The site that housed the amusement park Los Caballitos, one of the most beloved recreational spaces in Holguín, has turned into an improvised landfill, as shown in a video posted on Facebook by content creator Ghabriel Pérez this Saturday.
The 29-second clip shows a vast wasteland behind the arches that bordered the old park, with trash piled up and young people wandering among the debris.
"Behind these arches lies a vast barren lot that is gradually turning into a dumping ground. Only the trees from that era remain," Pérez stated in the video.
The park featured carousel horses, boats, birdcages, and a central spinning star that was immortalized by the Holguin writer Reinaldo Arenas (1943-1990) in his novel The Palace of the Blinding Skunks (1975), where he describes a fair with "the spinning star, the flying chair, the meteor, the lock, the tíbiri-tábara, the love plane, and the shooting gallery."
The park, designed in Art Deco architecture and located very near the emblematic Loma de la Cruz, was demolished around 2023-2024 without the authorities providing any replacement or rehabilitation plans for the space.
The citizens' reaction in the comments blends nostalgia with indignation. "It was beautiful, I had so much fun as a child, I loved riding the boats and carousel horses, and even eating cotton candy. My daughter enjoyed it too, what we were and what we are, words fail," wrote Jasyes Azna.
Other neighbors point directly to government neglect. "I can't believe the merry-go-rounds don't exist; where is the government's effort, where is the concern for the well-being and enjoyment of the children?" questioned Olga L. Núñez Fortes.
Alexis Cruz summed up the collective feeling. "Once upon a time, there was the Los Caballitos park, how many generations had fun in that beautiful place... the pride of Holguin children turned into a large dump, it is painful and outrageous where we have ended up," he lamented.
"All of Cuba has been reduced to rubble, undeniable remnants of the worst bombardment, which for more than 66 years has been destroying and taking our lives," wrote Giselle De La Rosa Vega in the comments.
The case fits into a pattern of accelerated decline affecting the area known as the Cuban City of Parks.
In recent weeks, dumpsters have been burning every night in residential neighborhoods, producing toxic smoke from plastics and hazardous waste.
Additionally, the sword from the statue of the hero Julio Grave de Peralta was recently stolen from its location in the Parque de las Flores, and the old Holguín-Gibara railway station, established in 1893, has become a dumping ground for debris.
The sculptural heritage is not spared either. The iconic figure of the woman with the parasol on the pedestrian boulevard shows deep cracks and exposed rusty rebar, on the brink of collapse.
Holguín, regarded for decades as one of the cleanest cities in Cuba, is now facing a series of abandonments that its own residents describe as irreversible.
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