Wall in La Bodeguita del Medio bar graffiti in Havana Cuba | Wall Art

A Wall That Never Stops Speaking – Havana’s Layered Time Capsule

A close-up, vibrant, colourful photograph of the graffiti-covered wall inside La Bodeguita del Medio, one of Havana’s most legendary bars. The layers of names, drawings, and scrawled notes overlap across years of visitors, creating a tactile surface of collective memory. Captured by Dan Kosmayer during a walk through Havana’s historic core.

La Bodeguita del Medio isn’t just a bar—it’s a ritual. Hemingway supposedly drank his mojitos here, but for me, it wasn’t the drinks that stuck with me. It was this wall. Layered, chaotic, alive. Graffiti piled on graffiti, names over names, ink scratched into paint scratched into plaster. A living canvas that refuses to be finished.

This isn’t the kind of street art you see in polished cities. It’s raw and defiant, personal and uncurated. I stood there for a long time with the camera, waiting for the light to catch just enough of the surface to reveal how deep the wall really goes. You can see years of stories written one atop another—tourists and locals both trying to leave something behind, even if it’s just a name in a sea of others.

The atmosphere inside La Bodeguita is hot, tight, and full of noise—music bouncing off the tile, sweat in the air, old rum behind the bar. But this wall? It’s strangely still. It holds that energy without having to say a word. Capturing it in black and white strips away the distractions and leaves you with nothing but texture and truth.

Hang this piece where conversations happen. Above a bar cart, in a hallway, beside your vinyl collection—anywhere that welcomes the loud and the layered. This isn’t clean or polite wall art. It’s messy and human, and that’s exactly why it matters.

If Havana has a soul, it’s written all over this wall.

For more real moments like this from across the island, explore my Cuba Photography Collection—a visual archive of weathered beauty, bold textures, and lived history.

Each print is signed by hand. I don’t farm out the printing, and I don’t use AI. What you’re getting is the actual shot, captured by me, printed by me, signed by me. No shortcuts.

If walls could talk, this one would shout—loud, layered, and unapologetic. See more stories like this in my Graffiti Wall Art Collection, where every mark carries a voice.

© Dan Kosmayer, 2017