In a Cuban television report, it was reported that among the novelties, the presentation of a collection of books on the work and legacy of Eusebio Leal Spengler stands out. One of the texts is You have to believe in Cuba, a compendium of interviews conducted with the historian by the journalist Magda Resik, Director of Communication of the OHCH.

According to Resik, under the seal of Ediciones Boloña, the El Historiador collection has already begun, bringing together the best of Leal Spengler’s thought and work.

It will be a kind of anthology of the thoughts and ideas of Leal Spengler on various topics: heritage, history and national culture, argued the Director of Communication of the OHCH.

Resik added that the Andar La Habana collection is also being expanded, which includes all the programs that the eternal Historian of the City led for more than 20 years.

As part of the program of activities, there will be new presentations of the documentary The Capitol of all Cubans, by the OHCH, which summarizes the restoration work carried out in that building.

Resik announced that the Beloved Homeland room will be inaugurated in the Eusebio Leal Spengler House, a space that shows his close relationship with Cuban identity, his defense of Cuban values ​​and his passion for Cuba.

As usual, the traditional ceremony is planned in the Bandstand, the founding site of the city.

Statue of Eusebio Leal at the entrance of the Palacio de los Capitanes Generales, currently the Museo de la Ciudad. Photo: Ariel Cecilio Lemus

“Death is not true when the work of life has been well accomplished.” The words of Cuba’s National Hero José Martí can be said about so many great men and women, but they mold around Leal as if they werewritten for him. His work was so vast, so beautiful, that, as Magda Resik, director of Communications of the Office of the City Historian and vice president of the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba, said: “When men forget him, the stones will still remember him.”

But they don’t forget him. How can they when he breathes on every cobblestone of the Wooden Street, greets from every square, turns every corner of the Historic Center, in his blue and gray clothes, walks to the City Museum and sits on his favorite bench in the inner courtyard?

There have been many tributes to his figure, from the plaque in the courtyard of the former Palace of the Captains General, the life-size statue at the entrance of the Palace, to the dedication of each event that the Office of the Historian has organized since 2020.

Rutas y Andares, a cultural program for the summer months devised by himself two decades ago, also pays tribute to him. Tras la ruta de Eusebio Leal (Following Eusebio Leal’s route) began last year with tremendous popularity. This August the invitation returns to explore a different facet of the historian’s personality and work every Saturday.

Leal collector, Leal cultural manager, Leal archaeologist and Leal y Roig are the names of the Routes that for four weeks will take the public through some of the sites where he worked, where he regularly went to supervise the works under restoration and many other sites that exhibit today the pieces that he collected with so much love over the years for his eternal bride, this city.

During the celebration of Havana’s 500 years, a visibly more tired than usual Leal told the guests that the 500 was over, that as of November 17 they would start working on the 501st.

This is, then, the best way to remember him, to work tirelessly to preserve what was achieved and continue to grow; so that Havana, ust like him, will never die.

(Taken from Granma)

The Presidency’s Twitter account reported that the event featured the creations of prolific pianist and composer José María Vitier, accompanied by the interpretative excellence of the Niurka González on flute, violinist Javier Cantillo and soprano Bárbara Llanes, as well as the screening of a documentary directed by Omelio Borroto, entitled “Leal insuperablemente fiel” (Leal: unsurpassably faithful) which includes the revealing testimony of close collaborators and of Eusebio himself, as a tribute to this distinguished Cuban.

(Taken from Granma)

When do men stop being simple mortals to become legendary beings? Does the mythical figure appear to us irremediably divorced from the human one that preceded it in time? How healthy is it to choose one side and reject the other?

These ideas haunt me today, at a time when the Havana City Historian would have reached his 78th birthday. And such questions have much to do with the mania of some biographers of great figures in history, of offering an immaculate profile that does nothing but separate the bird’s two wings.

Eusebio was a Cuban man of his time who created himself, at the cost of sweat and sacrifice. A self-taught man who overcame difficult challenges and more than a few obstacles to see his dreams come true. He was a young patriot fascinated by the history and the island’s ideal of freedom, who proposed to magnify that heritage with his work at the service of the nation.

He had defects, no doubt, and he neglected his personal life to defend the utopia in which he courageously believed. But none of this takes away from the fact that he was an enlightened being, a unique creature that lived his life among cobblestones, cannons, flags and machetes.

Because he believed in the value of symbols and, like an armed dove, he defended everything related to our moral greatness, to the Cuban ethics by which we would like to live, so beautifully described by Cintio Vitier in Ese sol del mundo moral (That sun of the moral world).

Today, barely a month after his physical departure, apart from making a lasting ritual of the beautiful spontaneous gesture of hanging white sheets from balconies, the best tribute we can pay Eusebio Leal is to delve into his life with our heads uncovered, as he hoped we would in the case of our forefathers, accepting them as they were, without denying their contradictions or defects.

Only in this way, those who did not live in his times, those who will know him only in bronze or marble, will be able to feel the reverberation of an extraordinary man, but one of flesh and blood.

