Minutes later an older black woman wear a red-colored scarf more light tresses emerged throughout the next-floors screen. She looked puzzled then again recognized Willy. “ Hola. Hola. ” She greet all of us upstairs.
Her label was Gladis Castaneda, and you can she was an expert classical pianist inside the Havana throughout the the new 1950s. She are a little lady in her 80s or 90s. She nodded as he stated La Reina. Yes, she said, he’d stayed in that it area, correct nearby. Here, on the tissue, was someone who knew the fresh new legendary Superman-evidence, actually, that the man in reality resided.
Superman, Castaneda told you, are extreme, good, acknowledged. “Everyone knew your due to the fact King,” she said. “He had been gay, however didn’t mess with him.” She asked us to stand. “He had been your own peak. However, strong. Muscle.” He previously epidermis particularly hers: black, however most. “He was a great guy. Nobody got an issue with your.” I inquired when the everyone in the community realized just what the guy performed having a full time income. “Son, it absolutely was many years ago. The guy left many years ago.”
Willy questioned if the she understood just what turned out of him, and you may she said she believes he passed away inside Miami. Their times are waning, and Willy nodded in my experience to suggest it was time i wade.
Upon the street, we found an old man tilting from the wall structure. His name is Elado. He transmitted a good cane and you may wore a free environmentally friendly jacket that have a Masonic symbol dangling of a sequence around his neck. Willy advised your we had been finding information about the man it named Los angeles Reina.
“ Sie kГ¶nnen mehr erfahren Si, si, ” the outdated people said. “Los angeles Reina-people know him. Mulatto. Regarding the level,” the guy nodded inside my direction. “Everybody recognized him. He lived here to own two decades. Needless to say, every person know just what the guy performed having a full time income.” He said Superman kept on You.S. in 1959. “Not one person realized his identity. Everybody only named him Los angeles Reina.”
We joined her large flat, and you will Willy said what we was indeed undertaking
Down the street by the chapel, roosters crowed. A good girl dressed in Rollerblades talked into a pay mobile. An old man when you look at the a leather-based golf limit smoked good cigar for the an excellent backless wooden settee.
Their hair are white and you will wild
We went due to Los Sitios towards Barrio Chino until we turned up during the 507 Marquis Street. I stood on the street studying the access so you’re able to a beneficial martial-arts college: Escuela Cubana de Wushu. They got a red and you can yellow act with a silver foo puppy and a reddish metal door.
The entranceway try discover. In front side door are an excellent courtyard that have a little bistro and some stationary gym equipment. New theatre just after endured where in fact the school’s outdoor courtyard is. I attempted to envision where in actuality the phase could have been. Brand new putting on a costume place where Superman open to the latest inform you. The fresh new balcony in which drunken people spotted brand new efficiency.
A short time later on we returned to Barrio de- los Sitios to material for other individuals which might have recognized Superman. On the flat strengthening close to Gladis Castaneda’s, we found Superman’s real next-door neighbor: an old pizza cook called Roberto Cabarero, 82 years old, having a highly discolored and stretched strength top, drooping brown shorts towards the travel spacious, and you will black colored clothes with openings in the toes. His body sagged eg a-sea turtle’s.
Cabarero’s apartment, in which the guy resided together with partner, are tiny and ramshackle, full of rubbish. His wife seated in the exact middle of the tiny family area, rocking back-and-forth inside the a wood chair, talking loudly within no-one particularly. A radio blared tinny old Foreign-language audio, and you may your pet dog came in and out from the place so you’re able to consume crumbs off the flooring. An alarm clock seemed through the duration of the fulfilling. Nobody annoyed to make it well.