Willy rang an effective buzzer and hollered up to an old apartment that have a keen overhanging balcony

A few momemts after an older black colored woman dressed in a purple scarf over light hair came up on 2nd-floor window. She looked perplexed however accepted Willy. “ Hola. Hola. ” She greeting all of us upstairs.

Their unique term try Gladis Castaneda, and you can she was an expert classical pianist from inside the Havana during the the brand new 1950s. She are a small woman in her own eighties or 1990’s. She nodded as he stated Los angeles Reina. Sure, she said, he’d stayed in so it people, proper across the street. Here, regarding the skin, was somebody who knew brand new epic Superman-proof, in fact, that man in fact existed.

Superman, Castaneda told you, was tall, strong, recognized. “Anyone realized your because King,” she said. “He had been gay, you didn’t wreak havoc on him.” She requested us to sit. “He had been their top. But strong. Muscle.” He had body including hers: black, although not most. “He was an excellent man. Nobody got an issue with your.” I asked in the event that everyone in the area knew just what he did to have an income. “Son, it was many years ago. The guy left years ago.”

Willy requested if she realized just what turned into regarding him, and you can she told you she thinks the guy died during the Miami. Her times is actually waning, and you will Willy nodded for me to point the time had come i wade.

Upon the trail, we found an old people tilting against the wall surface. His name are Elado. The guy sent an excellent cane and you can dressed in a loose eco-friendly sweater that have a beneficial Masonic icon clinging of a string to his neck. Willy informed him we were looking details about the man it titled Los angeles Reina.

“ Si, si, ” the existing guy told you. “La Reina-everybody know him. https://internationalwomen.net/de/heise-thai-frauen/ Mulatto. Concerning your height,” he nodded in my own direction. “Everyone recognized him. He existed right here having two decades. Needless to say, everybody else knew exactly what he did to own an income.” The guy told you Superman leftover on You.S. when you look at the 1959. “Not one person realized their label. Everyone else merely called your La Reina.”

I joined their own roomy flat, and Willy informed me what we have been undertaking

Outside from the chapel, roosters crowed. A great girl dressed in Rollerblades spoke on a pay cellular phone. An old people within the a leather golf cap smoked an effective cigar with the good backless solid wood settee.

His locks was light and wild

We strolled courtesy Los Sitios on Barrio Chino up until we showed up from the 507 Marquis Path. I stood in the pub taking a look at the entrances so you can a beneficial martial-arts school: Escuela Cubana de- Wushu. It had a red and you will purple facade that have a gold foo canine and you can a red metal door.

The doorway was unlock. When you look at the front side entrance is actually good courtyard that have a small restaurant and lots of stationary exercise equipment. This new theater after stood where school’s backyard courtyard is starting to become. We attempted to envision the spot where the stage has been. This new putting on a costume area where Superman open to the fresh new tell you. This new balcony in which drunken travelers spotted the newest efficiency.

A few days later on we returned to Barrio de- los Sitios in order to fabric for other people just who may have identified Superman. Regarding apartment strengthening next to Gladis Castaneda’s, we fulfilled Superman’s actual neighbors: a former pizza pie cook named Roberto Cabarero, 82 yrs . old, with a highly stained and you can offered muscles shirt, sagging brownish pants with the fly wide-open, and you can black colored clothes that have holes on the leg. Their body sagged including a sea turtle’s.

Cabarero’s apartment, where the guy resided together with his spouse, is actually smaller and you may ramshackle, littered with junk. His partner sat in the tiny living room area, rocking backwards and forwards during the a wood sofa, speaking loudly within no one specifically. A radio blared tinny dated Foreign-language sounds, and a puppy came in and you will outside of the area so you’re able to eat crumbs off of the floors. An alarm time clock seemed during our very own conference. Not one person troubled to turn it well.