Havana Bay and its Ferry to Regla
Photo Feature by Juan Suárez
HAVANA TIMES — Havana Bay and the ferry that crosses over to Regla contains a lot of memories, both fond and tragic, as well as daily routines for residents of the community facing Old Havana.
For those worshipping Yemaya, the goddess of the ocean, the shoreline is a special place. Today we take a ride on the ferry and get a view of both sides of the bay.
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Thank you for sharing that. A slice of history which I imagine is reflective of a lot of countries with Afro/Caribbean populations amongst them. For me it reminded me of West London in the 1960s, although the music would have been Ska and Reggae.
Thank you for this. i presume the bar is Dos Hermanos?! A few changes from over half a century ago as these days you rarely see a man wear a suit unless he is a compere. *Who produces the suits Cuban officials wear anyway?) More importantly, regular night ferries have long gone. Still, I would recommend to any tourist to leave Habana Vieja behind and explore a different planet called Regla.
If you’d like to enter a time machine, go to YouTube and enter “PM” by Saba Cabrera Infante and Orlando Jiminez. It is a 1961 non-narrative documentary beginning with a trip across Havana Bay on this ferry, then a Friday or Saturday night on the town amongst the waterfront bars of Regla, circa 1961. This was one of the first documentaries made by I.C.A.I.C. (Alas! one of the first to be subsequently banned by the cultural commisars, too!) It is a haunting film, a slice-of-life, showing man (and woman) as he (and she) actually is–or was–in all their frailty–and not as we would have liked them to be.
Now I remember that HT article. It was well done. Thanks for mentioning it.
I frequently visit and photograph that Iglesia and downtown Regla when in Havana. It is one of those things, like spending time on the Prado, than I can enjoy over and over and over.
Dear Bob, here is the link to our photo feature on the church you mention here. http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=51502
I believe more important that what is depicted in the photos is the nearby Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de Regla, the church which houses the famous La Santísima Virgen de Regla, the statue of a black Madonna with white child which is venerated in the Catholic faith and associated in the Santería religion with Yemayá, the orisha of the ocean and the patron of sailors..
Regla brings me sad memories. It is sad to remember how many
people died in the tugboat “13th of March” in July 13, 1994 (some of them I knew).
Those who killed them are walking free on the streets of Havana, probably not proud
of what they did but certainly with the full support of the communist party. They
called an accident and decided that the murderers didn’t’ need to face justice.