon print
Object/Artifact
A tall, slightly tapered (conical) disposable drinking cup of paraffin-waxed paperboard, now aged to a mottled tan with paraffin discoloration and staining. One side is printed in green with a cartoon illustration: a man in a jacket, seen in profile, leaning over a large rounded object (reading as a drum or a globe), with small stars and squiggles around his head (a comic "dizzy/tipsy" device fitting the cup's beer-selling use). The cup is seamed up one side and open at the top; capacity on the order of a half-liter. No legible brand name, maker mark, or text is present in the printed design. This is a "perga" — the paraffined-paper cup used to serve beer and malta sold by the cup (a granel) and the standard cup used by vendors at Cuban carnivals.
2025.1.164
Many of them were stored under a line of book in a bookcase by Gertrudis Caraballo Gálvez
The Cabrera Arús family collection
2025.1
Date: circa 1970s–1980s (tentative). No date or mark on the object; placement rests on the documented period of perga/bulk-beer carnival use.
Materials: Paperboard with paraffin (wax) coating; printing ink (green). Technique: Formed (rolled and side-seamed) paraffined-paperboard cup; surface-printed illustration. Disposable single-use ware.
Good
Gertrudis Caraballo Gálvez
owner
Havana
Cuba
Caribbean
Central America
preservation, distribution, use
A "perga," a paraffined-paperboard disposable cup (~half-liter) used to serve beer and malta sold a granel (by the cup), and the customary cup at Cuban carnivals.
Probably obtained through CDR (Committee for the Defense of the Revolution) supplies for organizing neighborhood parties and official events.