Havana in mourning. Its HISTORIAN has passed away.

July 31, 2020

The Historian of the City of Havana has died, Cuba mourns. Letters resist continuing to release words. With the solidity of those colonial cobblestones that knew so much of his steps, as immovable as the fortresses and castles that he loved and protected, so they refuse to write of this absurdity.

A few months ago he was seen on television, reopening the restored Castillo de Atarés. It was then that he left us the key, the password; so public and visible that we didn't notice: "Forgive me for having to be sitting down a bit, because I am a bit fatigued; but the fatigue is not the result of what has not been able to overcome me, nor defeat me, it is that I have been walking for a long time, for many decades, for many centuries, the true mystery is that I lived centuries ago in other bodies and I was here when the castle was built. Thank you very much".

How right he was. Nothing had overcome or defeated him. And it is that men who, like him, come into the world overflowing with decency, passion, propriety and Country, when they set out, there is nothing that can stop or erase them.

If they stop, as Eusebio has done this July 31st, it is only to take a break in the road. On the morning of Friday, July 31, 2020, Eusebio Leal Spengler has died, a victim of cancer.

Eusebio was born in the City of Havana on September 11, 1942. He was a Doctor of Historical Sciences from the University of Havana, Master in Studies on Latin America, the Caribbean and Cuba, specialist in Archaeological Sciences. He completed undergraduate studies in History at the University of Havana in 1975.

He completed post-graduate studies in Italy on the restoration of Historic Centers on a scholarship granted by the Ministry of Foreign Relations of the Italian Republic. He was a Member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba since the IV Congress, Deputy to the National Assembly of People's Power in the IV-1993, V-1998, VI-2003, VII-2008, VIII-2013 and IX–2018 Legislatures, Goodwill Ambassador of the United Nations Organization. He began working in 1959 in the Metropolitan Administration of Havana and in 1967 was appointed Director of the Museum of the City of Havana, succeeding in his position Doctor Emilio Roig de Leushenring, of whom he was a disciple.

He undertakes the restoration works of the Government House, former Palace of the Captains General and Captain's House which are completed in 1979. In 1981 he is given the responsibility of directing the investments for restoration works approved by the Government of the City on May 5th of that year. On April 16, 1986 he is assigned responsibility for the works in the Fortress of San Carlos de La Cabaña and, later, in the Castle of the Three Kings of El Morro. In accordance with the UNESCO declaration, the perimeter of the old walls and the System of Fortifications for the defense of the city was inscribed in the Index of World Heritage in 1982 with number 27.

Historian of the City of Havana. Honorary President of the Cuban Committee of ICOM and Honorary President of the Cuban Committee of ICOMOS and of the Civil Society Heritage, Community and Environment; Dean of the Faculty of the "Colegio Universitario San Gerónimo de La Habana", Title of Professor of Merit of the University of Havana, president of the Network of Offices of the Historian and Conservator of the Heritage Cities of Cuba, President of Honor of the Economic Society of Friends of the Country, president of the Group of Parliamentary Friendship Cuba-Mexico. Furthermore, vice president of the Group of Parliamentary Friendship Cuba-Japan.

He has written essays, prologues and articles on the history of Cuba, art, restoration and other topics of a general nature. He is the author of the books: Regresar en el tiempo, Detén el paso caminante, Verba Volant, Fiñes, Carlos Manuel de Céspedes El Diario Perdido, La Luz sobre el Espejo, Poesía y Palabra (I and II), Para no Olvidar (I, II and III), Fundada Esperanza, Patria Amada, Bio-Bibliografía (I, II, III and IV), Legado y Memoria, Hijo de mi Tiempo and Aeterna Sapien. But above all loyal as his surname, committed to his homeland, an immense worker, man of the countryside and city.