A Ghost From The Past by wysiwig
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Description
I had decided that, before I left Havana, I had to see the newly opened United States embassy. And so I ventured forth from the air conditioned cocoon of the Melia Cohiba on my death march through the heat and humidity of the city. Just north of my hotel was the old Riviera Hotel. The hotel was originally owned by mobster Meyer Lansky who had been inspired to build it after the nine story Riviera Casino on the Las Vegas Strip. The choice to build in Havana was because Lansky simply did not want to be subject to U.S. laws or the scrutiny of the FBI. When the Riviera opened on December 10, 1957, it was the largest casino-hotel in Cuba or anywhere in the world at that time outside Las Vegas. It hosted the famous from all over the world and featured shows by some of Hollywood’s most popular celebrities.
Unfortunately for Lansky a movement was building that would not allow the future of Cuba to remain in the hands of gangsters and corrupt politicians. On January 1, 1959 the dictator Fulgencio Batista fled to the Dominican Republic. In a radio broadcast from his headquarters in the Sierra Maestra Mountains, Castro stated that he preferred executing gangsters to deporting them. Lansky charted a plane that same New Year's Eve and headed for the Bahamas.
In October, 1960 Castro nationalized all the island's hotel-casinos and outlawed gambling. Our guide Jorge told us a story of what happened after that. In pre-revolutionary Cuba the Mafia had formed an alliance with Cuba’s rulers. Drugs, prostitution and gambling became a plague and many Cubans suffered as a result. When gambling was outlawed mobs entered hotels and destroyed the casinos.
Today the Riviera continues to do business under the name Gran Caribe Habana Riviera.
Comments (10)
durleybeachbum
A most interesting history! This looks more recent than the date would suggest, and I quite like the colours and the window patterns. But if I was to stay in a hotel I should prefer it had no more than 3 floors!
jif3d
Well that's pretty ironic, the gangster ran away, when he should just weathered the storm for a bit...Karama ? LOL
I like the curved veranda's and the colour, but the rest looks very housing commission, except for the neat sculpture at the entrance (?) and the round ladybug thingy...ok, it's all cool ! LOL
BTW, thanks for the Birthday wishes (35 ? yeah, sure, I'll go along with that)
~Cheers~
ArtistKimberly
Outstanding,
anahata.c
Another engrossing narrative from you, and a good quick summation of at least part of what the mob did in Cuba. (With the head mobsters escaping, leaving behind their gaudy legacies.) It was such an arrogant, terrible thing to just move into a city and try to take it over, the way the mob did. (And of course the US and its interests have been doing that for a long time.) Seeing Cuba solely as a source of income and influence, because the US government was 'out of reach'. I don't blame the residents for storming these places when the mob was gone. You said a lot in a few paragraphs.
You sure captured the abandoned feeling of the place, even though it's being used still. It has a kind of dark 'soviet' feeling to it (in the most stereotyped sense), a ghost. I agree with Andrea about the fascinating window patterns. But it cuts a rather ghostly presence, and the sculpture below is so strange, the way it shines inside that dark area in front---it's another of your 'bottoms' of shots that come alive with a whole different world down there. In furthest zoom we can see how fascinating it is (like a dragon and a woman? something like that?) And that huge "ladybug" thing on the right: You know that big 'apple' the Mets have? That oozes up from the bowels of the earth whenever they hit a home run? This looks like that, lol. What a sight. And in full zoom, we can see the decay too, in the bridge to the building (far left), and in the roof over the entry. A powerful shot, dark and brooding, fitting for the remains of one of the darker exploitations of a people. It's fine journalism, and a terrific upload.
Cyve
Fantastic building and very great capture my friend !!!
ysvry
great foto and story.
Faemike55
great capture and history lesson - one that we did NOT get in school. Why do we continue to sanitize the past for the present to dwell upon the future?
MrsRatbag
This looks like a shot straight out of the 1960s, as so much of the city there appears. A place lost in time!
AliceFromLake
A typical building of the 50ies, but with an interesting history. For me the Cubans are congenial and I hope they will find their own way in the future and I hope they will not throw away their prime targets for soulless consumption. We need more diversity than the usual western way of life...
kgb224
Superb capture my friend. God bless.