Eusebio, how have you managed it?

January 25, 2020

It was around 1979. Eusebio Leal was leaning against the southeast wall of the Palace of the Captains General in Old Havana looking toward the sky. The weather was sunny, there was no threat of rain but Eusebio always looks upward like someone seeking some kind of inspiration. Never, in all these years have I discussed this curious detail with him.

Norma and I were walking through the plaza when we spotted him. Eusebio was, according to his friend García Márquez, a being who levitated without realizing it because it didn't interest him. Back then his concerns were two things: teaching and restoring. And teaching was what we both encountered when we greeted him. "Are you students?". Of course. "That's good….". The phrase hung in the air and since I was a fanatic of the program "Andar La Habana" it didn't occur to me to do anything more than ask him where those stones came from that he was leaning against. Something had to be asked, I say.

What followed was a Great Hall lecture. He explained that many came from quarries on the island, others from Spain, some marbles from Europe but, most importantly, that the stone cutters also crossed the Atlantic. I don't remember his exact words, he said something like it was a monumental work that didn't stay at the Palace of the Captains General but rather encompassed countless other palaces and mansions erected in a carefully designed symmetry that ended up establishing an architectural style that determined the future of the city. I also remember that he added that the architects had the foresight to adapt European designs to the characteristics of the country, building tall supports to cool the environment.

And he added something that would mark his life from that moment on: "Now we have to rebuild all of this. It is our task".

I won't say it was a premonition, because rebuilding Havana was an old social aspiration, but I remember questioning myself how he would manage to achieve it.

Cuba was at that time engaged in other no less important tasks. Economic development, social welfare, fights with the United States and political reorganization. I remember asking myself how he would manage to convince the olive-green establishment, with so many other concerns, of the task that needed to be undertaken. And he set to work.

The first thing was to design the reconstruction plan, then the recovery of facades and interiors, then establish the reconstruction schedule and then came the most difficult part: obtaining the necessary funds. The country didn't have enough, they had to be obtained elsewhere. With an merciless economic embargo Europe seemed the only viable option. But for that he needed great institutional support. This is where a protagonist comes in who has remained in the shadows and should be remembered: Alfredo Guevara.

Guevara had connections with UNESCO that he had developed since 1968 and, between the two of them, it occurred to them to knock on that door and begin to lobby. Difficult efforts but which from the start had the help of two basic pillars of the cultural entity of the United Nations, France and Spain. They began by explaining to them the importance of that heritage in the middle of the Caribbean that had nothing to envy from other cities in the region, that there was no way to accomplish the task without some kind of stimulus that would "awaken" more interest. It is thus, in silence and with great tact that in 1982 they managed to have UNESCO declare Old Havana a World Heritage Site, and the floodgates opened.

The Cuban capital began to receive funds little by little from European governments, some even without particular sympathies toward the island's government, which allowed what is now visible to all, a greatly renovated Old Havana.

But what struck me most was Eusebio's enthusiasm that never surrendered to discouragement and another work that also has an invaluable value that should be rescued, his television programs, "Andar La Habana".

Each broadcast was a true masterclass. It was the way for the population to understand the magnitude of the work and its necessity but also an educational complement for Havanans about the reality that surrounded them. Generations of Cubans learned details about their surroundings that many of us would have overlooked. I don't claim to have watched them all, but I remember one he did about the fountains of Old Havana that I had never heard anyone talk about and, much less, had I ever noticed them.

With "Andar La Habana", a name that invited you to walk and see it up close, each new step of mine through Old Havana was no longer the same as the one before.

I learned a lot from that program, well filmed, written and presented. They were masterclasses, I repeat. And now, remembered with nostalgia I realize that with it Eusebio created an entire legion of specialists in restoration and reconstruction, people who loved history.

I'm beginning to understand, Eusebio, how you managed it, teacher. Definitely, one should not give in to difficulties. Some may be very hard on us but the truth is that Eusebio they made into a giant.