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40 | the <strong>Alamar</strong> travel guide<br />
Fig. 3.24: The Cultural Centre, a low heavy turqoise building situated in the preassumed city<br />
centre which was never fully realised.<br />
social issues which Cuba is facing these years.<br />
Nevertheless, they stand together as a perfect<br />
time capsule of a Cuban culture of the 1970s and<br />
1980s as well as an <strong>Alamar</strong>ian identity.<br />
Fig. 3.25: Inside the Cultural Centre which<br />
is in the process of renovation. Notice<br />
also the prefabricated Giron construction<br />
elements.<br />
Infobox<br />
Right next to the Cultural Centre you<br />
find the small Tina Modotti Library.<br />
This yellow low building was built in<br />
2001 as a reconstruction of its former<br />
building of 1973, and named in honour of<br />
Tina Modotti, an Italian photographer<br />
and key figure in Julio Antonio Mella’s<br />
murder of 1929: as the only witness<br />
of the assassination of a founder of<br />
the internationalized Cuban Communist<br />
Party, Tina Modotti was involved in<br />
the following investigations and the<br />
Mexican government tried to implicate<br />
her in the murder; however, the<br />
official position of the present Cuban<br />
government was that Mella was killed<br />
at Gerardo Machado’s orders (Cuban<br />
president), while admitting that Tina<br />
Modotti was a Stalinist operative who<br />
operated in a number of countries.(See<br />
fig. 3.11)<br />
Culture and communal projects<br />
The influence that the Soviet Union had on<br />
Cuba’s political sphere was clearly materialized<br />
in the changing of the built environment of<br />
<strong>Alamar</strong> and the construction of the Cultural<br />
Centre in particular (see fig. 3.24). The Soviet<br />
collaboration made the implementation of the<br />
projects possible within a period of 4 years,<br />
from 1982 until 1986. Designed with a focus on<br />
public realm, the new Cultural Centre aimed<br />
the fulfilment of community needs for art.<br />
Dancing, theatre, acting and plastic arts such as<br />
painting and sculpture predominate. Giving the<br />
increasing need for extra facilities, the buildings<br />
are currently under renovation with some more<br />
rooms for rehearsal purposes being added<br />
(see fig. 3.25). Additionally, the old storage<br />
will be demolished and a relatively big theatre<br />
will be constructed in its location. Moreover,<br />
the interest of the community of <strong>Alamar</strong> for<br />
having internet access has been considered<br />
and a specialized room completed with public
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