Leandro Soto's mural is restored. (Photo:ACN)

Cienfuegos, June 2 (RHC)--The most famous mural in the city of Cienfuegos, by visual artist Leandro Soto (Cienfuegos, Cuba, 1956-California, United States, 2022), is gradually recovering its splendor, following a capital investment in the Dionisio San Román bookstore.

Jesús Agustín Rebull Morales, painter in charge of the restoration, told the Cuban News Agency that the work, located at the central intersection of Prado and San Fernando, at the entrance of the boulevard of the city of San Fernando, was badly affected by the humidity of the wall, because the downspouts were sealed and when it rained the water accumulated inside.

He explained that first they had to open two ditches for the downspouts and change the old iron pipes for other plastic ones, actions that began in August 2022 and will allow a better conservation of the pictorial piece.

At this moment, he commented, the rehabilitation of the work, bequeathed to the city almost five decades ago, is more than 50 percent complete and after the cleaning of the pictorial layer, they are working on the retouching, in order to rescue the damaged areas.

Said mural has been the object of previous interventions ─because of the deterioration due to humidity and damages caused by some people─, for example, an occasion in which the also renowned visual creator Frank Iraola reproduced Soto's design on the columns of the bookstore, or in 2017 to place a palizada, consisting of a fence made of stakes or sticks to prevent water from coming out.

This piece is Cienfuegos: there is all the seafaring part with the area of the Jagua Castle, the fishermen's houses and the boats added later; also represented are the Martí Park, the Tomás Terry Theater, the Government headquarters and the Church, in addition to the industrial area, with the Carlos Manuel de Céspedes thermoelectric plant, Rebull Morales summarized.

For that reason, he urged the residents of the so-called Pearl of the South and those who visit it to take care of that patrimony given by Soto and that becomes a sign of the Cienfuegos culture.

Leandro Soto, a graduate of the National School of Art, has ventured into various manifestations of the visual arts, including painting, engraving, performance and scenographic design.