House in Cardenas

The first house I remember living in was at 526 San Juan de Dios, Cardenas, Provincia de Matanzas, Republica de Cuba . I moved there before kindergarten so it must have been 1955-6. It was a row house (structured as a shotgun house) The front door, situated on the side of the front façade, opened to a sitting room containing a couple of rocking chairs (mahogany with wicker seats and backs inserts) and a sofa of the same construction. There were also some tables and sewing equipment for Mom’s Sewing Academy. Later, an upright piano was added and Ruth practiced her lessons there. The whole thing was illuminated at night (not well) by a single low wattage naked light bulb hanging on a wire from a very tall ceiling. Next to the front door was a very tall and wide barred window; it came almost to the floor, and could be shut with folding, wooden, louvered shutters.

Through swinging saloon doors one entered into the master bedroom. This was furnished with mom & dad’s pride and joy possession: a custom mahogany bedroom set consisting of bed (queen?), partially upholstered arm chair and ottoman (where mom breastfed Ruth, and I suppose me although I do not remember that far back) dad’s chifforobe and a larger escaparate (Cuban for armoire) belonging to mom held their things (of course there were no closets!). A tall triple mirrored vanity with built fluorescent light and upholstered low bench completed the set. All this was crowded into a relatively small room, the swinging doors were set on the same side as the front door (again think shotgun), the partition between living and bedroom did not go all the way to the ceiling. The vanity was next to the doors then the bed then the chair ottoman. The chifforobe and escaparate were side by side across from the bed, the space between them and the bed defined a “corridor” to the next room.

That room was separated from the main bedroom with a curtain, it was a step down from the first two rooms level. A much smaller room it contained two little beds and a table with a palangana (an enameled tin basin) on top separating them. Ruth and I shared this room until ca. 1960. Another step down (deeper than usual) took us to the open air kitchen dining room. This was covered by a shed roof and had a counter for food preparation, and a couple of kerosene burners (think Coleman camp stove) for cooking. A short corridor took us to the bathroom. The bathroom was a small corrugated roof enclosure with toilet, wash basin and shower (hot water provided by filling a tank with boiling water from the stove). Needless to say we did not take a lot of hot showers. The other side of the kitchen had a table and six chairs (again solid mahogany, custom made by the town carpenter). A couple of years later dad painted this set a particularly ugly turquoise (although he kept calling it aquamarine!). Finally the room had a large manually operated two roll mill an electric grinder and some large marble slabs. Dad used to make almond and peanut paste which he turned into confections to be sold during the holidays.

A further step down took you to the open air patio and behind the bathroom a pila where the dishes were washed. Opposite this there was a small plot where mom cultivated a flower of paradise and dad had some banana trees. Through a chickenwire fence one had access to the large traspatio (backyard) where we kept chickens, guinea hens, turkeys and the occasional pig (our chivos (goats) came much later). This yard also had producing mango, avocado, mamey, cherimoya, guanabana, and guayaba trees. A tall limestone wall with broken glass on top bordered the yard on three sides.