A beautiful project that rescues the history that unites Cuba with the American city of Tampa, bears its first fruits today after the inauguration of the (José) Martí building, which follows in the footsteps of the National Hero here.

The ceremony included a special moment: the presentation of the Cuban children's theater group La Colmenita, visiting the United States until October 3.

The children under the direction of Carlos Alberto 'Tin' Cremata met again with a city that had already opened its arms to them in 2013, and on this occasion they gave the attendees two pieces from their repertoire last night: one dedicated, precisely, to Martí and the Beatles’s Cinderella.

The Martí is a four-story building located in Ybor City, the old part of the city, where a group of real estate developers took an interest in preservation.

“We cannot run the risk that future generations may forget,” Ariel Quintela, a Cuban living in Tampa who has lived in this country since he was four years old, expressed in dialogue with Prensa Latina and who has always, as he said, “felt close to my island.”

According to what they say, the president of Ariel Home is the mind behind this collective project of which he feels proud, because “these buildings are like a painting with many colors, not only is the name given to the property, it is that when you see it Inside it is like reading a book about Martí,” he commented.

For example, Martí's Simple Verses are documented. There is one on each door of the 127 apartments and in the living rooms there are descriptions of Martí's 21 visits to Tampa starting in 1891 or literary figures that the Apostle brought to life in his works such as La Bailarina Española and Pilar with her pink shoes

Ybor City was decommercialized about two decades ago and part of the idea of ??the group of developers was to make people return to live in this city in the state of Florida, commented Vicente Amor, also a Cuban living in Tampa who boasts the last name in this thing about building bridges.

Amor explained that from the beginning they knew that it was “a real estate project, noble and good because it rescued places that were interesting, but when they began to survey the places it was found that there was an impressive, unique historical wealth, and also linked directly with Cuba.”

We took on the task of making that history relevant and putting it on the walls of the buildings, so that people not only had a space to live, but also to reflect and draw lessons from life and that has resulted in an extraordinary idea, with added value, he added.

“That for us has been an extraordinary enjoyment, it is one of those good coincidences that happen in life from time to time and that turn out to be fabulous, to be magical and this is one of them,” emphasized the president of the ASC International USA LLC agency.

The members of La Colmenita - UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador - travel this Saturday to New York and then to Washington DC, the last stop on their tour. "We came to represent Cuban children, a healthy and cultured childhood," said Tin Cremata in recent statements to this news agency.