Category: Nelson García

Facing the Dragones Police Station Is a Nest of Thugs in the Ruins of Zulueta 505

The destruction of the Zulueta 505 building is slow but still dramatic. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Nelson García/Juan Izquierdo, Havana, September 21, 2023 — Due to the magnitude of the damage and the lack of effort of the authorities to mitigate it, many buildings in Havana agree with Carpentier.* The “city of the columns” is barely left, with structures in ruin, paint chipped by moisture and vines invading arches and pillars.

Such is the case of the old Vía Blanca hotel, located at 505 Zulueta Street, between Monte and Dragones, whose decadence the passers-by compare with that of a “haunted mansion” near which no one dares to walk anymore. In the postcards of the 1950s, however, the building was described as a residential gem with “large and ventilated rooms.”

The destruction of the Zulueta 505 building is slow but still dramatic. The Government has been promising for years a repair of which, today, there is only one sign: the gigantic scaffolding that underpins the facade and on which climbing plants and rust have been growing for a long time.

The Government has been promising for years a repair of which, today, there is only one sign: the gigantic scaffolding that underpins the facade 

In 2020, the nine families who lived in the building, several of them with children, were relocated under the pretext of restoring it. “Until that moment they lived at risk of being buried by a collapse,” recalls Rogelio, a 71-year-old retiree who lives in the neighboring building.

In conversation with this newspaper, Rogelio describes the long ordeal of the neighbors since, in 1995, they received the notification that they would be transferred to better houses in zone 11 of Alamar-Habana del Este. He pointed to the Office of the Historian, whose director, Eusebio Leal, began to earn the trust of Fidel Castro and to get streams of foreign capital, indispensable after the fall of the Soviet Union.

The building during the 1950s, when it was occupied by the Vía Blanca hotel, on an old postcard. (Facebook)

“It was all a lie,” concludes the old man, who is amused that the policemen of the well-known Dragones station – located in front of the building – have to dodge the scaffolding and constantly look up, in case some “loose” stone is about to fall, by chance, near them. continue reading

Not infrequently, Rogelio recalls, the neighbors tried to go to the police unit for the help of those same agents, who ignored them. On the other hand, the station does not lack paint or maintenance. In fact, the Ministry of the Interior is building a fence around the neoclassical building, with its windows covered by powerful bars, behind which the Capitol stands out.

“Nor do they like to park their cars nearby, in case a collapse occurs,” he notes, pointing to the row of police vehicles”

“Nor do they like to park their cars nearby, in case a collapse occurs,” he notes, pointing to the row of police vehicles.

Nature and the Government’s laziness are not the only things that have wreaked havoc on Zulueta 505. Drunks, beggars and other nocturnal “guests” resort to the arcades to “do their deeds,” according to Rogelio’s euphemism. What used to be “ghostly,” he adds, is now barely sordid: garbage and debris complete the picture.

Despite its proximity to the police station, the building has also served as a kind of sanctuary for all kinds of thugs. In the darkness on Zulueta Street, those who seize a wallet or a cell phone with a knife have the ideal shelter behind the arcades and the barrier of scaffolding. “No one is going to risk going in there to look for the thief,” Rogelio says.

Police station on Dragones Street, Central Havana. (14ymedio)

Xiomara, a 45-year-old housewife, has spent most of her life contemplating the desolation of the corner of Zulueta and Dragones. For her, the only “solution” is collapse, helped by rain or a windstorm. The authorities have proven to be useless, and the only measure they have taken is to place some scrawny yellow tape on the scaffolding. Only those who approach closely can read it: “Danger of total collapse.” Xiomara doesn’t need the warning. A few days ago, when she came back from the line for buying chicken, a fragment of the wall of Zulueta 505 almost struck her.

Several decades of broken promises have cured her of fear. Now she only expects a “foreign firm” to buy the land “with ruins and everything.” “If that happens, they will not return the building to the families who lost it,” says Xiomara. “They will most likely build another hotel.”

*Translator’s note: Alejo Carpentier, a Cuban writer, called Havana “the city of columns.”

