Eutimio Falla Bonet

A multimillionaire from Villa Clara who amassed an important fortune and later dedicated himself to philanthropy, financing the remodeling of monuments and temples especially in Villa Clara. He was a historian-restorer, lover of architecture especially that which rescues the Medieval period, of Spanish descent from the region of Castilla. He was a member of one of the richest families in Cuba in the first half of the twentieth century.

He was born in 1905, at the Andreita sugar mill in the current province of Cienfuegos, surviving his three male siblings who could not get past childhood.

Raised and educated in an atmosphere of sober and refined elegance, in respect for family and in evangelical teachings. He learned from his parents and sisters the love of God and his fellow man, to feel others' pain as his own and to give everything for his neighbor. In 1915 his family moved to Havana with the objective of enabling his children to complete their studies and education, integrating them into society, combining this with the refinement of a fine elegance influenced by French customs that were practiced at that time in family circles.

Eutimio rejected the granting of a noble title of marquis requested from the King of Spain by Spanish organizations on the island and delved into the study and tracking of his genealogical tree of Cuban origin, based on the union of Spaniard with Cuban woman that through the maternal line takes him back to the seventeenth century, always supported by the existence of documents that reflect the strictest veracity and personality of each of his Cuban ancestors.

This thirst for genealogical research leads him to visit the vast majority of towns in Villa Clara, until arriving in Santa Clara where he discovers his connection to the families from Remedios, who a distant day in the sixteenth century emigrated and founded the city. His decision to move to the city of Remedios does not take long, where he begins to show his love for that land, investigating the history of the town from its very beginnings, the prominent families that populated it and their current descendants as well as the architecture of their homes and their religious temples, where Catholic faith has taken such deep root in the inhabitants.

A man of vast culture, clear intelligence and keen perception for ancient art expressed in the city's constructions. He was not a man of the church but he loved God and his Country, honoring both with the work of his life. During his fruitful existence he taught Cubans social duties, fraternity and love for one's neighbor. He taught us to practice charity as a divine mandate. He showed us that one can possess riches, but that they are worth nothing if not shared.

Falla Bonet's philanthropic work began from a very young age, practicing public charity expressed not only in his social work but in his daily attitude toward the destitute, the poor, the needy; his charitable hand would provide economic aid, helping not only friends but also strangers, many of whom never knew who their benefactor was, because he never proclaimed it nor boasted of his generosity. For this he had the unconditional support of his mother María Dolores and especially his sister María Teresa which allowed him to carry out all his work.

The parish church of Nuestra Señora del Carmen in the city of Santa Clara was also favored by the humanitarian and charitable work of Eutimio, who in the 1950s economically sponsored the remodeling of the building that housed the church, the atrium that surrounds the front and sides of the chapel was added and doors and windows were renovated.

In 1943 the millionaire Eutimio Falla Bonet arrived in Remedios in search of the baptismal records of his ancestors and upon finding them he wanted to invest in the church of his ancestors, thus carrying out a historical architectural study of the property that led him to direct the restoration toward the eighteenth-century model (the era of greatest artistic splendor).

The restoration began on May 2, 1944 and ended on March 22, 1954 in which the ceilings were rediscovered and the decoration restored. He restored the floors of chaplaincy flagstones and the choir steps. He removed the iron railings and placed turned wood. He replaced the holy water fonts. He restored the square columns. The convent was eliminated. The parish house was rebuilt following the style of another house in the locality (two stories, high balconies and windows). The curved lines were restored to the facade.

Young Cuba was an organization founded by revolutionary leader Antonio Guiteras Holmes in May 1934. The organization aimed to overthrow the Batista - Caffery - Mendieta government through armed struggle. With the objective of raising funds that would serve to finance the training of Young Cuba revolutionaries in Mexico, the organization accepted the 30,000 pesos that had been seized in Santiago de Cuba from The First National City Bank by the organization member Miguel Muñoa Selva, but much more was needed to pay off the debt incurred with General Lázaro Cárdenas, who had offered himself as guarantor in the purchase of the weapons and ships.

Guiteras then proposed to the Central Executive Committee to kidnap a millionaire and demand ransom, an action that the leadership agreed with. The victim chosen was Eutimio Falla Bonet, who those days had just collected 600,000 dollars in insurance for the fire at the Papelera Cubana.

The kidnapping was successful and the money was taken out of the country in several shipments. With the funds secured, Guiteras began to look for a way to take the most important cadres of Young Cuba out of the country. Finally he decided on the yacht Amalia and planned to leave for abroad via El Morrillo, Matanzas.

The maximum leader of Young Cuba, Antonio Guiteras, died fighting the forces of the army at El Morrillo after the expedition was betrayed by Captain Carmelo González Arias who had been commissioned to guarantee the departure of the revolutionaries.

Madrid, November 23, 1965, in the hotel Palase, the death occurred of a man whom destiny had led to die outside his homeland, far from his work, far from all that one day constituted his life, forgotten by many to whom one day, now distant in time, he gave his solidarity and fraternal aid, without demanding anything in return, with only the desire and hope of doing good, of helping his neighbor and of loving him as himself.