They inaugurate Titón and Mirtha Ibarra's house in the Habanero neighborhood of San Isidro

February 28, 2021

Since December 11th, the Office of the Historian of the City of Havana has a new space dedicated to cinema. It is the House of Titón and Mirtha, at the corner of Paula and Cuba streets, in the San Isidro neighborhood of Old Havana.

The opening date coincided with the anniversary of Tomás Gutiérrez Alea (Titón), Director and Screenwriter, one of the most outstanding filmmakers in the history of Cuban and Latin American cinema. To place at the service of the community all bibliographic and audiovisual materials related to Tomás Gutiérrez-Alea is the purpose of the House of Titón and Mirtha, a new cultural center that opened its doors this Friday in the San Isidro neighborhood, just on the birthday of one of Cuba's main film directors.

This was highlighted by the actress herself and widow of Gutiérrez-Alea, Mirtha Ibarra, when announcing that the House will promote cultural exchange through film screenings for children, adolescents, and adults in the community.

Debates, discussions, and courses related to film research and criticism will take place in this space created under the auspices of the Office of the Historian of the City (OHC), with the collaboration of international institutions and non-governmental organizations.

The actress paid tribute in her words of thanks to the recently deceased City Historian Eusebio Leal Spengler, who embraced the idea of the cultural project "to make my dream come true," she expressed.

He was like a hurricane, but instead of destroying, he was building as he went, she said.

The premises located on Leonor Pérez street, or Paula, number 102, was an old carpentry shop in a deplorable state, as Ibarra narrated, now a beautiful place. "because everything Eusebio found in ruins, he converted into castles."

The House is born in alliance also with the Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry (Icaic), the International Film School of San Antonio de los Baños, and the Cinemateca of Cuba, with the prospect of carrying out special cycles, courses, and workshops for national artists, film directors, photographers, editors, and other disciplines related to the seventh art.

The realization of film-debates with works that arouse interest in the population and the connection of cinema and audiovisual with other artistic manifestations such as literature, theater, visual arts, and architecture, will also be part of its cultural work.

Michael González, director of Cultural Heritage of the OHC, highlighted the community-centered approach of the center, based on differentiated work by age groups, to also include the actors of the neighborhood, already converted into activists of the center.

Participants in the inauguration included the president of Icaic, Ramón Samada, filmmaker Fernando Pérez, actor Jorge Perugorría, critic Luciano Castillo, among other personalities in art and culture.

This was one of the last works in which the City Historian put his effort, and thus it was recognized by those attending the event. "I regret being the one to cut that ribbon at the entrance, as it should have been done by our Eusebio Leal, that maker of dreams," expressed in her inauguration remarks actress and filmmaker Mirtha Ibarra.

"A special being where so many qualities came together: his sensitivity, his humanism, his culture and erudition, accompanied by a privileged memory; and a strength and courage like a hurricane that instead of destroying was building as it went," highlighted the widow and executor of Titón's work.