John Lennon - The Image That Made Me Weep

  by Lisa Torem

published: 7 / 4 / 2021

intro

In 'The Image That Made Me Weep, Lisa Torem writes of a life-sized statue of John Lennon that she discovered while visiting Havana.

Parque Menocal was not on the Havana itinerary, so when I heard that a life-sized statue of John Lennon sat there I meekly asked the driver (in my miserable broken Spanish) to circle past the site. The other passengers were disinterested. I bargained for a three-minute hiatus. Miraculously, brakes wheezed to a halt. I liberated myself from the sweltering vehicle. Lennon’s music had been banned in the 1960s and 1970s until Fidel Castro had a change of heart upon hearing the lyrics to ‘imagine,’ so to mark the twenty-year anniversary of the songwriter’s death, the bronze beauty was finally unveiled. I figured I’d be beset by throngs of tourists. This was JOHN LENNON, people. But after hurriedly pulling out my camera, all I saw was a bored caretaker, whose nine-to-five was to take off and replace the statue’s spectacles each time a photo was taken. Apparently, the spectacles caused more ruckus than the statue itself; several pairs had already been pilfered. Having never properly grieved, I felt alone and homesick. I snapped a shot and watched the specs slide down the bronze beauty’s nose. Imagine.

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