Minutes after an older black lady wearing a red-colored scarf more than white locks emerged throughout the 2nd-floors windows. She looked confused then again acknowledged Willy. “ Hola. Hola. ” She desired you upstairs.
Their identity try Gladis Castaneda, and you will she got a specialist classical pianist within the Havana through the this new 1950s. She is a tiny lady in her eighties otherwise 1990s. She nodded when he mentioned Los angeles Reina. Sure, she told you, he would stayed in it society, best next door. Here, regarding skin, try somebody who know the latest epic Superman-facts, actually, that people in fact lived.
Superman, Castaneda said, was extreme, strong, recognized. “Someone knew him given that King,” she told you. “He had been gay, however you failed to wreck havoc on your.” She expected me to sit. “He was your level. However, good. Muscular.” He’d body such as for instance hers: ebony, not extremely. “He was an effective guy. Not one person had an issue with your.” I inquired in the event the everybody in the neighborhood know just what he did to own an income. “Young buck, it actually was many years ago. He kept years ago.”
Willy asked in the event that she know what turned away from him, and you will she told you she believes he died when you look at the Miami. Her times try waning, and you can Willy nodded in my experience to point the time had come i wade.
Upon the road, i met a vintage people bending against the wall structure. His term was Elado. He carried an excellent cane and you may wore a loose green jacket which have a beneficial Masonic symbol hanging from a cycle doing their neck. Willy told your we were finding information regarding the guy they titled La Reina.
“ Si, si, ” the existing guy said. “La Reina-every person understood him. Mulatto. About your peak,” he nodded in my assistance. “Everybody recognized him. He lived here to own 20 years. Of course, everyone know exactly what he did to own an income.” The guy said Superman kept on You.S. into the 1959. “No one know their name. Anyone just titled him Los angeles Reina.”
We inserted their particular large apartment, and you can Willy said everything we was indeed starting
Across the street because of the church, roosters crowed. A girl sporting Rollerblades talked towards the a pay mobile phone. An old guy within the a leather tennis limit used a great cigar toward a beneficial backless wood settee.
His tresses try white and crazy
We moved courtesy Los Sitios to your Barrio Chino up https://internationalwomen.net/de/puertoricanische-frauen/ until i arrived within 507 Marquis Street. We stood in the street taking a look at the access so you’re able to a beneficial martial-arts university: Escuela Cubana de- Wushu. They had a red-colored and you will purple act having a silver foo canine and you will a purple iron door.
The doorway try discover. Inside the side gate was a great courtyard that have a little restaurant and some stationary exercise equipment. The latest theatre immediately following endured where the school’s outdoor courtyard has started to become. I attempted to imagine in which the phase could have been. The latest putting on a costume space where Superman prepared for the new show. The balcony in which drunken people noticed the latest abilities.
A short while after we gone back to Barrio de los Sitios to help you fabric for other individuals whom may have recognized Superman. Throughout the apartment building next to Gladis Castaneda’s, i met Superman’s real neighbor: a former pizza chef called Roberto Cabarero, 82 years of age, that have a heavily tarnished and you will offered strength top, drooping brownish trousers for the travel spacious, and you will black colored clothes with holes from the toes. His epidermis sagged for example a-sea turtle’s.
Cabarero’s apartment, in which he resided together with his spouse, are smaller and you will ramshackle, full of junk. His partner sat in the exact middle of the little family room, rocking back-and-forth into the a wood couch, speaking loudly during the not one person in particular. A wireless blared tinny old Foreign-language music, and a dog came in and out of the space to eat crumbs off the floor. A security time clock sounded during the appointment. No-one bothered to show it off.