(Source: Granma)

In accordance with his family’s wishes, Leal’s ashes will be preserved, and once the COVID-19 epidemic is under control, in just recognition of his enduring work, our people will be able to pay their respects at the Capitol in Havana, an emblematic edifice restored under his guidance, for the benefit of the nation.

BIOGRAPHY

(From the Havana City Historian’s Office)

Eusebio Leal was born in his beloved Havana on September 11, 1942.

- PhD in Historical Sciences at the University of Havana – 2000, Master’s Degree in Latin American, Caribbean and Cuban Studies, Specialist in Archaeological Sciences, 1975 Bachelor’s degree in History

-Postgraduate studies in Italy in restoration of Historical Centers, on a scholarship granted by the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs – 1980

-Member of the Communist Party of Cuba Central Committee since its IV Congress in 1991

-Deputy to the National Assembly of People’s Power from 1993 to date.

-United Nations Goodwill Ambassador – 1996

-He began working in 1959 at the Havana Metropolitan Administration and in 1967 was appointed Director of the Havana City Museum, succeeding Dr. Emilio Roig de Leushenring, as the eminent intellectual’s disciple.

-He assumed direction of restoration works of the city government’s headquarters, the former Palace of the Captains General and the Captain’s residence, completed in 1979.

-In 1981 he was given the responsibility of conducting restoration works approved by the City government on May 5 of that year.

-On April 16, 1986 he is assigned the responsibility of the works on the San Carlos de La Cabaña Fortress and, later, the Morro.

-Historian of the City of Havana

-President of the Cuba – Mexico Parliamentarian Friendship Group.

-Vice-president of the Cuba-Japan Parliamentarian Friendship Group.

At the ceremony, the house of higher studies highlighted Leal work in the process of restoration and conservation of the historic area of Havana, combined with the economic and social development of his community.

The Historian of Havana thanked the distinction and stressed the historic ties between Spain and his country.

The solemn ceremony, which coincided with the official opening of the academic year 2011-2012 of the University of Alicante, was attended by Cuba’s ambassador in Spain, Alejandro Gonzalez.

The AU has a long tradition of collaboration with counterpart institutions in the Caribbean island.

In June this year the University hosted the X Bilateral Meeting of university rectors from Cuban and Spain.

(Prensa Latina)

In an interview with Prensa Latina, Havana City Historian Eusebio Leal explained these projects are focused on the human aspect, not just the restoration of the city´s architecture and beauty.

“I think it would be contradictory to highlight only (restoration) and ignore vital questions such as housing, the environment and public opinion about the city,” he said.

Restoration projects prioritize elementary and secondary schools; school/workshops; women; the gender issue; children´s issues, and at-risk groups such as the elderly and people who live alone.

A newly-created maternity home, mental health and addiction treatment center, and center for children with disabilities are examples of the social work carried out by the City Historian´s Office.

Old Havana has received national and international recognition, as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, for example, and its restoration projects have received a numberof awards.

The City Historian´s Office has also made incursions into other parts of the capital, specifically those that are historically valuable for the city or the nation.

Leal mentioned projects on the Paseo del Prado promenade, such as the restoration of the Gran Teatro, or Grand Theater, and recently-begun work on the Capitolio building.

A subjective factor is also important: that of raising awareness about protecting the environment, Leal said, referring to a project at the Quinta de los Molinos natural park, which includes efforts by all organizations involved in environmental issues.

One of the goals for 2011 is to continue restoration work at the University of Havana and at Colon Cemetery, and housing construction in the Havana neighborhoods of Alamar and Capdevila.

Work also constinues on the Havana seawall, the Malecon, both on the wall itself and on the drainage system, in the context of the direct influence of climate change on that historic site, Leal noted.

With respect to an environmental strategy, the office is part of a working group for the Port of Havana overseeing efforts to clean up the bay, and results are already being seen in lower contamination levels, he said.

The historian also mentioned the Mariel Bay project, which would bring back more tranquil times to Havana, making the port chiefly a touristic destination instead of a shipping dock.

What is important today is not just restoration, but also the civic conduct of citizens, because along any given street, one can see litter thrown from car windows or damage to the urban environment and its monuments.

Throughout the city, but particularly in Havana and Cuba today, “we are going to suffer the sadness of losing many buildings and architectural elements, because adverse circumstances have taken us to that threshold,” Leal said.

The historian noted the current conditions of Cuba, subjected to an economic, commercial and financial blockade by the United States, and emphasized that the idea is to make restoration projects sustainable whenever possible.

Leal, who has been recognized for his work to preserve heritage, said that a series of presentations is being made nationwide on restoration experiences in the capital, taking into account other historic centers such as Camaguey and Cinefuegos.

This year, the Conference on the Management and Administration of Historic Districts will be held, attended by architects and other experts from Cuba and other countries, and will address both architectural and social aspects.

For the Cuban people, their capital, whose urban landscape and social aspects have suffered the impact of the U.S. sanctions, is aiming to become an increasingly inhabitable city, little by little, and as economic resources allow.

Meanwhile, foreign visitors walk through its streets and contemplate the old military architecture that survived the era of Spanish colonization, and other buildings and plazas built so many years ago, which continue to amaze us with the dazzling traces of other times.

(Prensa Latina)