A couple of minutes later an elderly black woman dressed in a yellow scarf over light hair emerged on the second-floor screen. She seemed puzzled however recognized Willy. “ Hola. Hola. ” She welcome all of us upstairs.
Their identity try Gladis Castaneda, and you can she is an expert traditional pianist in the Havana while in the the 1950s. She are a small lady inside her 80s or 1990’s. She nodded when he said Los angeles Reina. Yes, she told you, he’d lived-in that it neighborhood, proper next-door. Here, from the flesh, was a person who understood the brand new epic Superman-facts, in fact, that the guy in reality lived.
Superman, Castaneda told you, is actually extreme, good, known. “Someone knew your while the Queen,” she told you. “He was gay, however you don’t wreck havoc on your.” She expected me to sit. “He had been their peak. But strong. Muscle.” He previously epidermis for example hers: dark, although not very. “He had been an effective man. No body had a problem with your.” I asked if the everybody in the people knew just what the guy performed to possess a full time income. “Child, it was many years ago. The guy remaining many years ago.”
Willy questioned in the event that she understood what turned into off your, and she told you she believes the guy passed away in Miami. Their times is actually waning, and you may Willy nodded in my experience to suggest the time had come we go.
Down on the trail, i came across a classic man bending contrary to the wall. His title try Elado. The guy carried a cane and dressed in a free green jacket having a great Masonic icon clinging out of a string around their neck. Willy advised your we had been seeking information regarding the guy they named La Reina.
“ Si, si, ” the old people told you. “Los angeles Reina-anyone understood your. Mulatto. About your height,” the guy nodded inside my recommendations. “Every person known your. The guy stayed right here having 20 years. However, everyone understood just what the guy performed to own a living.” The guy told you Superman left toward You.S. into the 1959. “No-one realized his title. Folks merely called your La Reina.”
We registered their unique roomy flat, and you can Willy said what we Unternehmensstandort should was in fact doing
Across the street because of the church, roosters crowed. A beneficial girl using Rollerblades spoke towards the a wages phone. An old people in a leather-based tennis limit used an excellent cigar into the a beneficial backless wooden sofa.
Their tresses was white and crazy
I walked by way of Los Sitios to your Barrio Chino up until i arrived in the 507 Marquis Street. I stood in the pub studying the entrances to help you a martial-arts university: Escuela Cubana de- Wushu. It got a red and you may red-colored act which have a silver foo canine and a purple metal gate.
The entranceway was unlock. Into the front side door was good courtyard which have a tiny cafe and several stationary gym equipment. This new theater just after endured where school’s backyard courtyard is starting to become. We made an effort to think the spot where the stage could have been. The new dressing place in which Superman available to the let you know. The fresh new balcony in which drunken people saw the latest abilities.
A short while afterwards we gone back to Barrio de- los Sitios to help you canvas for other people which have known Superman. On the flat strengthening close to Gladis Castaneda’s, we found Superman’s real neighbor: a former pizza pie cook called Roberto Cabarero, 82 yrs old, which have a seriously discolored and you can longer muscles clothing, sagging brownish jeans to the fly wide open, and you can black colored socks which have openings regarding the toes. Their facial skin sagged eg a sea turtle’s.
Cabarero’s apartment, where the guy resided together with spouse, is actually little and you will ramshackle, littered with rubbish. His spouse seated in the middle of the tiny home, rocking to and fro from inside the a solid wood settee, speaking loudly within not one person particularly. A wireless blared tinny dated Foreign-language songs, and you will a puppy came in and you will out of the area to consume crumbs off the flooring. A security clock seemed through the duration of our very own fulfilling. Not one person bothered to show it well.
