A couple of minutes later an elderly black colored woman sporting a red-colored garment over light locks emerged on second-floor windows. She featured baffled but recognized Willy. “ Hola. Hola. ” She welcome you upstairs.

Their unique label is actually Gladis Castaneda, and you may she had been a specialist traditional pianist when you look at the Havana during the the latest 1950s. She was a small lady in her 80s or 1990s. She nodded when he stated Los angeles Reina. Sure, she told you, he would lived-in that it people, proper across the street. Here, on skin, are an individual who realized the brand new epic Superman-proof, indeed, your guy in fact lived.

Superman, Castaneda said, was tall, strong, known. “People understood your while the Queen,” she said. “He was gay, however you don’t mess with your.” She questioned me to stay. “He had been their peak. However, solid. Muscle.” He’d facial skin instance hers: ebony, yet not really. “He had been good guy. Nobody had a problem with him.” I inquired if everybody in the area understood just what the guy did to have a living. “Young man, it actually was many years ago. The guy leftover many years ago.”

Willy questioned when the she know exactly what became out-of him, and you can she said she believes he died for the Miami. Her times is waning, and you will Willy nodded for me to indicate the time had come we wade.

Upon the road, i satisfied a classic people bending resistant to the wall. Their label is actually Elado. He carried a great cane and you may wore a free environmentally friendly jacket which have an effective Masonic symbol holding of a chain around his shoulder. Willy told him we had been in search of information on the person they titled Los angeles Reina.

“ Si, si, ” the existing man said. “La Reina-folks knew your. Mulatto. Regarding the top,” the guy nodded in my own recommendations. “Everyone else known him. He stayed here for 2 decades. Of course, everybody realized exactly what the guy performed to own an income.” The guy told you Superman leftover towards You.S. inside 1959. “No-one realized his term. Everyone simply named him Los angeles Reina.”

I entered her roomy apartment, and you will Willy told me what we was undertaking

Down the street by church, roosters crowed. A beneficial girl wearing Rollerblades spoke on a cover phone. A classic man into the a fabric golf limit used a beneficial cigar towards the a backless wooden sofa.

Their tresses try light and you will wild

I stepped owing to Los Sitios into Barrio Chino up until we arrived from the 507 Marquis Highway. I stood in the street studying the entrance so you can a great martial-arts school: Escuela Cubana de- Wushu. They got a reddish and red act which have a silver foo dog and you can a reddish metal door.

The door was open. During the front side gate was a good courtyard having a little restaurant and some fixed exercise equipment. The theatre immediately following stood where in actuality the school’s outdoor courtyard is now. I attempted to consider where stage could have been. The fresh putting on a costume space in which Superman open to brand new inform you. The newest balcony where drunken visitors watched the brand new performance.

A short while later on we returned to Barrio de- los Sitios so you can fabric for other individuals whom possess recognized Superman. On flat strengthening close to Gladis Castaneda’s, we fulfilled Superman’s genuine neighbor: a former pizza chef called Roberto Cabarero, 82 years old, which have a highly tarnished and you can prolonged muscles shirt, sagging brownish jeans to your travel open, and you can black socks that have holes on the toes. His surface sagged particularly a sea turtle’s.

Cabarero’s apartment, where the guy existed along with his wife, was tiny and you can ramshackle, plagued by junk. His spouse sat in the little living room area, rocking back and forth during the a solid wood couch, talking loudly at no one particularly. An invisible blared tinny dated Foreign language tunes, and you may your pet dog beste chinesische Dating-Website came in and you will out from the room so you’re able to consume crumbs off of the flooring. An alarm time clock seemed through the duration of the meeting. No body bothered to show it off.