In Havana there is a common expression for old facades that get repaired superficially: “vieja con colorete”. All the buildings in Cuba could be called old ladies but only a few are lucky enough to get the blusher. Most of the buildings that get painted in Havana have a strategic location, either for tourism or political reasons.

My building is from the 1950’s, located in Vedado district and very close to the ocean. Originally, it was painted blue and for many years it was standing proud and beautiful as a little jewel of Cuban architecture. After many years and while I was growing up we kept calling it ” the blue building” but the colour was pretty much gone. One morning  the canopy completelly fell down and that was a significant event which started me thinking that the destiny of the “new” Havana was going to be as terrible as the old one. The saddest part was that a truck from the American embassy had to come to pick up the destroyed canopy as no one would come to get the huge concrete piece, blocking the building entrance for several hours.

One day everything drastically changed in the neighbourhood. The anti imperialist tribune was being built in front of the American offices and a brigade came to paint all the buildings around the area that could be captured by the national television cameras. The neighbours were notified and a brigade of workers came with blue paint. The old and beloved “Holland tower” looked blue again after more than 20 years, the Red Cross building showed the pink one more time and although it was barely a little make up and not a lot of material was used to fix and cover major cracks the area looked kind of nice. We had to pay with the noise coming from the political acts and concerts performed in a residential zone but we celebrated the return of colours with some hope.

Now after another decade the building is getting painted again. This time my mother tells me that she asked for some hours off work to be at home while they paint our side of the building and balcony terraces since neighbours are afraid of the possibility of robbery. To be fair, construction workers are famous only for selling the material they get from the government to make a living but in reality nothing is done by the police if your house gets robbed so residents can’t wait for the repairs to end. The good constant folklore of my Havana hood…