14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, July 26, 2023 — Showing sadness in the children and anger in the parents, the faces of the Havanans who approached Jalisco Park this Wednesday, at the corner of 23 and 18 in El Vedado, spoke for themselves when they saw it closed. The authorities had been announcing days with hype and cymbals for the July 26 the reopening of the emblematic park, which will be privately managed from now on .
However, just on Tuesday night, Tribuna de La Habana reproduced an “informative note” saying that the reopening was postponed to Saturday the 29th at nine in the morning. The text did not offer any reason, despite including as a source Alexander Manent Espinosa, administrator of the Beijing non-agricultural cooperative that will manage the recreational complex “in the lease modality.”
With such short notice and in a little-read publication, dozens of families found out at the gates of the place this Wednesday, the second holiday of the week dedicated to commemorating the frustrated assault on the Moncada barracks.
“Papi, it’s not open, what are we going to do, let’s go,” a father told his son patiently as he let himself be dragged by the hand.
In a worse situation was a young mother who arrived with her child from Guanabacoa, overcoming the serious shortage of transportation. “I’ve had a tremendous amount of work to get here and now I don’t know what I’m going to do with the little one, everything here is a lie,” lamented the woman, who tried to comfort her son, remorsefully. Another passerby suggested that she take him to the Coppelia ice cream parlor. “Yeah, man, the line when I passed there was endless,” she told him.
Both the gate and the fence of Jalisco Park now look freshly painted, in bright colors. From the outside, one could see the new games that the park will have, decorated with motifs of the popular children’s character Elpidio Valdés, but deflated, as were all the other stopped mechanical attractions. There was only one child roaming the place, apparently the son of one of the employees or the owners.
Several workers were setting up some tables in the back, where the food services area will be. Here, the official press announced, there will be an ice cream parlor and a cafeteria, where “you can taste everything from light foods such as sandwiches and picadera (cheese balls, croquettes), to fried chicken, pizza and spaghetti.”
In its note, Tribuna de La Habana also reported that access to the park alone will cost 50 pesos per person, whether adult or child, and that at the same box office people will have to purchase tickets to ride the attractions, at 30 pesos each. except for those called the Bull, the Surfboard, and the Eurobungee, which will cost 50 pesos each.
In addition, there will be various shows on weekends, including “the presentation of the children’s theater company La Colmenita.”
None of that is yet reality. For now, the only happy person in the immediate vicinity was the owner of the ice cream parlor across the street, who, seeing the crowd, opened despite it being a mandatory rest day.
“We’ll see on Saturday, because everything is like that here, they announce an opening day and it’s never the day they announce,” a grandmother with her two granddaughters was complaining as they walked away from the park.
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