We were told it would be very worthwhile visiting a huge model of Havana to get an overview of the city’s layout. It is located a painful 8km from our casa which in the noonday sun takes about 4 weeks of sweaty steps. This surely must have been a conscious decision, a sneaky deal with taxi drivers. Why so far out of town? It was worth it though. When built (after 18 years in construction) it was the largest scale model in the world, measuring 22m-10m. At a scale of 1:1000 it encompasses most of the city of Havana and is ridiculously detailed – from every balcony on a tower block, to tiny cars, to a real light in the lighthouse, accurate topography and pinpoint locations. Amazing to walk around but I certainly would not dedicate 18 years of my life to making tiny houses and trees. To be honest, I think they were quite lazy. If held at gunpoint I reckon I could do it in 10. Obviously not with the gun to my head the whole time. We read in a local newspaper that one of the films playing during next months film festival is London To Brighton. We are going to go and see that and a film in Spanish, and then cross the street to the famous Coppelia Ice Cream parlour. It is one of the revolutions great luxuries, available for all the people. Taking up a fairly hefty chunk of land it is a fantastic structure hidden away amongst tropical foliage. It has 5 entrances each with a separate menu and queue and you are seated en mass, 20 at a time. To my eyes it is like a James Bond house-of-the-future, mixed with Centre Parks and Universal Studios Jurassic Park ride. In fact that is just what the huge queues look like – people waiting to go on a fantastic theme park ride.
After another day at another beach we hit the town, as our last nocturnal excursion before we become worker bees. We went to La Cabaret Nationale, which for any Brightonians was like Komedia downstairs. After 15 minutes the crazy skirt-waving dancing stopped to be replaced by same same club music. For some reason we agreed to pay 30 CUC for a bottle of rum, when you can buy it in a shop for 5. After about an hour of stiff dancing the music was cut and female eyes zoomed stage-wards. Out came a snazzy duo that it soon became clear are local pop-stars – we’ve heard their catchy tunes all over the place. Decked out in the usual R&B bling and whiter than white rags they got the Cuban pulses going all right. I thought they looked and sounded like a couple of twats myself so I buggered off. The back streets were deserted at 2am and so peaceful. At 5-7pm they are throbbing with life. Everyone hangs out, often literally, by their houses – playing baseball, dominos, passing the rum, kicking a ball or dog.
Yesterday after another exhausting walk in the hottest sun yet we went to watch some boxing opposite the Capitolia. When we get our ID cards entrance fees to boxing, ballet, baseball, anything beginning with a B costs about 5p. For now it was 60p. It was pretty short and sharp and we watched about 8 matches, some boring and some very exciting, tiers and tiers of shouting and clapping. Some little boys were up in the shadows of the highest tiers where no one was sitting, pretending to be little boxing heroes. I wish there had been some strong slices of light spilling through the windows because their little silhouettes jostling and jabbing would have made excellent photos.
I would like to right extensively on the art of photographing Havana, using the camera as a tool to edit what I see and show others but for now I don’t have the mental capacity. I will though, as I’m thinking constantly about the power/misuse of photography at the moment. You could take hundreds and hundreds of good photos every day, photos that people expect to see documenting CUBA - an old woman with skin like melting liquorice, wearing a scarlet dress, leaning on the rusty doorframe of her emerald painted home. Colours colours are everywhere, shining under the sun. Its all too easy. And so it’s the turn of the master of the arts-architecture.
It was our first day ‘at work’ today. 45 minutes brisk walking, arriving sticky and out of breath. We are working in the heart of Habana Veija – OLD Habana – in an old nunnery. One of the only remaining buildings of its type in Cuba it is a tranquil set of ochre cloisters and cool corridors. We sat down and were given a brief history of nearly everything. Entirely in Spanish with intermittent translation by the ever useful Larissa. Our main boss who I will call Flavio spoke to us about the history of Cuban architecture since the 15th Century. For four hours. Without a break. For 4 hours. Fascinating stuff by my god was it strenuous going. The project is quite complicated but in brief there are 5 UNESCO funded projects in Cuba that our office is working with, in 5 separate towns that have so far been neglected and overlooked. Our work is aimed to be contemporary with no intention of restoring architecture to ‘retain history’, but instead to save what is salvageable whilst inserting a modern answer that responds to the needs of 21st Century living. There is no point restoring an old sugar factory to be a kitch 5 star hotel for minted tourists when so many millions of Cuban’s need better homes. This is such an exciting project that I frustratingly can’t seem to describe well. These are good, smart, proud Cubans we are working with who’s intentions are honest and boundary-pushing. Cuba is on the cusp of some huge changes so its very very exciting indeed to be involved with this project at this time. Also by the end of it we will have a certificate from UNESCO recognising our work. Cool beans!
Sheila has bought some tinsel and festive hanging options. We have already been eating off of a santa themed tablecloth and its not even December.
I would like to end with a quote from a book that I just finished called Still Life With Woodpecker by Tom Robbins:
“Don’t let yourself be victimised by the age you live in. Its not the times that will bring us down, any more than its society. When you put the blame on society then you just end up turning to society for the solution. There’s a tendency today to absolve individuals of moral responsibility and treat them as victims of social circumstance. You buy that, you pay with your soul. Its not men who limit women, its not straights who limit gays, its not whites who limit blacks. What limits people is lack of character. What limits people is that they don’t have the fucking nerve or imagination to star in their own movie, let alone direct it.”
PHOTO
Southern wall of one of works Cloisters
