The White Elephant: Controversial Shopping Center in Matanzas Divides Opinion

2023-06-04 16:49:41

CubitaNOW Writing ~ Sunday June 4, 2023

The newly built shopping center in Matanzas has generated a barrage of criticism on social media.

Called by the authorities Plaza Milanés and Ayllón, the place has been nicknamed by the people of Matanzas as The White Elephant.

It is a construction that is out of tune with the rest of the architecture of the historic center, where it coexists next to emblematic buildings such as the Sauto Theater.

The journalist Roberto Jesús Hernández shared a post on his social networks in which he shows his displeasure with the property and his publication has revived the debate.

Yirmara Torres, former president of the Union of Cuban Journalists (UPEC) commented on the writing, referring to the building as a “white monstrosity in MLC.”

“In the second Means to Communicate Heritage meeting that we held here in Matanzas, at the ACAA, a dear architect, who I imagine is the same one you mention, told the then vice president of the Provincial Assembly of People’s Power that there should be build something else and not what they were planning… The 325 had not yet arrived… and the white building that covers the Sauto was only on papers and wishes,” he explained.

“But the colleague’s response was that Cimex was the one who had the money to do something quickly there. The “fast” was not so fast naa… I had not written anything out of affection for the person who carried out the work as a Civil Engineer , who is my friend from Vocational and to whom I told him many times what I thought. I think the white elephant is more than an architectural monstrosity… I think it is disrespectful to everything…”, he added.

“Opening a store of these dimensions, in MLC, and locating there what is not available in any other part of the province is a sovereign lack of everything. But, well, I think that common sense disappeared here many years ago… and things are done on a whim, by politics… just because, and that’s it. Oh, Robert… so sad, but so sad. It’s the same thing that happened with the Provincial Hospital and Maternity… there are so many atrocities that already Sometimes one wonders if it is worth doing journalism for real, or if we do it, if someone is going to listen to us,” he concluded.

In 2021 the architect Universo García Lorenzo warned about the bad decision to approve that project.

“What a pity for Matanzas, for its spirit, memory and deserved pride of Athens of Cuba, that the talent of its architects, and large financial investment resources, are wasted, to build such a building almost in the heart of its iconic Historic Center. massive, graceless, without artistic respect for its exquisite patrimonial environment! What will be the legacy for the future, where has architecture been left? What has been done is almost irremediable, but it should teach us, works of such urban significance would only be the result of a contest of creative talents, of the citizen consensus”.