A content creator from Cuba documented in two videos on Facebook the stark contrast that exists today in Tarará, the coastal neighborhood located 27 kilometers from Havana, where one part of the area is falling apart, featuring dilapidated houses, pools with stagnant water, and closed services, while just a few minutes' walk away, there is a section of well-kept homes facing the sea, solar panels, and luxury cars.
Tarará was built in the 1940s by The Tarará Land Company with American capital as a private luxury development featuring a marina, church, and restaurants, and it came to be regarded as the first gated community in Latin America.
After the Revolution of 1959, all its properties were expropriated and the site underwent successive uses imposed by the State, from Ciudad de Estudiantes (1959-1975), Ciudad de Pioneros José Martí (1975-1990), a sanatorium for children affected by Chernobyl during the 90s and up until 2004, and the headquarters of Operation Miracle for Latin American ophthalmology patients funded by Venezuela starting in that same year.
It was also there where Che coordinated the Agrarian Reform from a house at the corner of 14th and 17th Streets, while recovering from a lung illness in 1959.
Today, most of its 520 Art Deco-style houses remain abandoned. The schools, the children's center, the theater, and the polyclinic have been closed for years. "There was life here, but all of that is now forgotten. They closed everything several years ago," laments the creator in her videos, in an image that the abandoned houses of Tarará have been repeating for at least a decade.
The deterioration documented by Sisi Aguilera is not new. Tarará with destroyed houses and dirty beaches was already a reality reported in 2021, when rental prices were also unaffordable for most Cubans. What stands out more in the recent videos is the striking contrast: the complete abandonment of the historic residential area compared to a coastal strip where maintenance is evident, high-end vehicles are present, and there is a stable electricity supply.
Meanwhile, the collapse of tourism in Cuba with 24,000 fewer travelers in January 2026 raises doubts about the profitability of maintaining these privileged areas at the expense of neglecting the rest.
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