Jad Abumrad / Chad (Radiolab host; primarily Jad Abumrad)

So I went there to visit the last two rockers that still remain in the place, Gerson Gobea and his wife, Yohandra.

And they're kind of like the keepers of all that went down in there, the memories.

So I spent a couple of days with them, and they walked me around.

And it's full of these little housing units.

And you're saying this place was idyllic even back then?

Yeah.

Gerson and Johan are walking me through it, and they're like, okay, so we would be walking around here 10 years ago, and Nirvana would be coming out of here.

Metallica would be coming out of the next house.

Ciril C. Zeppelin.

No kidding.

Yeah, so it was like a headbanger's ball in Pinar del Rio, you know?

Wait, but why?

I mean, how come they were able to have that freedom in the sanatorium but not outside?

Initially, the sanitarium system was under the military, and it was...

more of a gulag.

But in the late 80s, early 90s, the sanitariums went from the military being in charge to the Ministry of Health and Medicine.

And these were, by all accounts, very progressive doctors, very concerned about their patients.

They gave them all the food and medicine they needed.

And they were like, you want to rock out?

Go ahead.