The Loss of Havana’s Titanic

Irina Pino

HAVANA TIMES – The Riomar is maybe a Titanic with the vast sea behind, sometimes calm, other times stormy. However, indifference is the storm that is making it crumble away, the salty air is just a undercover agent. It was a luxurious Titanic once upon a time, moored in Miramar, Havana.

I watch it collapse, wild trees grow inside its walls, the sea view is hazy from inside. You can hear dull murmurs in amidst its rubble, voices that once recognized it as their own. It is no longer a mass, memories shatter every minute, a new moon dies.

This video took a couple of hours. I have to admit that I was afraid of the overwhelming loneliness on its empty floors, its phantasmagorical shadows surrounding me, scavenger birds live on the roof and invade every space. At least these birds have found their home here, and they live peacefully.

You have to look at it in a different way, with the moss eroding its skin, weariness on its back, the echo of the beauty that is vanishing; like a living corpse that feeds off its own ashes.

Riomar The Waste from havanatimes on Vimeo.

 

Irina Pino

Irina Pino: I was born in the middle of shortages in those sixties that marked so many patterns in the world. Although I currently live in Miramar, I miss the city center with its cinemas and theaters, and the bohemian atmosphere of Old Havana, where I often go. Writing is the essential thing in my life, be it poetry, fiction or articles, a communion of ideas that identifies me. With my family and my friends, I get my share of happiness.

3 thoughts on “The Loss of Havana’s Titanic”

  • Quizás conozcan a Ileana, viuda de Ariel, el neurocirujano, ella aún vive allí, aunque ahora permanece con sus hijos y nietos en USA por un tiempo.
    Gracias a todos los que vieron este trabajo.

  • Que tristeza en mi alma,ver en lo.que queda mi.querido Río Mar, yo.hiba allí en los mate sixties a nadar con mis amiga@OS,es una larga historia,aprendi a nadar alli,uno de los lugares más queridos de mi temprana adolecencia ,gracias por compartir se lo enviare,a todos los que siempre han escuchado mis historias.de Cuba

  • Allí vivíamos… quisiera nunca haber sabido cómo terminó y así haber mantenido los lindos recuerdos de nuestra vida entonces. Las alegres reuniones en la piscina, los bailes que de niñas poníamos en los salones de fiesta y, sobretodo, las amigas que visitaba de apartamento a apartamento para jugar y reír.

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