Across the waters of Havana Bay, Regla has a natural charm that is being further enhanced, with a renewed face and spirit, as a result of transformations underway in its streets.
You have to see it to appreciate firsthand what is being done, which is a great deal, with great effort: the physical changes are being made with exquisite taste and the social changes - the first launched by authorities in the municipality – were designed to resolve longstanding problems and meet the expectations of families.
By mid-morning yesterday, Party First Secretary and President of the Republic Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, had arrived in the municipality of Regla, to take a close look at how restoration and new public works are progressing, to learn in detail how the population is finding ways to address their concerns as social beings.
In the town’s historic center, the President first visited a neighborhood game room and then the Regla Cinema-theater, where the first secretary of the Communist Party in the municipality, Zulia Muñoz González, presented a report on changes that have been made based on a very careful diagnosis of the population’s characteristics. Moments before, in the same theater, this reporter heard Mayor Karenia Marrero Arrechea, an educator by profession, who, with the patience of a classroom teacher, described 20 restoration projects in the historic center, 11 of which are still in the planning stage, although the goal is to begin work soon.
The President's continued his tour, including stops at renovated facilities described in the meeting. Amidst the people welcoming him with affection and and revolutionary chants, the President visited the La Marina ice cream parlor, the El Tropical cafeteria, the Prodal gastronomic complex, the Tres cruces cafeteria, the Velo-Cuba project (where bicycles can be rented), a neighborhood medical post and grocery store. All the work was done with excellent taste,, he noted, adding, "Now we have to maintain this… show that we can make things sustainable, and even improve them."
The President continued along José Martí Street, toward the bay; and amid the clamor of the people, he visited the Julio Antonio Mella High School, the bakery-sweetshop, the stone building of high ceilings that will soon be the House of Culture, the municipal library, where he inquired about a piano there, dating from the nineteenth century, and the Cuban encyclopedia A Thousand Questions, A Thousand Answers.
"This is tremendous, look at him walking the streets of Regla," one resident exclaimed; and then a small woman approached the President to throw her arms around his neck, as his face broke into a grin. They had shared a mission together in Nicaragua years ago.
As he continued down the street, someone shouted, “Díaz-Canel, we believe in you!” And he responded, “And I in you!”
