Buenavista sound map

It was only January 2. The Cubans walked in the sun, without masks, hugging each other. In the Buenavista area, east of the tunnels, the neighbors were still on holiday, but without parties. The vendors were coming back: the man with the cookies and the woman with the brooms. In an old doorway —just a gate before the entrance—, the elderly lady who lives alone sat, while in another house a mason finished painting the high gate white. Three kids were killing each other outside a warehouse and, behind the counter, two friends were playing dominoes.

The men put the cards in without any fanfare, while in the background several songs by the same orchestra played on a radio recorder. That music was commonplace on the neighborhood's sound map. Each person had different tastes that were the same for the romantic genre and the reggaeton of the reparto as for the rumba and the guaguancó, but all would have undoubtedly gone to celebrate the start of the year in that grocery store where sounded La Candela by Los Van Van.