The Knight of Paris, the most Cuban Galician who eternalized Havana

August 20, 2018

In a recently published article in the newspaper Granma, Dr. Eusebio Leal Spengler, known as "the historian of Havana", described that ragged man who wandered about with the bearing of a gentleman as "gallant and elegant, an unusual character".

That Spaniard who dressed in black, with hair so long and tangled that it was impossible to untangle his locks, answered to the name of José María López Lledín, and had been born in the Galician town of Fonsagrada, one day before the year 1899 came to an end.

"Wrapped in the tatters of a black cape —Leal recalls—, with long hair that fell like curls over his shoulders, with a blazing gaze and an aquiline profile; he carried newspapers and magazines in his hands, and a bunch of ferns".

Among the many legends that are woven around López Lledín, it is known that he emigrated to Cuba at 14 years of age together with three of his brothers, in 1913, aboard the German steamship Chemnitz, trying to seek to improve the family's economic situation.

Havana opened its doors to him and that adolescent, educated and well-mannered, jovial, cultured and lover of poetry, found employment in several hotels in the city, among them the Hotel Telégrafo, the Manhattan and the Sevilla, until an event that history has not been able to pinpoint with exactitude changed the course of his life.

There are many and varied versions about what really caused the young Galician López Lledín to end up in jail in 1920, among them the theft of lottery tickets, suspicion of a murder, a robbery in a bodega, the theft of jewels, and even passionate jealousy from an employer.
It was never known what really happened although almost no one doubts the innocence of this mythical character.

Released for lack of evidence, but with a mental illness as a consequence of his years in prison, the Galician López Lledín began a pilgrimage through the city that lasted more than 50 years, choosing doorways and busy street corners as a space to sleep and –perhaps without intending to- bring joy to several generations of Cubans.

He never asked for alms, he bothered no one, quite the opposite.

In his permanent load of old magazines and newspapers, which he used to cover himself from the cold and humidity of the night, the vagrant carried flowers, candy and whatever could serve him to give to the children.

"No Havanan would have offended in word or deed the Knight of Paris —assures Dr. Eusebio Leal—, admired in silence, nor would any child hurl a harsh word at him; he bothered no one, we could not explain ourselves where he ate or drank, and, in his apparent wandering through the capital, it was likely to find him in some secluded place where he hid his bed arranged with scraps of papers and cardboard, inseparably attached to his unusual library".

The nickname Knight of Paris is also not known with exactitude where it comes from; some believe that the people baptized him in that manner because of his extravagant way of dressing —black clothes, he wore a cape of the same color and a cane—; others think that it is due to the stories of royal courts, pirates, corsairs and knights errant that he always told as he passed by; while some claim that a humorous weekly newspaper named him in that manner.

What is certain is that few knew his real name and for everyone he was simply El Caballero de París, immortalized by musical authors, painters and poets who cite him as an indisputable reference of Havana.

In 1977, at 78 years of age, his deplorable physical condition and the deterioration of his health led authorities to decide to admit him to the Psychiatric Hospital of Havana in Mazorra, despite the fact that for many years López Lledín refused to receive care from either family or friends.

According to information gathered from the book "I Am the Knight of Paris", written by Dr. Luis Calzadilla, a psychiatrist who treated him in his final years of life, López Lledín suffered from a disease called paraphrenia, considered by some specialists as a form of schizophrenia.

In the book, Dr. Calzadilla recounts that at the hospital they provided him with clean clothes, even a black suit as he used to wear, and he was subjected to physical, laboratory and psychological examinations, creating for him an environment where he could live out his fantasies, but under medical supervision, given his advanced age.

At 86 years old, and away from the streets that accompanied him almost his entire life, José María López Lledín, the Knight of Paris, closed his eyes forever on July 11, 1985, to remain alive in the memory of all Cubans for eternities, and his mortal remains rest in the convent of San Francisco de Asís, just steps from the dock where the ship that brought him from Spain docked seeking better horizons in this Havana that does not forget him, on the verge of celebrating 500 years since its founding.