What I remember of El Nautico

We used to live in a pink house having two floors. Looking away from the house towards the west we would see a large empty field. North of this field was a house and north of this house was my grandparent’s home. Abuelo’s house was large. It was made of bricks, much like those they use in the University of Florida, only a little lighter in color. Crossing the street was a sidewalk and then the Atlantic Ocean (actuallythe Straits of Florida). There was no beach there. There were very sharp rocks. A certain places the rocks were cut and a small swimming hole type thing was made. We called them posetas. There was an opening, roughly the size of a door which led straight into the sea. When it was high tide the posetas were deep. When it was low tide it was shallower. Once in a

while for a few days they would have sailboat regattas. We all knew the names of the boats and pretended (at least I did) to know what was going on in the race. Looking south from my parent’s house was another empty field but much smaller. Across the street was Teresita’s house. It was at this house that my father would go to play domino with his friends. North of our house was a house owned by a young couple named Isaac and Anita. North of this house were three houses which were owned by my grandfather where my uncles and aunts lived (futi, lulo, Eduardo). Going around this house was Ester’s house. I do not remember much about her except that she always wore sandals. Next to that house was a family named Bustamante. We always watched what we said around them because they were politically active (members of the defense committee).
Crossing the street from Bustamante’s house was the first poseta. The sidewalk next to the ocean was sometimes full of tar, which we believed was due to boats leaking oil. One would have to be careful when sitting down since you could get big black ugly stain on your pants. Two blocks east was a second poseta. It was always said that these things were made so they could bathe the animals. We used them as our own swimming pools. The water was very clean since it was ocean water, but sometimes unexpected wildlife did seem to appear. Every day around 6 pm a shark would swim in to the entrance of the poseta and at 6:05 it would swim away. People said you could set your watch by it. One day someone killed the shark. It was a small shark, possible a nurse shark. I do not know why they did that. I now feel sorry for the shark. As you would drive north from this point the street turned south and later on you would reach the famous place called El Malecon. This was a very long sea wall which Cuban families and couples still pass the time there.

This neighborhood was an exclusive one. There was a guard at the entrance. The entrance was a big blue structure that thinking back on it was rather modern for its time.
In the entrance to my house there were three steps. The front door was made out of glass and once I remember there was much controversy since the wind had broken the glass and it was shattered all over the place. It was concluded that my dad had left it open when he returned home. Upon entering the house there was a huge stairs. At the top of the stairs was a painting of the sacred heart. On the left were our rooms (this I am not too sure about). On the first floor on the left of the stairway was the living and dining room areas. Behind the stairs was the kitchen. Beneath the stairs was a closet which was literally packed with toys. As my cousins kept leaving for the states they would leave all the toys to us. We literally did not really know what was in there. Behind the dining room was the patio. It was not a big back yard in fact it was small. Part of it was covered and half of it was not. It was surrounded by a brick wall around 3 feet high. There were bushes all around it. Some of these were hibiscus, because I remember playing with the flowers. There were other multicolored and darker bushes all around. It was here where I planted corn which grew tremendously.