Translated by Regina Anavy
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The Decline of Lawton, the Cuban Capital’s Industrial and Prosperous Neighborhood

Beyond the railroad bordering the distillery, Lawton’s rum industry suffered the same fate. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Nelson García, Havana, 16 September 2023 — Ruins attest to Lawton’s former splendor: abandoned factories, buildings reduced to rubble and the famous “Scandinavian castles”, on the verge of collapsing. For the neighbors, the deterioration of the neighborhood, located in the municipality of Diez de Octubre, until becoming one of the most dangerous places in Havana, has a start date: 1959.

Omar, who has lived in Lawton since the Special Period, points out an inhospitable area on the corner of F and 12 Street. “The fish processing plant used to be there,” he tells 14ymedio. “Packages of lobsters, shrimp and many other seafood came out of that place”.

If the grass grows now and the garbage accumulates, the main complaint is because of poor planning by the Government. “In 1980, the processing plant ceased to exist and was converted into workshops of the Metal and Electrical Construction Company (COMELEC),” he says. The plan came to nothing after the fall of the Soviet Union, and after being closed for a while, it was decreed that everything be demolished.

“They said they were going to build houses for the workers”, recalls Omar, who used to work at COMELEC. “Thirty years have gone by: Where are they?”

The most obvious sign of decay is found in what remains of the neighborhood’s three famous “European” chalets. (14ymedio)

Not far from the processing plant stands the tower of the old Havana distillery, built during the sugar boom of 1945. “The factory produced various types of alcohol until, once nationalized, the mechanism that channeled the hot water kept breaking down, causing the liquid to overflow from the boilers and begin to accumulate around the factory”, he explains. “First came the unpleasant smells and then the mosquitoes. It didn’t take long for this to fill with ditches and swamps until, eventually, they closed the distillery”. continue reading

Beyond the railroad bordering the distillery, Lawton’s rum industry suffered the same fate. “Everything is extinct here,” Omar summarizes.

The paint factory that the American company Sherwin Williams installed in Lawton – right next to the distillery – was confiscated by Fidel Castro’s Government in 1960 and first reassigned to the Electric Company, and then to the Geysel Power Plant.

Rigo, age 56 and a former worker at the also dismantled Lawton slaughterhouse, highlights the contrast between Geysel’s “painted and cared-for” building and the premises that once served as a paint warehouse. “The neglect is such that several trees have grown”, he says. A skeleton of beams and columns, as well as a series of rusty tanks, rises in what was once the Siporex prefabricated block industry.

“The only thing that works in Lawton, and barely, is the Siré Cookie Factory,” he says, alluding to one of the first industries in the neighborhood, built by Cuban Mariano Siré in 1927, and also expropriated by Castro.

A series of rusty tanks rises in what was once the Siporex prefabricated block industry. (14ymedio)

One of the most emblematic cases of Lawton’s decay is that of the Antonio Maceo slaughterhouse, which became, after its abandonment in 2000, a mecca for illegal dog fighting and drug dealing. Several families have settled in the other rooms and offices, and even after two decades, they have not managed to overcome their two main problems: crime and constant threats of eviction.

Ramón, 69, remembers perfectly the decline of Lawton’s three bus depots: “There is only one left and it is practically a cemetery”, he concludes. The neighborhood also lost its fertilizer plant, and two other oxygen and acetylene plants, closed since the 1960s due to the Castro “phenomenon,” he says.

But the most obvious sign of decay is found in what remains of the three famous “European” chalets in the neighborhood, built at the beginning of the 20th century, although details of their construction or their former owners are not known. One of them served as a restaurant, supplied by meat from the slaughterhouse; another was a school, which was soon closed. During the Special Period, the Government located several families there, who modified the structure of two of the “little castles”, while the third is in a state of collapse.

“They used to be the symbol of Lawton,” says Ramón. “Now they are like the rest of the neighborhood: withered and forgotten.”

Skeleton of beams and columns from the old Siporex factory. (14ymedio)

Translated by Norma Whiting
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San Lazaro and Perseverance Streets, Another Bombed-Out Corner of Havana

The house has deteriorated badly due to poor maintenance and salt air.

