Tag Archives: La Habana

Café Concordia

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    Old friends having a conversation

Where the Concordia and Soledad streets meet in Centro Habana you find Café Concordia.

This is Cayo Hueso, one of the citys most run down quarters. No paint on the walls and many houses collapsed completely. Lots of people moving around “resolving” or searching for food!

In the books Trilogia sucia de la Habana by Pedro Juan Gutierrez you can get a pretty god idea of how the Cubans gets by in the area.

Café Concordia is state runned and the clients are supposed to be the locals of the “barrio”.

A tourist entering here is an exotic creature!  But I felt that this could be a nice place to get to know people and take some  pictures. So I had to give it some time to survive that feeling of being an alien.

I ordered a beer and after a while I had a nice chat about the legendary Cuban mucisian Beny Moré
with another client!

I came back almost every day during a week and the first excitement about
my visits calmed down. Took a lot of photos and got to know some of the other regulars.

When the evening approached they told me to go home because this is not a healthy neighborhood for me with that expensive camera and so on..

Encuentro con Eduardo!

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Always when I go to Havana I visit Luyanó. It´s the “barrio” where I stayed on my very first trip to the city 1993.

Eduardo is the grandfather of the children in the family I lived with.

He invites you a glass of his home-made wine, and starts telling his story.

It´s more or less the same theme every time.. the Cuban history, the liberation from the Spanish colonialism and of course the revolution.

Eduardo has lived that history since the beginning of the last century!

Siempre cuando voy para La Habana, paso por Luyanó. Es el barrio donde
me quedé en mi primer viaje a la ciudad.

Eduardo es el abuelo de los niños de la casa donde yo viví.

Te invita un vaso de vino de la casa, y empieza a relatar su historia.

Es mas o menos el mismo tema cada vez.. La historia Cubana, la liberación
del colonialismo Español y por supuesto la revolución.

Eduardo ha vivido esa historia desde el comienzo del siglo pasado.

La Cubana!

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There she sat in the car at the beach east of Havana.
I could not resist. Lots of tempting ingredients. The sun was low,
the girl was pretty and the car had all that pre revolutionary patina
that one need for a nice Cuban cliché.

-Do you mind a picture? I asked.

-No but you have to hurry up, my husband is coming back in a moment
and he is very jealous!

Tonight in Gothenburg.. Manolito y su Trabuco!

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You see a lot of it in Havana. People practising their musical instruments in parks, the Malecon and other places, to avoid irritation from the neighbors.

I was passing by the harbor in Havana late 1993 when I saw this guy rehearsing with his trombone.
I took some pictures, he gave me his card and told me that they earlier that same year had formed a new band that played salsa, timba style.

Several years later there was a concert in Gothenburg/Sweden with a popular Cuban group called Manolito y su Trabuco.
For som reason (deeply hidden in the memory) I searched for that old card he once gave me… and yes, there it was: Manolito y su Trabuco les desea feliz Navidad y un prospero año nuevo…1993!

Brought the photo to the concert and went backstage to meet him. There he was, Juan Carlos (30kg bigger)  with his trombone.  I gave him the picture,  we had a laugh and a nice chat. He invited me to his place in Havana the next time I visited….  And I did, but that´s another story.

Manolito y su Trabuco started as a band 1993. Their first cd came 95. One of Cubas top 3 bands!!

Dead but happy!

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The urge to share philosophical advice on social media seems endless.
Sometimes its interesting and thoughtful.  A lot of the wisdom though are
more of the new age type and that´s when it starts to flip and get really amusing!

This is my contribution on this theme..  don´t worry be happy

Photo taken at Playa del este, Havana, Cuba.

Calle Melones, Luyanó

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Hector and Rodrigo. End of 1993.The brothers playing outside their house on calle Melones in Luyano. Havana, Cuba.
Hector now living in the USA. Rodrigo, despite that KO punch, is a renowned ballet dancer travelling around the world..

Parents must be proud!

Centro Habana

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The author Pedro Juan Gutiérrez  looking out from his apartment over Centro Habana. The story in his book Dirty Havana trilogy, takes place around this very building and the surrounding quarters of the city.