A few momemts after a senior black woman putting on a yellow garment more than white hair emerged regarding second-floor window. She appeared perplexed but then acknowledged Willy. “ Hola. Hola. ” She invited us upstairs.
Their label is Gladis Castaneda, and you may she was actually a specialist classical pianist during the Havana during the the fresh new 1950s. She try a little woman in her eighties or 90s. She nodded when he mentioned La Reina. Sure, she said, he would lived in that it area, proper across the street. Here, on the tissue, is a person who realized the legendary Superman-evidence, actually, your people in reality stayed.
Superman, Castaneda told you, are significant, solid, recognized. “Group understood him as Queen,” she told you. “He was gay, however did not mess with your.” She questioned me to stay. “He had been your level. But solid. Muscular.” He previously surface such as hers: dark, yet not very. “He had been a great people. No-one got an issue with your.” I asked when the everybody in the community realized exactly what he did getting a full time income. “Young buck, it had been years ago. The guy remaining many years ago https://worldbrides.org/de/heise-polnische-braute/.”
Willy requested in the event the she know what became away from your, and you may she said she thinks the guy died into the Miami. Their own times try waning, and Willy nodded in my opinion to suggest the time had come we wade.
Upon the road, i found a vintage people bending against the wall structure. Their name was Elado. He transmitted an effective cane and you may dressed in a free environmentally friendly sweater with a great Masonic symbol holding away from a string as much as their shoulder. Willy told your we had been shopping for information regarding the person they named La Reina.
“ Si, si, ” the existing man said. “La Reina-folks knew him. Mulatto. Concerning your peak,” the guy nodded inside my direction. “Everybody else acknowledged him. He existed here to possess two decades. Obviously, anyone realized exactly what the guy did to have a living.” He said Superman remaining to the You.S. for the 1959. “No-one understood his name. Every person simply titled your Los angeles Reina.”
We entered their roomy apartment, and Willy said what we were performing
Down the street by chapel, roosters crowed. Good girl sporting Rollerblades talked towards a pay cellular telephone. A classic people within the a leather-based golf limit smoked good cigar with the a backless wooden chair.
Their tresses try light and you will insane
We strolled as a consequence of Los Sitios towards Barrio Chino up until i arrived at 507 Marquis Roadway. We endured in the street looking at the entrances to help you a beneficial martial-arts university: Escuela Cubana de- Wushu. It had a purple and red facade that have a silver foo dog and you may a red-colored metal entrance.
The entranceway was unlock. In top door is a courtyard having a small cafe and many fixed exercise equipment. The fresh new theater after stood the spot where the school’s backyard courtyard is actually. I tried to envision where in fact the phase could have been. The fresh dressing area where Superman open to the newest let you know. The brand new balcony where drunken travelers saw the performance.
A short while afterwards we returned to Barrio de- los Sitios to help you canvas for other people which could have understood Superman. From the flat strengthening near to Gladis Castaneda’s, i came across Superman’s actual next-door neighbor: a former pizza pie cook named Roberto Cabarero, 82 years of age, with a greatly stained and you may longer muscle mass shirt, drooping brownish trousers for the travel spacious, and you may black colored socks that have gaps regarding leg. His facial skin sagged such as a-sea turtle’s.
Cabarero’s flat, in which he resided together with his partner, try lightweight and you may ramshackle, littered with junk. Their partner seated in the exact middle of the little family area, rocking back and forth when you look at the a wood settee, talking loudly at no one specifically. A radio blared tinny dated Spanish songs, and you can a dog was available in and you will out from the area in order to consume crumbs from the flooring. An alarm time clock sounded during all of our fulfilling. No one annoyed to show it off.