A video posted on Facebook by Evelio Valdes sparked a wave of nostalgia among Cubans by showing images of two iconic places in the Havana Vedado: the café El Carmelo and the Teatro Auditorium Amadeo Roldán.
The post asked followers if they remembered the names of those two establishments, and the response was overwhelming, with comments recalling the ham and cheese snacks at 1.20 pesos, malts, sandwiches, and the nights of shows that lasted late into the evening at the café.
According to internet users' memories, there were two branches of El Carmelo in Havana: one on 23rd Street, next to the Riviera cinema, and another on Calzada, in front of the old Auditorium Amadeo Roldán Theater.
"That Carmelo, in its portals, was a café with a variety of sandwiches and snacks, pastries, milkshakes, soft drinks, malt, and it had an air-conditioned lounge with a different menu and a bar with cocktails, beers, and wines," users recalled, who also reminisced about other legendary establishments in Havana such as La Roca, El Cochinito, El Mandarín, and Moscú.
The Amadeo Roldán Auditorium Theater, which appears in the video images, was reopened on April 10, 1999, after nearly 25 years of closure, although its condition would deteriorate again over time.
In recent years, the vegetation has taken over the theater building, turning it into a haunting image of neglect that stands in painful contrast to the memories of splendor that Cubans hold of that place.
The situation did not improve. There was a new fire in the building, which once again placed the theater at the center of attention and concern for those who remember it as one of the major cultural venues in Havana.
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