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Nelson García, Havana, 28 August 2023 — Oscar sleeps “with one eye open and the other closed” in case the roof ends up collapsing on this 67-year-old Havana resident and his family in the middle of the night. The retiree, who lives at the corner of Perseverancia (Perserverance) and San Lazaro streets in Central Havana, has spent years complaining about the poor condition of the building, now a ruin due to poor maintenance and salt air.

Sitting in the doorway to his lower-floor apartment, Oscar describes in detail the anxieties he feels living amid bare brick walls, balconies that have fallen to pieces and exposed, rusty beams. “There is still a family up there on the roof,” he says, pointing to the upper floors that have no doors or windows.

The retiree fears “tragedy could occur” on any given day, that the building could collapse, taking with it the lives of its residents. “My wife and son live with me and we spend our days in total fear. When it rains or when a hurricane is approaching, we’re terrified,” he says as he shows passersby some avocados he has for sale.

The only signage identifying the name of the street is hand-painted on the side of a dilapidated building. (14ymedio)

“Every time we complain and demand officials come up with some solution, they tell us the shelters are at full capacity. We don’t have anywhere to go. We either stay in this building or live on the streets,” says Oscar. Guillermo, his 41-year-old son, looks through the window and confirms the story. “This piece here fell off two days ago,” he says, pointing to a hole in the wall. continue reading

Oscar and his family’s situation seems to repeat itself wherever you look. San Lazaro is one of the most important streets in the Cuban capital. It is also one of the thoroughfares with the most visible deterioration. Although the damage extends from the beginning of the Malecón to the grand outdoor staircase of the University of Havana, it is the section from Paseo del Prado to Belascoaín Street that is the most affected.

Almost fifty buildings have been either fully or partially lost along this stretch of San Lazaro Street. Proximity of the sea, governmental neglect and the poverty of the area’s residents have left the avenue looking like it was bombed. The holes in building facades, shattered cornices and collapsed balconies seem like relics from a city at war.

The scene repeats itself on the side streets. In spite of the extension of neighboring Lealtad Street and the importance of nearby Galiano Street, Perseverance is one of the most dilapidated routes in the city. Where once there was a butcher shop, there is now only a bricked-up door and a hole that used to be a window through which residents throw bags of garbage. Pedestrians must navigate around the sidewalks’ potholes, sewage and debris from falling balconies.

“You have to walk in the street. Even if you get hit by a car, it’s better than having a piece of the building fall on your head,” complains a young woman who has just come out of a boarding house. At the corner, she has to dodge a pile of trash that has been growing ever larger for weeks because there has been no garbage collection. As she approaches, dozens of flies take flight. They return a few seconds later, settling on the bags of waste.

The townhouse, remodeled in 2013 as a high-end tourist hostel that charges as much as a hundred dollars a night, is an oddity amid the grime and destruction surrounding it. (14ymedio)

A produce vendor pushes a cart that bounces every time one of the wheels hits a pothole. When he reaches number 156, a woman inquires about the price of his lemons. She is leaning out of a window of a fully restored mansion that now serves as a tourist hostel. “The Charm of Perseverance” — with its bright yellow facade, elegant doors and spotless railings — looks like a shiny spaceship that has just landed amid of the grime and destruction.

Built in the early 20th century, the townhouse has a wide central courtyard, antique pendant lights hanging from its high ceilings, several rooms for rent and a 40-square-meter (430-square-foot) suite that in peak season can go for more than $100 per night. From the rooftop, guests can enjoy a view of the sea and escape the desolate landscape of the street below.

In June, seven people died, including two children, right in front of the house, at 159 Perseverance Street, when an electric scooter caught fire inside one of the dwellings. The tragedy has left deep wounds among the neighbors and added one more ruin to the street, where the only things that seem to persevere are destruction and hopelessness.

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Havana, As Seen Through Its Overflowing Garbage

On the corner of Industria and Ánimas, in the neighborhood of Colón (Central Havana), the garbage containers are overflowing with waste and debris. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Nelson García, Havana, 31 August 2023 — Celia holds her breath every day when she passes by the corner of Industria y Ánimas, in the neighborhood of Colón (Centro Habana). The garbage containers are overflowing with waste and debris. The sidewalk stopped being passable some time ago, and pedestrians mix with the vehicles and taxi-bikes on the street. Rusty metal sheets cover the entrances to the building in front of which the mountain of waste grows.

