A few momemts later an older black colored woman sporting a reddish scarf more than white hair emerged regarding the second-floor window. She checked puzzled but then recognized Willy. “ Hola. Hola. ” She greeting us upstairs.
Their own label try Gladis Castaneda, and you can she was an expert traditional pianist inside the Havana https://internationalwomen.net/de/litauische-frauen/ throughout the the 1950s. She is a little lady within her eighties otherwise 1990’s. She nodded as he said La Reina. Sure, she told you, however stayed in that it society, correct next door. Right here, in the tissue, are an individual who realized the legendary Superman-evidence, actually, the man in fact existed.
Superman, Castaneda told you, try tall, solid, recognized. “Folks understood him once the Queen,” she told you. “He was gay, however did not wreak havoc on him.” She expected me to sit. “He was the height. But good. Muscle.” He’d skin such as for instance hers: dark, although not extremely. “He was a great guy. No one had an issue with him.” I inquired if the everybody in the area knew just what he did to have a full time income. “Young buck, it was many years ago. He left years ago.”
Willy requested if the she understood what became off him, and she said she believes the guy died in the Miami. Their unique opportunity is actually waning, and you will Willy nodded for me to indicate the time had come we wade.
Upon the road, we came across a classic people bending contrary to the wall surface. His title try Elado. The guy transmitted a beneficial cane and you will dressed in a loose eco-friendly jacket with a Masonic icon hanging out of a chain up to his neck. Willy informed him we were wanting details about the man it called La Reina.
“ Si, si, ” the old guy told you. “La Reina-everyone else knew him. Mulatto. Regarding your height,” he nodded during my guidelines. “Everybody else recognized your. He resided here to have two decades. However, people understood exactly what the guy did to possess a full time income.” The guy told you Superman kept into U.S. during the 1959. “No body realized his term. Folks just named him Los angeles Reina.”
We registered their unique roomy apartment, and you may Willy informed me what we should had been performing
Outside of the chapel, roosters crowed. An effective girl dressed in Rollerblades talked towards a cover cellular phone. An old people in a fabric tennis limit smoked an excellent cigar toward a great backless wood chair.
Their hair is actually light and you may wild
We strolled thanks to Los Sitios on Barrio Chino up to we turned up at 507 Marquis Highway. We endured on the street studying the entrance to help you a great martial-arts college or university: Escuela Cubana de- Wushu. It had a red and you can yellow facade that have a silver foo canine and you will a purple metal entrance.
The entranceway is actually discover. From inside the front entrance is an excellent courtyard having a tiny restaurant and some stationary exercise equipment. The fresh theatre just after stood the spot where the school’s outside courtyard is. We tried to envision the spot where the stage has been. The putting on a costume room where Superman prepared for brand new let you know. The balcony where drunken tourist noticed the fresh abilities.
A short time afterwards i returned to Barrio de- los Sitios to fabric for other people which may have known Superman. About flat building alongside Gladis Castaneda’s, we met Superman’s genuine neighbor: an old pizza pie chef entitled Roberto Cabarero, 82 yrs old, having a heavily tarnished and offered muscle mass clothing, sagging brownish shorts to your travel spacious, and you can black colored socks having openings on the toes. His surface sagged instance a-sea turtle’s.
Cabarero’s apartment, in which the guy lived with his wife, is lightweight and you can ramshackle, full of nonsense. Their partner seated in the little family area, rocking back and forth from inside the a wooden settee, talking loudly in the no body in particular. An invisible blared tinny old Foreign language songs, and your pet dog was available in and you may out of the place so you can eat crumbs from the floors. An alarm time clock sounded during our fulfilling. Not one person annoyed to turn it well.
