Page 186

Mary and Papa were already waiting and after enthusiastic hugs the four began to chat deeply.

I decided it was preferable to admire it more closely. Leaving the ceiba and trying to appear nonchalant, I headed towards the entrance, necessarily passing by them. As I hoped, I was stopped and introduced to the guests. Papa asked me if I could accompany them to Tropicana as they wanted to see a show and hear some Cuban music.

"I would be really grateful if you were to guide us," Gary Cooper smiled at me with the most wonderful of smiles. I nodded yes because my tongue was paralyzed, I turned around and went back to the Casita.

"...Mom, I have to change clothes to go out with Gary Cooper, you know Gary Cooper has arrived just as he is, imagine that I have to accompany them to the Tropicana and imagine that he is even grateful to me, so he said, he said it just like that and you can't imagine how nice he is... I will put on a very simple dress because you don't think he wants to strut me around with him because he is a famous actor... but even if he is an actor he is really nice and you see it right away... oh mom you know Gary Cooper has arrived... "

Yes, she understood: Gary Cooper had arrived, my mother smiled.

Gianfranco recommended, before going to Tropicana, to go to Ciori. Nothing better than the Ciori to get an exact idea of ​​the Cuban atmosphere and rhythm.

In Havana's most popular neighborhood, La Playa, in a large room full of smoke and indefinable smells, dark-skinned men and women danced miming hunts, fights and amorous embraces and often ended up rolling on the ground. The orchestra often disdained ordinary musical instruments and made frantic rhythms sprung from what was at hand, belt studs, shoe soles, cans of Coca Cola, bottles of rum. The now elderly but still energetic orc was directed by Ciori who, in order to remain among...