"They have destroyed our country and our memories": he returns to his sports school 13 years later and finds devastation

"Each part was worse than the last. I didn't know if I wanted to leave or scream," says Cuban creator @ledyhr92, as she walks through what was once her school in Santa Clara. Thirteen years later, she returned to Fajardo, and what she found was ruins: weeds covering the hallways, broken floorboards, collapsed ceilings, and classrooms consumed by neglect.

"This school where I spent five years of my life... seeing it destroyed like this feels like losing a part of all our stories within these fallen walls," she laments in a video she posted on TikTok, which has sparked a wave of reactions among Cubans who not only recognize the place but also the pattern: spaces that marked an era, now turned into rubble.

The images are eloquent, but it is their testimony that has had the most impact. “Now we are going to enter the gymnasium, and get ready, because what you are going to see is powerful, sad, and devastating,” she warns, almost holding back tears. “My brain was not processing what I was seeing with my own eyes,” she adds as she shows the collapsed court surrounded by trash.

As it goes along, it showcases several rooms. "Today, only the front part of this school is operational, and it is a bit more habitable; that part belongs to the Central University Marta Abreu, which is where the physical culture faculty is located," he said.

The emotional impact of the author is evident. “I felt I owed it to myself and also to many of my friends,” she says, before stopping in front of her old classroom. “You can't imagine the mixed feelings I had seeing it... They have taken everything from us, they have destroyed our country, they have destroyed our memories,” she expresses with a lump in her throat.

The recording not only reveals Fajardo's physical decay; it also exposes the emotional wounds of an entire generation. Within hours, the video went viral, and hundreds of people began to share their pain. Many former students reacted with disbelief and anger.

The post has generated a wave of reactions on social media, especially among former students of the EIDE and Cubans who see a part of their own history in those ruins. Many commented on the video, moved by the scene, recalling their years of study at that school and lamenting the neglect shown in the footage. "Champions were forged there, and look at what they've left behind," wrote one person, while another confessed that they couldn't hold back tears upon seeing the images: "It was my home too... I couldn't watch it without crying."

The video not only evoked nostalgia but also indignation. Some users agreed that "our history is falling apart and no one is doing anything," while others spoke of the pain of returning, many years later, to a place that no longer exists. "Coming back like this is like burying a part of oneself," could be read among the hundreds of comments.

Others highlighted that the impact of neglect is not material, but emotional. "What hurts is not the concrete, but the lost memories," wrote a woman. "It's not just a school; it's what shaped us, taught us, and has now been taken away," added another internet user. "Every corner was alive. Today it is dead," summarized a former student, shocked by the complete deterioration of his old school.

For some, the feeling was one of betrayal. "They taught us to love the sport, and then they let the temples where we learned it die," expressed a young man. And for those who had idealized this reunion after so many years, the disappointment was even more bitter: "Thirteen years waiting to come back for this... it’s cruel."

The consensus was clear: what the video shows is not just the physical collapse of a school, but the symbolic downfall of an entire system of values and shared memories. “It looks like a bombed site,” commented one user. Another, with a more resigned tone, left a phrase that encapsulates the spirit of the moment: “It was better to hold on to the memories. Now there are only ruins.”

@ledyhr92's post made it clear that the pain is not only for a structure, but for everything that structure represented for those who grew up, studied, competed, and dreamed there.

The most shocking thing is that the Fajardo in Santa Clara is not an exception. In Bahía Honda, the San Pedro campsite is crumbling amid vandalism, power outages, and illegal occupations, with only half of its cabins operational. In Marianao, the former Oriental Park racetrack, a symbol of Havana's splendor, has ended up as a state warehouse amid rubble. And in Guanajay, the Carlos Baliño Museum, declared a National Monument, has not managed to reopen its doors after six years of closure.

In other parts of Cuba, the vacation villas for workers have been abandoned or transferred without consultation, the National Aquarium of Cuba languishes with leaks, mold, and a scarcity of animals, and Lenin Park, once a symbol of family leisure, has been reduced to ruins and weeds.

In buildings like Riomar, in the west of Havana, homeless families survive in precarious conditions among graffiti and corroded structures. In places like Baracoa, empty streets and closed hotels contribute to the silence of a city that is fading away.

Even the playgrounds have ceased to be what they once were: rusty structures, dangerous swings, and ruins welcome the few children who still visit them. And in former recreational centers like El Dorado, the pool is filled with trash and the concrete threatens to collapse.

What used to be places of recreation, study, or culture for thousands of Cubans are now ruins that evoke shame, nostalgia, and helplessness. What @ledyhr92 showcases in their video is merely one of many symbols: a country where even memories seem doomed to vanish.

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