I’d been meaning for a while to take a moment and visit this Sculptural Ensemble, which stands right at the entrance to the Havana Bay tunnel—facing the Malecón. It’s a monument in honour of a Dominican who served as Commander-in-Chief of the Cuban revolutionary forces during the War of ’95.
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Exquisite beauty is the first thing that comes to mind as you approach it and take in its details. It has stood in that spot since mid-1935, was conceived according to the classical standards of equestrian monuments by its creator, the Italian artist Aldo Gamba, and it has held the title of UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1982.
While I was there, I kept thinking about how untamed those horses look… and I thought about my own emotions, which I don’t seem to be able to soothe.
And I thought that not long ago, feeling all of this—and feeling alone and overwhelmed too—the algorithm showed me something I needed to see… or at least I think I did. To snap out of it… I suppose.
The case was that of the American artistic swimmer Anita Álvarez (how curious… she shares part of my name and the surname of both my grandmother and my mother!) who, at the end of her routine at the 2022 World Championships in Budapest, lost consciousness and sank into the pool while the crowd kept applauding, unaware that something was wrong. It was her coach, Andrea Fuentes—a renowned former Spanish swimmer—who noticed and dove in to rescue her. I don’t think I need to explain much more… it’s just a matter of bringing this to our own lives: do we have someone who knows us so well they’d notice when we’re drowning inside, even if everything looks fine on the outside?
Perhaps because the mind made associations, and the art led me to those thoughts…
As always, I can’t seem to choose just one. I liked all the photos I took, although the sun did bother me a bit when I stood to the left of the Monument.
These two photos, with its framing and closeness, are a real beauty—just as long as you don’t zoom in and read what inconsiderate people do to art… I’d like to think it’s not the young ones doing these things, because they’ve been well raised by their parents…
Now I’m going to show you the side and the back… I thought I’d be alone there with all those figures as I approached the park. But no… how naïve of me… out of nowhere, two unruly kids appeared, climbing all over the sculptures and throwing things—stones, cans… They really got on my nerves, though I hid it pretty well. It was also a bit of a challenge to get the shots without them in the frame. They were the very embodiment of restlessness…
When I decided to leave the place, more kids showed up—almost teenagers—on roller skates… and I felt a sense of sorrow because of those writings on the marble… well, it’s unfortunate. But I won’t dwell on that too much right now. I walked toward the Palace of the Revolution, in search of the equestrian statue of José Martí, the very architect of that War of Independence led by Gómez.
This statue is an exact replica of the original created by American sculptor Anna Hyatt Huntington in the 1950s, and it captures the instant an enemy bullet claimed the life of Cuba’s independence hero.
The original statue stands in New York’s Central Park. According to several sources, bringing its replica to Havana took nearly 20 years, as political and diplomatic hurdles had to be overcome.
And that’s all for today… That day, there were lots of children playing along that avenue, under the supervision of a few teachers, since there’s a school nearby. One of them, seeing me with my camera, assumed I was a foreigner and asked if I knew what I was photographing. I nodded, and kept taking the shot where both sculptures appear—truly wonderful pieces.
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