My neighborhood, Nuevo Vedado, was one of the last to be developed in the 1950s. It promised to be among the most modern and beautiful, with well-designed two and three-story single-family homes and large rental properties. Along with these beautiful residences were some more modest ones as well as others which displayed an outpouring of good taste and architectural distinction, designed by architects such as Porro, Cristófol, Miguel Gutierrez and Frank Martínez to name but a few. It also boasted the magnificent Acapulco park as well as wide sidewalks, streets and avenues.
On 26th Avenue and Kohly Avenue there were some lovely planting areas filled with pink and white oleander. The beautiful Acapulco cinema, one of the most comfortable in the city, screened the latest foreign films every week.
Today, during a brief tour from the 26th and 41st to 26th and 17th in search of hair dye, which unfortunately I did not find in any of the area’s understocked stores, the images I observed left me only with worry and sadness.
6 December 2013
