Potholes, stones, and dust complicate the daily lives of residents, who have been waiting for decades for repairs that never come
14ymedio, Julio César Contreras, Matanzas, October 31, 2026 / The morning sun falls on the loose stones and remnants of asphalt in La Cumbre, a neighborhood in Matanzas where walking demands as much attention as crossing rugged terrain. The dew still dampens the grass growing on both sides of the streets, while mothers send their children off with a warning repeated every day: watch out for the hole on the corner, don’t get to school with your shoes full of mud.
On some blocks, the streets have lost even the appearance of streets. They are paths of dirt, gravel, and stones, dotted with ditches that the rains widen and neglect deepens. Among cinder-block houses, rusty metal gates, and makeshift fences, residents make their way around the obstacles. A man pushes a bicycle up a stony slope. Another drags a cart loaded with sacks, accompanied by a dog that seems to know every dip and bump in the path by heart.
Among cinder-block houses, rusty metal gates, and makeshift fences, residents make their way around the obstacles
“When I have to go in and out of my block without being able to ride my bicycle, it feels like I’m living in the countryside and not in the city,” complains Argelio, as he tries to control the handlebars shaking over the stones. For those who depend on bicycles or mopeds, every outing can end with a flat tire, a fall, or a visit to the mechanic.
Although the shortest route to the Vía Blanca runs through here, some stretches have been impassable for four-wheeled vehicles for decades. “There are places where bits of sidewalk are still left, but on this block we step straight out onto grass and dirt. No shoe sole lasts six months like this,” adds Argelio.
La Cumbre also displays its social differences. Alongside humble homes, roofed with fiber cement and surrounded by weeds, there are two-story buildings, freshly painted facades, ornamental grilles, and water tanks on the rooftops. However, not even a comfortable house guarantees a decent way in. From the porch outward, everyone shares the same landscape of neglect.
Freddy, a private taxi driver, knows this contradiction well. Every month he pays rent on a garage eight blocks from his home because his old Moskvich can no longer get to his door. The last few times he braved the potholes, he ended up in a repair shop. Now, one of the most troublesome holes is right in front of his house.
The self-employed worker says that successive Government officials have ignored the neighborhood’s complaints. Accountability meetings and letters sent to the Citizen Services office of the Municipal People’s Power have not managed to bring the pavement back to La Cumbre.
“I want to sell my house or swap it, but when interested people come to see the place, they then vanish,” laments Freddy. The deterioration of the streets also ends up hurting the value of homes and the chances of moving.
When it doesn’t rain, the few vehicles that manage to get through the passable stretches raise a cloud of dust that seeps in through doors and windows. When a downpour comes, the holes turn into small ponds of uncertain depth. Residents swing between wishing for rain to relieve the dust and dreading it for the mud it leaves behind.
When it doesn’t rain, the few vehicles that manage to get through the passable stretches raise a cloud of dust that seeps in through doors and windows
“Not long ago, turning the corner here, my moped slid into a ditch and I had to react fast, because I almost fell,” recalls a social worker who keeps her windows closed to stop the dirt from invading her home.
The young woman says that, months ago, work began on a house on an empty lot. A rumor then spread that it would be for an important official, and some residents got excited. Perhaps, they thought, the arrival of a boss would achieve what years of neighborhood complaints had not. But the hope soon faded when it became known that the house was not for an official.
“Meanwhile, we’ll keep waiting for the 2030 plan to pave all this for us, which will then be postponed to 2040 because of the tightening of the blockade,” the woman says ironically.
In La Cumbre there are still those who carefully dust the ornaments on their shelves, sweep their porches, and put on their best shoes to go out. But they only have to step out the door for that effort to stumble against reality. The neighborhood keeps its lofty name [cumbre means “summit”], although its residents have been waiting far too long for the authorities to rise to the level of their needs.
Translated by GH
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