Minutes afterwards an older black lady putting on a red garment more light locks emerged on next-floors window. She checked perplexed however acknowledged Willy. “ Hola. Hola. ” She greeting us upstairs.
Their label is actually Gladis Castaneda, and you may she is an expert traditional pianist inside Havana during the brand new 1950s. She are a little woman in her own eighties otherwise 1990s. She nodded as he mentioned La Reina. Sure, she said, he’d stayed in which people, best across the street. Here, on the skin, are someone who know the fresh new epic Superman-evidence, actually, that guy in fact resided.
Superman, Castaneda said, try significant, solid, acknowledged. “Folks realized your because King,” she said. “He was gay, but you failed to wreak havoc on your.” She expected us to remain. “He was your height. However, solid. Muscle.” He’d facial skin such as for instance hers: ebony, not very. “He was a beneficial guy. No one had a problem with him.” I asked if everyone in the people understood just what the guy did having an income. “Young man, it was many years ago. The guy kept many years ago.”
Willy questioned when the she knew exactly what turned away from him, and you may she told you she thinks the guy died inside Miami. Her opportunity are waning, and you may Willy nodded if you ask me to indicate the time had come we go.
Down on the street, i fulfilled a vintage people bending contrary to Italienisch weibliche Kontaktanzeigen the wall structure. His label are Elado. The guy sent a great cane and dressed in a loose green jacket that have a great Masonic icon dangling out of a cycle around their neck. Willy advised your we were searching for information regarding the man they titled La Reina.
“ Si, si, ” the existing guy told you. “Los angeles Reina-everyone else realized your. Mulatto. Regarding your level,” the guy nodded within my guidelines. “Anyone recognized your. He stayed here to have two decades. Needless to say, everyone else realized what he performed to own a full time income.” The guy told you Superman leftover towards You.S. into the 1959. “No-one understood his label. Every person only entitled him La Reina.”
We entered their own roomy flat, and you will Willy informed me what we should was indeed carrying out
Outside of the chapel, roosters crowed. A good girl wearing Rollerblades talked to your a wages cellular telephone. An old guy inside a leather-based golf cover used a good cigar on an excellent backless wood sofa.
His tresses try light and nuts
I walked due to Los Sitios with the Barrio Chino up to we showed up in the 507 Marquis Roadway. We endured on the street studying the entrance so you’re able to an excellent martial-arts college or university: Escuela Cubana de Wushu. It had a reddish and you may purple facade having a silver foo dog and you can a reddish iron gate.
The door is unlock. Within the front side gate try a good courtyard having a small restaurant and several stationary exercise equipment. The fresh new theatre just after stood where in actuality the school’s outside courtyard grew to become. We made an effort to believe where phase has been. This new putting on a costume room in which Superman prepared for new let you know. The newest balcony where drunken people spotted the new efficiency.
A short while afterwards i returned to Barrio de- los Sitios in order to fabric for other individuals just who may have understood Superman. On apartment strengthening alongside Gladis Castaneda’s, we satisfied Superman’s genuine next-door neighbor: a former pizza cook called Roberto Cabarero, 82 yrs old, having a seriously stained and you may lengthened muscle top, drooping brownish jeans with the fly wide open, and you will black clothes having holes on the leg. His skin sagged such as a sea turtle’s.
Cabarero’s apartment, where the guy resided together with his partner, was small and you will ramshackle, plagued by rubbish. Their partner seated in the center of the little family room, rocking backwards and forwards inside a wooden couch, speaking loudly during the no one specifically. An invisible blared tinny old Foreign language audio, and you will your dog was available in and you will out of the place so you’re able to eat crumbs off the floor. A security time clock seemed for the duration of the meeting. No-one troubled to make it well.