Manolito del Vedado, a psychiatric patient from Havana well known for always singing and dancing around the area of 23rd and 12th, was seen this week with a very different attitude than the one he has always shown.
The young womanJordan Battle She found him near the cemetery and was struck by seeing him so serious and withdrawn.
"Aren't you doing a little dance like you used to?" she asked him, to which he responded no with his head. "Why are you so sad? Before you were always singing and dancing," she insisted.
Manolito made a gesture with his fingers indicating that he had no money.
Speaking very quietly and almost in an incomprehensible manner, he denied that he was hungry and even agreed to send a brief greeting to his interlocutor's followers.
"But you're not as cheerful as before, you were always laughing," she replied.
Yordanka shared the conversation on her wallFacebook, in its new Havana Prints section.
"I was surprised to see Manolito calm, I think maybe he was medicated. Whoever walks around the area of 23 and 12, I could always find him singing and dancing, in his very own English. I never saw him aggressive. Sometimes I think that to live in Planeta Cuba, this is the best option. Manolito is a kind of Knight of Paris," he wrote.
Manolito Pérez Roque, known as Manolito del Vedado, is a regular character in that area of Havana, where he has wandered for decades while pretending to be a singer or radio announcer, and when he did so he imitated the sound of the radio when moving the dial to change the station. His most typical phrase is "Stay tuned with Mazorra!".
In the comments to Yordanka's post, several Internet users spoke fondly of him and regretted that the current crisis is also affecting him.
"Manolito was already Manolito since my pre-school days and I'm 42. He would ride the buses and start singing while he tapped the ground with his feet. He was almost always on Route 222 of the Lisa. He would get on in Marianao and he got off in Vedado. Greetings to him, even though he seems so changed," said one.
"Even the people with Manolito's problems understand what is happening and that is their way of expressing it, they also feel blessings for Manolito," said a Havana resident from Miami Beach.
"It's true that he does look sad, I always saw him around 12 and 23 singing, imitating that he was driving a car and even running, he was happy, Manolito del Vedado, always clean. How sad to see him like this," said a mother.
"Manolito is always clean, his sister takes care of him. He has a house and family, but above all the people in the neighborhood care for him and love him," stressed a young woman.
"Yordanka, I'll ask you a question. Tell me, who is happy in this country? Not even Manolito, a person who is psychiatrically ill. They have put an end to the Cuban's smile and joy. There is nothing to laugh about here, and a lot for what to suffer," said a man from Santiago.
Last year, the character of Manolito was brought to television, played by actor Dennis Ramos in the novelRed zone.
In 2020, it reappeared on social networks thanks to a video shared by a user in whichHe was seen on the street wearing a mask, as a protective measure against coronavirus.
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