In Cuba, a newcomer to a bank, bus stop or ration-store queue commonly asks “¿El último?”—“Who is last?”—and remembers the person immediately ahead. The Washington Post reported in 2015 that a shopping list could require as many as seven separate lines and that people could step away temporarily without collapsing the order, provided the neighboring participants remembered one another.
The queue is not simply a straight row of bodies. It is held together by social memory. A person can handle another errand and return because those nearby preserve the turn, collectively carrying even the part of the wait that cannot be seen.