Cuban Children’s Heads and Deteriorated Buildings

By Daniela Mojies

HAVANA TIMES — The Aracelio Iglesias Diaz primary school (named after the communist port workers leader) in the Kohly neighborhood of Havana, has suffered several incidents over the last few years.

About three years ago, the locale of this school was declared in “disuse” for fear of the roof collapsing, so it was moved to another place, with quite a bit less room, a day-care center, known as “La Bella Durmiente” (The sleeping beauty), and located on the same street. The day care center no longer exists because it has been occupied by the school. The children were squeezed into another one a few blocks away.

Here are the essential facts: First of all, La Bella Durmiente was also in danger of collapsing (much more evident than the Aracelio school). However, budget arguments were made, which translated into simple English means that it was cheaper to fix up the day-care center than the school, because the former is smaller, which seems to make a lot of sense, but:

What happened afterwards?

A 4th grade student gets hit by a piece of cement from the library ceiling which, luckily, only cost several stitches on his head and some scratches. Yesterday, the school’s teachers themselves tore down the library roof completely, as humans always prefer the open sky to danger. The old Aracelio school locale still hasn’t been repaired, and it has been empty for the last three years.

Now, a rumor circulating among locals is that the facility will be handed over to a musician for his private arts school. The question overwhelms me: But isn’t art the result of people who have satisfied their most basic needs, like safety? Some questions are better left unanswered…

It’s worth noting that we’ve been talking about an elementary school located in Kohly, a mostly privileged military neighborhood, where officers’ children go to this school and disasters of this kind are even taking place in a place like this. It’s clear that when the head isn’t doing well, the ass is hurting a great deal more.  Unfortunately, those with asses also have heads, and these heads break and need silent stitches to heal.

Click on the thumbnails below to view all the photos in this gallery. On your PC or laptop, you can use the directional arrows on the keyboard to move within the gallery. On cell phones use the keys on the screen.