The Chic de Matanzas area is just a memory

Matanzas/Matanzas holds in his name two titles that mark it, that of “Athens of Cuba”, won centuries ago as the cradle of poets and artists, and that of “City of the bridges”, thanks to the dozens of structures that cross the Yumurí and San Juan rivers.

With the arrival of the new century, however, another less flattering nickname began to circulate: “The sleeping city.” The lack of nightlife and central spaces of recreation plunged it into a silence that many attributed to the proximity of Varadero, that tourist magnet that absorbed all investments and projects.

It was not until 2016 that it was tried to reverse inertia. First with the authorization of the Paseo de Narváez, turned into Boulevard, and shortly after with a more ambitious project: the transformation of the beach neighborhood, especially the area of ​​Peñas Altas. The plan promised almost two kilometers of bars, restaurants, shopping centers and discos interspersed with residences – mostly luxury – and access to beaches. A kind of “Miami Beach Criollo” in Matancera version.

For a time it worked. Whole families found a respite after the work week. Andrés, known as The Pitihe remembers it like this: “I worked as a safety in Varadero. There was more money circulating than now, and on Sundays we went out to enjoy. I had never seen so much movement in the neighborhood.”

The illusion lasted little. The businesses began to unrave, the menus were impoverished and several premises were subjected to doubtful remodeling. The Bellamar pizzeria, for example, closed for a second reform in less than a decade. Marielis, used there for more than fifteen years, suspects that those works responded more to the interests of managers and contractors than to the needs of the public.

“We lost a good stage for that absurd remodeling,” recalls Andrés. “They set up a bar that made no sense. It only opened once a week, with dispensed beer and chicharritas. Then the pandemic arrived and we never raised heads again,” he added.

The deterioration was repeated in other points: the Caracol store, the Servicentro Bellamar, the La Sirenita shopping center – with its still inactive coffee – and even the old Dimar, subject to several remodeling and today in private hands.

Irene de la Caridad, a neighbor of the area, revives those years with nostalgia: “On Saturdays and Sundays, the matancera entertainment met in the parking lot of the mel In the cafe of the Little Mermaid, take a soda in front of the bay.

The final blow was given by the Covid pandemic. To this was added the disinterest of state trade, meaningless remodeling and the arrival of private investors who manage premises at prohibitive prices. In the Allende Beach cafeteria, for example, a soda costs 300 pesos and a 350 beer.

What at the time was “the Chic area” of Matanzas is just a memory. The city may no longer be as “sleeping” as before, but, as Irene sentence, “in the afternoons and nights you get bored … put the wedge to that.”