By Gary Raynaldo DIPLOMATIC TIMES

HAVANA – Cubans seem to be able to hold on to old things and find new use for them while most of us in the First World would consider them junk and toss them into the dustbin of history. The best known example of this is how Cubans have managed to salvage old vintage American cars from the 1950s, keep them running like new, and make loads of money converting them into taxis to ferry tourists around the Island. A less known example is the Parque José Marti sports stadium in Havana. On a recent visit to Cuba, I was walkng near the majestic Malecón seafront when I came upon the Parque sports arena. I didn’t know what to make of it at first.The crumbling, graffiti-scrawled stadium is in such a state of disrepair and advanced deterioration, it looks like a relic from the Roman Empire. It is an outdoor athletic complex that was originally devised and developed in 1940 under the Fulgencio Batista government.

The sports complex was conceived for the younger generation of Cubans to reflect the optimisim and hope of Cuba during the forties and fifties. After Fidel Castro came to power in 1959, the new socialist government tapped architect Octavia Buigas to design the majestic grandstand.

Cuba would go on to build other, larger sports stadiums, such as the Estadio Panamericano that hosted the 1991 Pan American Games. Meanwhile, Parque José Marti was mostly forgotten and neglected. And since it is a coastal sports complex, the salinity in the air from the Ocean across the street penetrates the concrete and causes corrosion of the reinforced steel bars.

Cubans continue to train, exercise, play soccer with passion in the crumbling sports complex