The residents of Key West, in Centro Habana, observed with intrigue, for months, the remodeling works of the building located at Aramburu 253, corner of Neptuno. Little by little, the building – built in the 1930s and in decline, like everything around it – was becoming a luxurious establishment, judging by what could be glimpsed through the windows on the ground floor.
Nothing informed, however, of the use that would be given to it, and the only sign it held was the building license number written on a piece of cardboard and poorly hung in a window. The word from the street began to spread without confirmation: a yuma he had bought the property and was turning it into a hotel.
And not only that, but he had bought other houses to relocate everyone who lived there until then.
One of those questioned then called by phone and, after having a brief conversation, handed the device to the policeman: “Someone wants to talk to you”
If it was true that the project belonged to an American, it had to be influential in any case. In this regard, several residents of the place tell another anecdote. One day a cement truck was parked in front of the building and a patrol came to ask the construction workers for identification. One of those questioned then called by phone and, after having a brief conversation, handed the device to the policeman: “Someone wants to talk to you.” “The policeman’s face changed, he apologized and they never bothered the workers again,” says a neighbor who requested anonymity.
Thus, a name began to repeat itself in recent weeks in the mouths of the residents of Key West. They dared to affirm that behind the project, headed by two American businessmen, was none other than the daughter of Raúl Castro. “There the ticket is running, but that’s not theirs, but Mariela’s,” residents blurted out, who say they saw her inside the building on Friday.
True or not, no one saw Mariela Castro last Saturday, when the hotel was inaugurated and several unknowns were cleared up. For starters, her name: Tribe Caribe Key West.
On his page, through which you can book a room from 150 to 550 dollars a night – contracting an entire floor costs 1,000 –, the “founders” are listed as an American investor, Chris Cornell, and the music producer Andrés Levín, born in Venezuela but with a US passport. In Cuba, Levín is Known for participating in various cultural projects such as the Havana Biennial, as well as for his marriage to the Cuban-American singer Cucú Diamantes.
Hence, he was the most recognizable figure on Saturday, in a unusual opening party “de barrio”, which lasted six hours and included an exhibition by photographer Juan Carlos Alom, sale of items by private businesses such as the Clandestina brand, and musical performances. “That here in Cuba is not allowed to just anyone,” commented a young man who had just finished humming what they sang on the stage: Fool, by Silvio Rodríguez, to the rhythm of rumba.
Levin, with a cap and characteristic tinted glasses, came and went smiling, greeting the neighbors familiarly gathered in front of the street stage, for whose installation it was necessary to cut off traffic on Aramburu Street between Neptuno and San Miguel.
Nearby was a bus with the electronic legend in capital letters “protocol”, and the various Lada vehicles with chauffeurs, normally used by public officials, were evident.
Nearby was a bus with the electronic legend in capital letters “protocol”, and the various chauffeured Lada vehicles, normally used by public officials, parked nearby.
A group of young people dressed in sweaters that said “Tribe Caribe” prevented people from entering the hotel and watched the movements of the curious.
Tribe Caribe is a company registered on April 30, 2021 in Florida, with address 1521 Alton Road 460, in Miami Beach. Levin and Cornell are both listed as directors. The company, linked to the world of music, affirms that it “promotes and distributes exceptional original Caribbean content”, according to its website, where it sells itself as “a proactive force, a voice and an educator in the continuous emergence of the rich cultural offer of the Caribbean”.
On the hotel page, on the other hand, Chris Cornell is highlighted as “an entrepreneur with a long professional career and investor in arts, creative businesses and impact projects, who provides impetus and entrepreneurial spirit to the project” and who “has directed all major hotel design, construction and restoration decisions and is keenly aware of how these decisions affect the neighborhood, local cultural identity and the preservation of Key West’s artistic heritage.”
Of this mysterious investor, of unknown biography and background, there are no traces other than his supposed signature in the office in North Palm Beach, Florida, where the company Tribe Caribe was created. Of course, his name and surname coincide exactly with those of the famous singer of the Audioslave band, which was the first American rock group to play live in Cuba, in May 2005. No less than in the Anti-Imperialist Tribune and for hundreds of thousands of fans on the Malecón in Havana.
De Levín underlines that he has been nominated for 26 Grammy Awards – he won one in 2009 for recording the musical In the Heights– and that “he has promoted initiatives and produced numerous cultural events in Cuba, including TEDxHabana.”
Founder of the Afro-Cuban band Yerba Buena, the producer has collaborated, as he presumes on his official website, with artists such as Miguel Bosé, Aterciopelados, Orishas, David Byrne, Caetano Veloso, D’Angelo, Julieta Venegas or Tina Turner.
The producer cut off all communication after the artist’s participation in the demonstration on November 27, 2020 in front of the Ministry of Culture
In addition, he is the producer of several film projects such as chronic love, Directed in 2012 by the Cuban Jorge Perugorría, with whom he is a personal friend, according to the photographs and messages that both exhibit together.
An actor who prefers not to give his name and who treated Levin years ago, tells 14ymedio that both had agreed to collaborate on several projects, but that the producer cut off all communication after the artist’s participation in the demonstration of the November 27, 2020 in front of the Ministry of Culture.
At that time, the actor attended two parties organized by Levin. One, in a house that he had rented in the municipality of Playa, near 5ta, and another, in Siboney, where the mansions expropriated by the main architects of the Revolution are located, to celebrate the birthday of the producer’s father.
The source did not see, on any of these occasions, “anyone heavyweight of politics”, but rather “pure entertainment”.
But if she is related to Mariela Castro, it is because Levin himself appears on social networks with her, for example, at an “anti-homophobia” gala held in 2016. The Spanish singer martha sanchezwho performed on that occasion, also posted on his Facebook about it: “Thank you Cuba for so much love and recognition! Thanks to Mariela Castro for that support to those who choose in this country to love as they want! Thanks to Andrés Levín for count on me!”.
In addition, the producer himself mentions the daughter of Raúl Castro in an interview granted in 2016 to tablets, a magazine on issues of the Jewish community (the roots of the producer, whose parents, “very left-wing” according to his own description, were Argentines exiled in Caracas).
“One of the most advanced LGBT sex education programs in Latin America is run by Mariela Castro,” says the musician, who acknowledges having collaborated with her “on many projects.”
“I think I was at a dinner with you a few years ago and there were people from the secret service there and one of the Castros was with us or something like that. What was going on?” the interviewer asks, to which Levin replies that he doesn’t know. agrees well, but it would surely have to do with the TEDxHabana event, in which he collaborated with “designers, programmers, artists and scientists” from the Cuban LGTBI community.
“One of the most advanced LGBT sexual education programs in Latin America is run by Mariela Castro,” says the musician, who acknowledges having collaborated with her “on many projects related to culture and education.”
At that moment, Levín was full of praise for the Cuban people, of whom he affirms “has a lot of potential and desire to prosper and is very different from what people perceive” and that they have “things that most of the world does not have”: “Health and education. Eleven million educated people. It is the most educated country in the world,” he asserts.
Precisely as a cultural project Tribe Caribe Key West offers itself: “We continue a 25-year mission to preserve and honor Afro-Cuban culture and musical legacy, celebrate multi-generational artistic expression, and come to share our exclusive access to a side of Cuba that visitors and guests could not experience on their own. Not a word about the business purposes, nor about the obvious opulence that the project oozes, nestled in the impoverished heart of Centro Habana.
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