Willy rang an excellent buzzer and you may hollered to an old apartment having an overhanging balcony
A few minutes later on an older black colored lady putting on a red-colored scarf over light hair emerged throughout the next-floors screen. She seemed mislead then again recognized Willy. “ Hola. Hola. ” She greet us upstairs.
Their unique identity is actually Gladis Castaneda, and you can she ended up being a specialist classical pianist in the Havana throughout the newest 1950s. She was a tiny lady within her 80s or 90s. She nodded when he stated Los angeles Reina. Yes, she said, however stayed in which people, correct next-door. Right here, from the skin, try a person who knew the fresh new epic Superman-proof, in reality, the people in reality lived.
Superman, Castaneda told you, was tall, strong, known. “Men realized him just like the King,” she said. “He had been gay, you don’t wreak havoc on your.” She questioned us to stay. “He was internationalwomen.net besuchen Sie die Website the peak. But good. Muscle.” He’d body for example hers: ebony, but not most. “He had been a beneficial man. No body got an issue with your.” I inquired when the everybody in the people realized just what the guy did for a full time income. “Young man, it had been many years ago. The guy leftover years ago.”
Willy requested if she realized what turned into out-of him, and you can she told you she believes the guy died from inside the Miami. Their own times is actually waning, and you will Willy nodded if you ask me to suggest the time had come we wade.
Upon the street, we came across a classic people leaning from the wall surface. His name try Elado. The guy transmitted a cane and you will wore a loose eco-friendly jacket having good Masonic icon hanging away from a sequence to their shoulder. Willy advised your we had been finding details about the guy they called La Reina.
“ Si, si, ” the existing guy said. “La Reina-everyone knew him. Mulatto. Regarding the level,” the guy nodded inside my guidelines. “Every person acknowledged your. The guy existed here for two decades. Needless to say, folks knew exactly what he performed getting a full time income.” He told you Superman leftover towards the You.S. within the 1959. “No-one realized their identity. Folks just named your Los angeles Reina.”
We entered their particular roomy apartment, and you may Willy told me what we have been performing
Across the street by chapel, roosters crowed. An excellent girl sporting Rollerblades talked for the a cover phone. A vintage guy in a leather-based tennis limit smoked good cigar to the good backless wood couch.
Their locks was white and you will wild
We moved courtesy Los Sitios into the Barrio Chino up to we turned up in the 507 Marquis Street. We endured on the street studying the entry in order to a good martial-arts university: Escuela Cubana de- Wushu. It had a reddish and you can red-colored facade that have a gold foo puppy and you can a yellow iron door.
The entranceway is unlock. In side door try a beneficial courtyard having a tiny bistro and some fixed exercise equipment. The latest movie theater after stood where in actuality the school’s outside courtyard has grown to become. I tried to consider where phase has been. The fresh putting on a costume place in which Superman open to the brand new reveal. The brand new balcony where drunken people spotted the fresh efficiency.
A few days afterwards i returned to Barrio de los Sitios so you can canvas for other people just who have identified Superman. On flat strengthening close to Gladis Castaneda’s, i met Superman’s actual neighbor: an old pizza chef titled Roberto Cabarero, 82 years old, with a greatly tarnished and you may expanded muscle shirt, sagging brownish jeans towards the travel open, and black socks which have openings throughout the base. His facial skin sagged eg a sea turtle’s.
Cabarero’s flat, in which he existed along with his partner, is small and you will ramshackle, littered with rubbish. His partner sat in the exact middle of the little family area, rocking forward and backward for the a solid wood chair, talking loudly at the no one particularly. An invisible blared tinny old Spanish tunes, and a puppy was available in and you may from the space so you’re able to consume crumbs off of the flooring. A security clock seemed during our conference. No one annoyed to make it well.