The Alaska was also a big brothel, a favorite among gays who used to look for clients at the Yara cinema or the FIAT 1. My aunt rented out a room, not for some girls from the provinces who were illegal in Havana to use for their work, but for them to sleep. Five of them used to share a bed, although there were never more than two or three of them sleeping at a time. In the early morning one day, another one of the girls woke me up and she was very nervous.
These girls used to change their clothes in front of me all the time like it was the most natural thing in the world, but we never had sex.
Back then, the Battle of Ideas 2 was just starting and Fidel used to regularly go to the TV Round Table on ICRT 3 , just opposite Alaska, which meant that security was deployed throughout the building, a guard for every apartment that had a view of the ICRT, plus on roof terraces and at entrances.
The displaced families were relocated to shelters. As this all happened quite suddenly, and no planning was involved, people were waiting on the street for them to get their furniture and other belongings back which were then stored at the Capri Hotel, which was undergoing renovation work at the time.
She only sees the soccer player on TV now. Physically, she has changed a great deal, she has aged awfully, she has a small scar on her cheek and a larger one on her forearm. She told me that she was a nurse and that she has a girlfriend. She says that when everyone was evicted out of the Alaska building, she was stumbling around, that she even went back to her province for a while, but that her family was living in poverty after she stopped sending money back from Havana.
