At number 41 on Paula Street, the little house that has been drawn by every Cuban child celebrates a century as a museum this January
14ymedio, Jose Lassa, Havana, 28 January 2025 — The huge sound systems and a stage, placed in the street, clashed on Tuesday with the narrow and almost childish façade of the house where José Martí was born in Havana. On the 172nd anniversary of the birth of the Cuban national hero, a hurried official ceremony, with some local authorities, shook up the routine of the San Isidro neighborhood, an area where the crisis and lack of investment have left deep wounds.
At number 41 on Paula Street, the little house that has been drawn by every Cuban child, described in songs and photographed to the point of exhaustion, celebrates its 100th anniversary this January as a museum. In the place, where Martí spent only three years of his life, there are photos of his adolescence, images of his time in New York, snapshots with his son, countless documents protected behind glass and some personal objects.
The impeccable yellow facade, the windows with their retouched blue and the red roof form a striking contrast with the surroundings.
The impeccable yellow facade, the windows with their blue touches and the red roof form a striking contrast with the surroundings. While the house, built in 1810, seems to resist the passage of time, other nearby houses are on the verge of collapse or turned into mere rubble. A few meters from the museum, of a neoclassical building from the beginning of the 20th century, only the arches remain. Through the gaps where its doors once stood, mountains of bricks, twisted iron and rubbish now emerge.
Around the corner, on Avenida de las Misiones, another building abandoned after its roof collapsed “greets” visitors who approach the place where, in 1853, the cry of a baby announced a life as brief as it was prolific. Beyond the short fragment in front of the entrance to the sanctuary, reality becomes harsher and more neglected. The sidewalks full of holes, the balconies on the verge of collapsing on passers-by and the anguished faces of residents looking for food clash with the soft tone of the guide who details the occurrences of that restless child born to a Canarian mother and a Valencian father.
If you turn right onto the street that gives the neighborhood its name, the journey then becomes a descent into a poorer, more forgotten Havana. Garbage piles up, abandoned animals search for something to eat among the waste, and a father drags a wheelbarrow with buckets and containers full of water to use in his house. Another turn, also to the right, and you end up on Damas Street. There, around number 955, there was a police operation this morning. A call today to visit the house of Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara and see his work Campesinos felizes 1938-2024 ended with threats against the organizers and several artists with their mobile service cut off.
Unlike the immaculate façade of Martí, the Otero Alcántara façade seems to have been exposed to the elements for many centuries. On its walls, you can hardly make out the blue tone that once covered them. A tangle of cables runs across the top and the door that gives access to the artist’s home, imprisoned since July 2021, has some poorly nailed boards to prevent it from collapsing. A few daring people arrived there on January 28 after reading the call on social media, but they only found poverty and abandonment. There were no platforms with microphones, no officials making speeches and much less tourists taking photos. Nor could you hear the voice of those diligent guides who explain the details of each piece on display, of each photo hanging on the wall. None of that, but rather contempt for the young artist who shouted “Homeland and Life.”
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