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There are small places in the world blessed with a particular enchantment
of its own. A case in point is the Hammel Alley, penciled in by
scholars of African religions as an energizing gateway wide open
to travelers from everywhere under the sun.
It’s just a tiny space caught in a neighborhood where an
effort of cultural rescue and expansion led by fine artist Salvador
Gonzalez has been underway for the last 12 years.
A smuggler’s alley
We’re talking about an area of Havana that got a bad name
some years ago, named after a French-German man who ran by the
moniker of Fernando Hammel. During the American Civil War, Mr.
Hammel used to smuggle weapons that sometimes washed up to Cuban
shores. In the early 20th century, Hammel settled down in Havana,
exactly in this dead-end street now bearing his name in the skid
row of Cayo Hueso in the municipality of Central Havana.
This cul-de-sac dwelt by humble people transformed itself 12
years ago the moment Salvador –as everybody calls him around
here- decided to fish it out of its ill-fated reputation and make
it a kingdom of popular culture.
The project
As recounted by young Elias Assef Alfonso –the alley’s
historian- a friend of the artist’s entrusted him to paint
an African-Cuban mural in his house, just like the one of his
now in display at Old Havana’s House of Africa Museum.
The painter sketched out his own idea and splayed a mural in
the façade of his friend’s house. From April 1990
and in coordination with the alley’s neighbors, Salvador
painted a huge religious and cultural mural that little by little
stretched throughout the entire street for 100 meters of walls
now spruced up in their best bib and tucker.
Alfonso believes “the alley is an energizing gateway, the
bearer of a hidden energy Salvador has now laid bare through his
paintings.”
Salvador has a history of his own, too. He started painting when
he was 12 and he has now churned out over 50 works out his easel,
all of them linked to African-origin religions hailing from Nigeria
and Congo that grew roots in Cuba during the shackled migration
of black slaves.
His works are also displayed in such countries as Norway, Sweden,
Denmark, the United States and Venezuela.
Despite the fact that Salvador is the author of a couple of murals
in Philadelphia, one in New York and another in Norway, the one
he created for the Hammel’s Alley is the most significant
work having the greatest impact in those travelers from all over
the globe who come here to feast their eyes on his masterpiece.
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