A few minutes later an elder black colored lady wear a red scarf more light hair came up on the second-flooring windows. She appeared mislead but accepted Willy. “ Hola. Hola. ” She anticipate you upstairs.
Her name is Gladis Castaneda, and you will she had been an expert ancient pianist for the Havana throughout the the latest 1950s. She is actually a small woman inside her 80s otherwise 90s. She nodded when he stated La Reina. Sure, she said, he’d lived-in that it community, best nearby. Here, on flesh, is actually a person who realized this new epic Superman-facts, in fact, that people indeed existed.
Superman, Castaneda told you, try high, solid, respected. “Folk understood your because the King,” she said. “He had been gay, nevertheless don’t wreck havoc on him.” She questioned me to remain. “He was your own top. However, strong. Muscular.” He had skin eg hers: dark, however extremely. “He had been an effective people. Nobody got an issue with your.” I inquired in the event that everybody in the area sexiest Russisch MГ¤dchen realized exactly what the guy performed to own an income. “Son, it had been years ago. He left many years ago.”
Willy expected in the event that she knew what turned into of your, and you may she told you she thinks he passed away from inside the Miami. Their energy are waning, and you will Willy nodded if you ask me to suggest the time had come we go.
Down on the trail, i found a classic guy leaning against the wall surface. His label try Elado. The guy sent good cane and you may dressed in a loose green jacket which have a beneficial Masonic symbol clinging regarding a string up to their neck. Willy informed him we had been interested in information on the guy they titled La Reina.
“ Si, si, ” the outdated guy told you. “La Reina-anyone understood him. Mulatto. Regarding the height,” he nodded in my recommendations. “Every person respected him. The guy resided here to have twenty years. Of course, everyone realized exactly what he performed to have a living.” The guy told you Superman remaining for the U.S. from inside the 1959. “Nobody understood their term. Every person just entitled him La Reina.”
We registered their large apartment, and you can Willy informed me that which we was basically carrying out
Across the street by the chapel, roosters crowed. A great girl dressed in Rollerblades talked to the a cover cellular telephone. An old man during the a leather-based golf limit smoked an effective cigar to the a good backless solid wood couch.
Their locks are white and you may wild
We strolled by way of Los Sitios towards the Barrio Chino up to i arrived at 507 Marquis Roadway. I endured on the street taking a look at the entry to help you a great martial-arts college: Escuela Cubana de- Wushu. It got a purple and you will red facade having a gold foo puppy and you will a red iron gate.
The entranceway try discover. Inside front entrance is actually a courtyard which have a tiny bistro and lots of stationary gym equipment. The fresh new theatre immediately after endured the spot where the school’s outside courtyard became. We attempted to believe where phase might have been. The new dressing room where Superman ready to accept the fresh let you know. New balcony where drunken tourists saw the fresh new show.
A short while afterwards i gone back to Barrio de los Sitios to help you canvas for others just who could have identified Superman. About apartment building alongside Gladis Castaneda’s, we found Superman’s genuine next-door neighbor: an old pizza pie chef titled Roberto Cabarero, 82 years old, that have a seriously discolored and expanded muscle mass shirt, sagging brownish jeans towards fly spacious, and black clothes which have holes regarding the leg. Their surface sagged such as a sea turtle’s.
Cabarero’s flat, in which he stayed with his wife, is tiny and you will ramshackle, plagued by junk. Their spouse sat in the small family area, rocking forward and backward into the a solid wood settee, speaking loudly in the no one particularly. A wireless blared tinny dated Spanish musical, and you can your pet dog was available in and you will out of the space in order to consume crumbs from the floor. An alarm time clock seemed through the duration of our very own meeting. Not one person annoyed to turn it well.