ALL AROUND TOWN

­            Havana is composed of neighborhoods and districts.  The “new city” is home to Revolution square which is surrounded by government offices.  The square itself is huge and is the site of major speeches by government luminaries. 

Fidel once gave a speech there that was seven hours thirty minutes long.  He was well known for giving long speeches and gave the longest speech ever given at the United Nations, four hours twenty-nine minutes.

            Then, there is Chinatown where street signs are written in Chinese and Spanish.

  In the 1850s, slavery throughout the European world was in decline and created a labor shortage in the Cuban sugarcane fields.  This was serious since Cuba’s economy was almost entirely dependent on sugar.  Needing laborers to work the fields, Spain looked to China where cheap labor was found.  Many Chinese were hired into indentured servitude or, sometimes tricked into de facto slavery.  By the 1870s there were 40,000 Chinese in Cuba.  Many of them intermarried with the local population. However, miscegenation laws prohibited marriage to Spaniards.  Today, there are no Chinese left in Chinatown and only one Chinese restaurant remains.

            The Malecón which runs along the waterfront provides fishing opportunities for the city’s residents.  It’s a broad esplanade that stretches for 8 km along Havana Bay.  It is a popular promenade with businesses, restaurants and street entertainment.

            Like big cities throughout history, la Habana has its poor sections.  Poorly maintained buildings are found in nearly every section of town but are much more common in certain areas.  Residents in one rundown neighborhood decided to beautify their street and La Callejon (little street) Hamel is the result.

  Buildings on both sides of the tiny street are covered with colorful murals from rooftop to the sidewalk.  Whimsical sculptures crafted from recycled materials line the streets.  Benches are made from old bath tubs cut in half length wise.

Okay, so these next two sculptures were not found in the Callejon de Hamel, but they are interesting and we found sculpture to be a very popular medium everywhere we went.

            Most Cubans are Catholic and churches are common but there is a small population of Muslims that maintains a tiny mosque in the old city.

            One could easily spend a week in the city and not see all it has to offer.