A video lasting just 20 seconds, published by the account Holguín Memories on Facebook and TikTok, has sparked an outpouring of pain and indignation among Cubans both on the island and abroad: the images depict the current state of the Ateneo Deportivo de Holguín —formally known as Combinado Deportivo Fernando de Dios Buñuel— turned into a field of weeds, fallen poles, missing fences, and pools filled with stagnant water.
«This is what the Holguín Sports Ateneo looks like. Complete neglect and without a perimeter fence that separated the swimming pools from the baseball and soccer fields. Every day, we lose a little more of what we remember about Holguín,» the account wrote in the video's description, which accumulated over 40,000 views, 1,129 likes, and 194 comments on Facebook.
The facility was for decades one of the most iconic sports and educational centers in the province. It operated as a semi-boarding primary school—complete with snacks, lunch, and a nap—and trained athletes in swimming, water polo, diving, synchronized swimming, triathlon, chess, judo, athletics, and soccer. It featured a 25-meter pool, an Olympic-size pool, an athletics track, bleachers, a baseball field, and a soccer field.
The comments on the video are a collective portrait of grief. Dozens of people recognize the place as their primary school or training pool: "It hurts so much to see my primary school destroyed like this. Where I practiced swimming, chess, and judo... if my teacher Narciso and my teacher Nancy saw this, they would die again," wrote one user.
Another person said: "I studied in Primary there, in Preschool, I was in Swimming in 1st grade; it was in that pool that I took my first swims. It was the best school in Holguín, with snacks, lunch, and even a nap included. It's incredible how things deteriorate instead of improving, instead of progressing."
Several commentators are denouncing systematic thefts: "They've stolen everything, all the plumbing fixtures from the pool, which is now filled with garbage and water that breeds mosquitoes. There's no longer a pool where you can train for swimming, water polo, or diving," one noted. Others point out that the tiles from the pools, the soccer goals, and the perimeter fences have also vanished. A resident of the area confirmed: "I live here, and it's exactly as reported."
The consensus among those who commented is that the decline is not related to the U.S. embargo, but to the neglect of the Cuban state: "It's not the blockade that destroyed the facility; it's institutional abandonment, the lack of care. Look, they always blame the population and the blockade, but never the misgovernment that abandoned everything," wrote another user.
The decline of the Ateneo began after Hurricane Ike passed through in September 2008. Repairs took seven years and were only partial. In 2015, specialists from the tunera company Ludema installed a new sports floor and participated in recovery work on the facility. According to a report at the time from the Holguin sports blog Panoramaganador, the reconstruction was valued at around 375,000 pesos in national currency and 58,000 convertible pesos.
In March 2024, the pool had already become a breeding ground for mosquitoes linked to dengue outbreaks in the area, according to complaints from residents on Avenida Capitán Urbino.
The case of the Ateneo is not an isolated incident. In recent weeks, Holguín has experienced a series of collapses: part of the roof of the Ismaelillo theater collapsed on May 20, the sculpture "Woman with Parasol" in the pedestrian boulevard collapsed on May 16, the children's park Los Caballitos was demolished without replacement and has turned into a dump, and the old Holguín-Gibara railway station was described in April as a debris dump.
"Nostalgia, sadness, anger, helplessness, what a way to destroy my city, my neighborhood, WORDLESS," summarized one of the comments on the video, capturing the feelings of a generation witnessing the places where they grew up vanish before their eyes.
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