CubaPLUS Magazine

Many people, if not most, when they have an object or equipment that no longer works or is not useful, they simply throw it away. However, they do not know that these items, which are useless to them, are useful to others.

This is the case of a curious museum of pieces, we could say unusable, which, however, have become part of the popularly known Museum of “Tarecos”, located in the Havana neighborhood of Alamar. In Cuba, objects that are no longer useful are called “tareco”, but what many people do not know is that these knick-knacks or junk, as they are also called, contain a lot of history.

This is the case of the “Garden of Affections”, as the Museum of Tarecos of Alamar is officially called, the work of a dreamer who saw in useless objects the possibility of giving them use. In the vicinity of his modest apartment, located in the Micro X area in Alamar, East Havana, Héctor Pascual Gallo Portieles conceived a museum with objects that supposedly no longer had any use, but, nevertheless, he found a way to make them useful.

In the 1990s, Gallo, who was also a journalist and barber, began to install dissimilar items that he had accumulated during the trips he made as a representative of Cuban diplomacy. At first, he used the interior of his apartment as a gallery, which he called the Gallery of Affections and, over time, the rooms became small and he began to expand into the outside area of his building.

Gallo installed many and varied objects over the course of more than 20 years since the project began, considered as Raw Art, which defines all kinds of productions that have a spontaneous and strongly imaginative character, and which have contributed significantly to raising the culture and education of the community's residents, as well as its visitors.

Among the items that can be found, there are from small figures to objects as large as furniture, sewing machines, public telephone equipment, typewriters, and even an old and dilapidated motorcycle, many of them donated by relatives and friends. But each one has its meaning, since practically all of them are accompanied by a sign with a proverb or lesson, among them: to appreciate this work you don't have to be crazy, but that helps; love is blind: but the neighbors see, and the worst thing is that they TALK!; it is worth taking care of golden eggs, but it is better to take care of the hen that lays them.

There is no good that does not come from evil, but for my good, evil does not come and the wine that cheers the most: Wine the light! Gallo's project, created without profit motive, has been visited by countless tourists and the general population during all these years and was awarded the Tierra y Libertad /land and liberty prize/, Giraldilla de La Habana 2003 and that of the Barrio of 1998.

Deceased in May 2020, his work is currently attended by his son and one of his grandsons, José Gallo and David Gallo, respectively, who with their dedication intend to pay tribute and keep alive the spirit of who was, in life, an Illustrious Son of the town where he was born, Campo Florido, in the Cuban capital.