What is most valued in Havana is its simple, communicative and solidary people who work and study, who daily ride the public transportation, and who with fan in hand, make fun of the hot weather and of the imperialist blockade. Its people are always in favor of the most righteous causes. Always the same love and dream.
I enjoy figuring out how life would develop for those who had the privilege of founding it, and of being, at the same time, main character of the development of the then called San Cristóbal de La Habana.
It is nice also to walk along the streets of paving stones of Old Havana, decorated with its cultural and historic institutions, and museums that bring to mind, what remained trapped forever in time.
“I was born and grew up in Havana”, many a capital inhabitant say with proud, and then they mention the maternity hospital where they were born, as if they gave more credibility to their words, the same with the neighborhood they grew up and became adults.
Attractive is also modern Havana, with buildings where different architectonic styles join. How attractive to stroll through the Quarter of Vedado, and through La Rampa, always full of people, going down up to El Malecón (the sea wall), with its always dialogue with the sea., witness of unrepeatable loves of the habaneros.
There are also famous corners, such as Prado and Neptuno; the one where the ice cream parlor Coppelia is located, and also the 23th and 12th Streets, where history and present time join. Besides, there is El Paseo del Prado, with its lions, which “roar “while children are upon them. The most populated municipalities are 10 de Octubre, Centro Habana and Habana Vieja (Old Havana). Havana is full of contrasts: several generations of Cuban coexist. The old people are followed by young ones, and children who wake up in the morning to go to their schools. Through the streets, modern and old cars move, these latters baptized by the population as “almendrones”, which are still giving social service, delighting at the same time the visitors’ curiosity.
I feel in love with Havana. I know it because of the emotion that seizes me when I go through the oldest part, with paving stone streets, buildings constructed centuries ago, and museums which keep history and traditions of a city with more than five centuries of existence.
Translator: Reinaldo Fernàndez