“Before, when a hurricane was coming, the Communal companies picked up the garbage and cleaned the sewers, but with Idalia they didn’t even show up around here,” complained Celia, while pointing to the row of crammed-full garbage cans. Near them, a huge cargo container of a truck contains construction debris, parts of broken furniture and the garbage generated by a nearby business that sells animals for religious sacrifice.

Despite the ugliness of the scene and the bad smells, people who pass by react normally. Dirt has become so familiar in Havana that the surprising thing is those blocks where cleanliness, painted facades and order contrast with the rest of the city. People seem to have become accustomed to living with the filth due to the inability of the authorities to collect it in time.

Garbage is also the way for many to survive. The dumpster divers search the containers for raw materials to sell, empty perfume bottles to refill to scam some unsuspecting customer, food waste to feed the pigs, pieces of appliances that serve to repair others and even clothes that help protect them from the breeze and humidity during the early hours of the morning. Where some see rubbish, others find their means of sustenance. continue reading

Despite the ugliness of the scene and the bad smells, people who pass by react normally. (14ymedio)

Garbage in Havana is also one of the most obvious ways to measure the state of the economy of the Cuban capital. During the crisis of the 90s, garbage containers had only what could no longer be used for almost anything. Not even pieces of old wood were thrown into the cans, because people used them as firewood to cook. Finding leftover food among the waste was a miracle in what Fidel Castro named the Special Period.

Then, the garbage of Havana began to fill with plastic bags that until then had been considered a status symbol for those who bought in dollar stores. Little by little, with the opening to private businesses, the expansion of markets in convertible pesos and the arrival of more tourists, cans, plastic containers and boxes of electronic devices appeared on the streets.

“The garbage smelled different,” recalls Genaro, 68 years old and a resident a few meters from the corner of Industria and Ánimas. In those years, this habanero and his two sons had a small business collecting empty cans of beer and soda. “There wasn’t the poverty there is now.  You could get something from selling in the cans, but it’s not worth it anymore,” he tells 14ymedio. “Even the garbage is in crisis.”

Some stone faces peep out on the facade of the building on the corner in front of the containers. They wear curly wigs that mimic some European headdress, which are totally out of tune with the destroyed balconies, the thresholds without doors and a couple of bushes that have grown on the eaves of the semi-ruined building. From up there they look like the guardians of the waste, the watchmen of the city’s offal.

The dirt also affects entrepreneurs. Lourdes has seen the clientele of her cafeteria in the neighborhood of Colón languish to the same extent that the garbage pile in front of her place grows. “Who is going to want to have a milkshake or eat a pizza with this plague?” she asks. The journey of the neighbors to eradicate the huge garbage pile has taken them from the meetings with the Delegate of People’s Power to “writing letters to the Council of State,” the woman tells this newspaper.

“Who is going to want to have a milkshake or eat a pizza with this plague?” she asks

The result of the complaints has been null. Over the years, the sidewalk around the pile of garbage has disappeared, “because instead of picking it up with the right trucks they bring a bulldozer and scoop it up,” Lourdes says. Water accumulates in the hole left by the heavy machinery, and “a mosquito farm is formed that does not allow us to live.”

Hanging from the ceiling of the cafeteria, Lourdes has put some transparent plastic bags with water that, someone told her, “help to scare away the flies.” But the curious invention doesn’t seem to be working. This Wednesday several insects were perched on the bags and flew down on the food of the few customers who came to buy. The owner’s hand constantly waved a cardboard to ward off the flying intruders, which sometimes went from the waste thrown on the street to the meringue of some small sweets.

At noon, an impeccable white police patrol car passed in front of Lourdes’ house with a camera installed on the roof. With the windows closed and somewhat fogged, revealing the air conditioning inside the vehicle, the uniformed men roamed the streets of a neighborhood where poverty and discontent are the breeding grounds for complaint and protest. The wheels of the car passed over some garbage bags and continued on their way to the next block. And like that, four or five times a day.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.