In the past, entering the Commercial Gallery of the hotel, located at the central corner of 23rd and L streets in El Vedado, was a privilege.
By Jose Lassa (14ymedio)
HAVANA TIMES – Just a few meters from the controversial K Tower, about to be inaugurated as a luxury hotel after a multi-million-dollar investment, the historic Habana Libre shows signs of its continued decline.
In the past, entering the Commercial Gallery of the hotel, located at the central corner of 23rd and L streets in El Vedado, was a privilege. Famous brand boutiques, bright lighting, polished floors. The current reality is very different. Old products, little variety, dark stores, or outright closed ones, like the shop of the Italian brand Fariani, which is no longer operational. Customers must navigate around buckets and cardboard placed on the floor to catch leaks. The false ceiling has collapsed in several spots, exposing pipes and electrical wiring.
Where one of the island’s best-stocked international pharmacies once stood, now there is only a shop with a few products and a faint smell of mildew. Those days when mothers traveled from the provinces to buy Scott’s Emulsion, rich in cod liver oil, for their young children in convertible pesos or dollars seem like a distant past. Families once found adult diapers, broad-spectrum antibiotics, and painkillers there.
The security guards in their immaculate long-sleeve white shirts, who used to patrol the entrance and the gallery’s interior, have also disappeared—not to mention the hundreds of onlookers who strolled through its hallways daily, more to admire the exclusive clothing displayed in the windows than to actually buy something. There were even those who entered through the door on 25th Street, walked through the well-stocked stores, and then continued the route through shops accessed via L Street, where rum, perfumes, or Cuban coffee packets were sold.
“The place is falling apart, the whole hotel,” says a worker anonymously to 14ymedio. “It’s been like that for years.” The employee continues: “A Spaniard (Tryp Meliá) runs it, but it’s chaos inside. The workers don’t care about anything; everyone is just looking out for themselves until it can’t go on anymore, and everything falls apart. Look, the store is empty.”
Few guests at the iconic hotel venture into the area of shops; the photos in tourist guides only show the Hotel’s façade. The advertising aimed at attracting travelers still promotes the Habana Libre as a central location, rich in history, and a place where numerous celebrities have stayed. However, the giant of El Vedado is on shaky ground. A quick visit to the shops on the ground floor is enough to question both the cleanliness of its spaces and the safety of its structure.
First published in Spanish by 14ymedio and translated and posted in English by Havana Times.
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