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RE: A Chinatown without Chinese

in Architecture+Design3 months ago (edited)

Very interesting! I visited Cuba in the 90's of the last century and passed on front of the old Havana chinese cemetery (I think it was this one https://havanatimes.org/photo-feature/the-chinese-cemetery-of-havana/ - https://www.rebeccabathory.com/blog/cuba-chinese-cemetery-barrio-chino), is it in the chinatown you wrote about? I remember that one person in front of the cemetery came to ask for money approaching the taxi and moved his finger over the closed car window doing what I thought was writing a chinese ideogram (hanzi). He looked to have some mixed chinese ancestry, maybe from the time when a lot of chinese immigrants lived in the city. Maybe the supposed hanzi ideogram was his family surname. Keep safe, thanks and good luck again!

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The Chinese cemetery is somewhat distant from the Chinatown.
In those years, it was definitely worth visiting, but today it’s not so much, due to its total neglect.
One could say it’s a remote extension of the neighborhood. It’s about 11 kilometers away, and this cemetery you mention is one of the oldest in Latin America. How do you remember that visit to Cuba in the '90s? Did you like it? That was one of the toughest time in the island (I wasn't born yet)

It was an interesting trip in the middle of the balseros crisis, I think it was the cause of the tourist packages to Cuba decreased the prices and became more affordable for us in Brazil, even with our weak currency comparing with the US dollar. We visited Havana and Varadero invited by my wife's relatives from Japan, they're professional photographers and arranged a meeting with mr. Korda (the man who took the famous picture of Che Guevara) in his house in Havana. About that though time I remember a car ride in Malecon and we saw a group of balseros entering the sea, the taxi driver shouted "que se vayan todos!". We went to Copelia to try the chocolate ice cream featured in the movie Fresa y Chocolate and in Varadero we watch a brazilian soap opera on the TV with the hotel staff. Maybe I publish these and other memories here in Hive too.

That sounds like an epic trip!

I loved reading you because, as I told you, I've only heard stories from that time, and I think they’re never enough.

Today's Cuba is a 2.0 version of that Cuba, just as frozen in time.

If you decide to make those posts, mention me because I would gladly read them; it would truly be a pleasure to read those memories.

Interesting fact: Many of those "balseros" who were hated now support a large part of the island's economy