Havana Stories - The Gentleman of Paris

 Last February, I travelled to Cuba with my pal Maureen looking to get away from the cold iciness weather. We stayed in Varadero for a week after which to Havana. We had been strolling around San Francisco Square on a Saturday afternoon and we ran into El Caballero de Paris (The Gentleman of Paris), now not the actual one, of path, but the popular statue of El Caballero de Paris in the front of San Francisco the Asis Convent. Maureen, a pal of mine who has additionally travelled to Cuba numerous times, informed me an superb story. She said she had were given to see him in character on her first journey to Cuba.

It was within the 80s, she advised me. She became strolling alongside 23 avenue, when she were given to La Pelota, a espresso keep at the nook of 12 and 23; she turned into searching around looking for an area to eat. An old long gray haired man, wearing black, with a black cloak over his shoulders and a bunch of books and papers on his hands known as her attention. The man greeted her lightly and went his personal way. Maureen says she become amazed then a person who became status close to by means of advised her who the mysterious man turned into, El Caballero de Paris.

José María López Lledín (which was the actual call of El Caballero de Paris) changed into now not really from Paris, he was born in Lugo, Spain, in 1899. He arrived to Havana in 1913 and went to live with his sister and an uncle, but he soon decided to stay his very own existence. He worked in lots of exceptional locations, but he tried to observe and get better manners so he should find a properly paid activity. He then labored as a waiter at many important motels in Havana, Sevilla, Telegrafo, Inglaterra, Saratoga and plenty of others.

It isn't clean why he lost his mind, a few people say it became associated to his arrest in 1920 for a criminal offense he did now not devote and a few others connect it to a tragic love story. Nobody is aware of for sure, but what is genuine is that he has entered the records of Havana as El Caballero de Paris (The Gentleman of Paris) and the Varadero to Havana of El Caballero have exceeded from era to generation.

Today, anyone in Havana has a model of the real story, but what people know is that El Caballero de Paris is one of the most well-known and enigmatic characters inside the history of Havana. He was usually very well mannered, he in no way begged and if someone gave him a few cash he usually gave something in return.

When I walk on San Francisco Square and flip around the convent, these days the religious museum of Havana and an exquisite live performance hall, I pass by the main entrance and I usually have the feeling that El Caballero de Paris is truely strolling to me. It is as if he had waken up from the metropolis legends to say hello to tourists that like him, have fallen in love with this mysterious Cuban town.