I bet that was the thought of the girl I found leaning on the railing of this bridge, looking out over the river, and a little further out to sea.
She was there at the beginning of the bridge, or at the end of the bridge, it all depends on which direction you're going when you cross it. And when I turned my back on her, and I went forward, and I crossed underneath that booth, and I looked to where I thought she was supposed to be... she was gone.
Then I read next to the Giraldilla this writing, by some graffiti artist, or someone who pretended to be one, but who evidently wanted to leave us (all of us) this important reminder.
And you may wonder what the Giraldilla is? It is a figure that is a symbol and legend of the City of Havana. It stands on the castle of La Real Fuerza in Old Havana, very close to the promenade, or Malecón, but it also appears a lot on posters, paintings, it is the logo of the local newspaper, and you can see it there, on the Almendares River.
According to legend, Doña Isabel de Bobadilla waited faithfully for her husband, Hernando de Soto, on the watchtower of the Castillo de la Real Fuerza (Royal Force Castle), which at that time was the home of the governor of Cuba. The lady spent years scanning the horizon, day and night, until she became a legendary figure. She hoped to see her beloved husband arrive on a ship, on his way home. But the story goes that she died of love. I would rather say of sadness.
A few years later an artist from Havana of Canary Island origin, Gerónimo Martín Pinzón (1607-1649), defined by the restorer and architect Joaquín Weiis in his work The Colonial Architecture in Cuba as an artificer, founder and sculptor, was inspired by this woman who was a symbol of marital fidelity and hope, and sculpted a figure in her memory. The governor of the city, Don Juan Bitrán Viamonte, whose term of office lasted from 1630 to 1934, had the sculpture cast in bronze and placed, as a weather vane, on the tower added to the castle shortly afterwards. Governor Bitrán named the weathervane Giraldilla, after the Giralda of his hometown, Seville. Thus, the Giraldilla gradually became the symbol of the city of Havana, through tradition and history, with shades of legend and love story.
This is one of my favourite places in Havana. And especially near the sunset.
Do you see that tower there? That's the El Cocinero tower, my favourite restaurant. Just a great place that I would also like to share with you here. Right next to it is the Fábrica de Arte Cubano (FAC), a project conceived by the prestigious musician X Alfonso, where the island's contemporary art is exhibited. It is a spacious place with a main building on various levels, decorated in an industrial style. It is connected to metal warehouses that were built with containers, the kind that transport goods on ships, and which are located around it.
Each space houses an art-related attraction. You are there and you can attend not one but several art exhibitions, but also theatre and dance performances, talks and other cultural events. There is also room for music and cinema, with projections on a huge screen. All this is perfectly combined in an environment where there is no shortage of bars, cafés and more secluded spaces for conversation and sharing. In short, it is a spectacular place.
This bridge connects the neighbourhoods of Miramar and Vedado. Towards there is Miramar.
And this way? What's left?
;)
Vedado, of course.
The river flows into the sea in the distance.
And to the other side...
And another picture.
In this post I shared a photo showing the iron bridge at a more open angle, as well as the pedestrian walkway. At that moment I managed to take a half-empty picture of it, because it really becomes a very crowded area after 4pm. Maybe because it's the time when people leave work and school.
Going back to the title of the post, and to the Giraldilla, life does not wait, time passes unstoppably, so there is no choice but to resort to that well-known phrase: ‘Happiness is the path, not the destination’. And we must also bear in mind that there are those who seek happiness, and there are those who create it.
Which group do you belong to?
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