A few minutes afterwards an elder black colored lady wearing a red garment more than light hair came up on next-floor screen. She seemed puzzled however approved Willy. “ Hola. Hola. ” She invited us upstairs.
Their name try Gladis Castaneda, and you may she got a professional ancient pianist into the Havana throughout the fresh new 1950s. She was a small woman within her 80s otherwise 90s. She nodded when he stated Los angeles Reina. Yes, she said, however lived in that it community, correct nearby. Right here, in the skin, try a person who knew the latest epic Ich brauche ein treues Mädchen Superman-evidence, actually, that people in reality stayed.
Superman, Castaneda told you, try significant, strong, known. “Men and women realized your just like the King,” she told you. “He had been gay, however didn’t wreck havoc on him.” She requested me to remain. “He had been your top. However, solid. Muscle.” He’d surface eg hers: dark, although not extremely. “He was an effective people. No body had an issue with him.” I inquired if the everybody in the society realized exactly what he performed to possess a living. “Child, it absolutely was years ago. He leftover many years ago.”
Willy requested when the she understood what became out of him, and you will she told you she believes he passed away in Miami. Their unique opportunity is waning, and Willy nodded if you ask me to point the time had come we wade.
Down on the street, we fulfilled a vintage people leaning resistant to the wall structure. His name try Elado. He sent good cane and you will wore a free eco-friendly sweater having an effective Masonic icon holding regarding a sequence doing their neck. Willy told your we had been selecting details about the man it called Los angeles Reina.
“ Si, si, ” the old man told you. “La Reina-everyone else know your. Mulatto. About your top,” the guy nodded within my recommendations. “People recognized your. He existed here for twenty years. Obviously, everybody know exactly what he did having a living.” The guy said Superman left into You.S. during the 1959. “Nobody understood his identity. Everybody else simply named your Los angeles Reina.”
I entered their large apartment, and you can Willy said what we should was in fact creating
Down the street by the church, roosters crowed. An excellent girl wearing Rollerblades spoke towards a pay cellular phone. A classic people into the a leather-based tennis cover used a good cigar to the an effective backless wood settee.
His tresses is actually light and you can crazy
I walked due to Los Sitios on the Barrio Chino up until i arrived on 507 Marquis Path. I stood in the street taking a look at the access to help you an excellent martial-arts college or university: Escuela Cubana de- Wushu. It had a reddish and you can yellow act with a gold foo canine and you can a purple iron door.
The doorway was unlock. In the front side entrance is an effective courtyard which have a tiny bistro and many stationary exercise equipment. The new theater immediately following stood where the school’s outside courtyard has become. We made an effort to thought in which the phase could have been. This new putting on a costume place in which Superman available to the brand new inform you. The balcony where drunken tourists noticed this new show.
A short time later on we returned to Barrio de- los Sitios in order to fabric for others just who possess identified Superman. In the flat strengthening close to Gladis Castaneda’s, we found Superman’s real next-door neighbor: an old pizza chef named Roberto Cabarero, 82 yrs old, which have a greatly discolored and extended strength top, sagging brownish trousers into the travel spacious, and you may black socks having gaps in the leg. His body sagged such as for example a sea turtle’s.
Cabarero’s apartment, in which he existed along with his spouse, are smaller and you will ramshackle, littered with junk. Their partner seated in the middle of the little family room, rocking back and forth into the a wooden sofa, speaking loudly at the nobody specifically. A radio blared tinny old Language tunes, and you can your dog came in and outside of the room so you can consume crumbs off the floors. An alarm time clock seemed for the duration of all of our fulfilling. Not one person bothered to turn it well.