DAY 5: BARBACOA AND BACARDI

                                                                           

The itinerary for today was scaled back. The Cuban government declared an official Day of Mourning, to remember Nelson Mandela.  Mandela's death in South Africa a few days earlier was a lead news story in Cuba, with emphasis on Mandela's long history of friendship with the island.  Government venues and some other facilities were closed, and flags were at half-staff.  Mainly, the government asked for the respectful proscription of activities that might be overly exuberant or celebratory.  Our afternoon event, an Afro-Cuban folkloric dance performance, was cancelled in light of the official request for solemnity.  Accordingly, we had the reprieve of several unscheduled hours. Some in the group ventured over to El Floridita bar or went down the street to the rejuvenated Sloppy Joe's; some visited a Santeria shop; others chose a nap or a quiet repose in the hotel.  MJ and I walked the length of El Prado, past the Máximo Gomez statue and park, to the eastern limit of the Malecón.   We had the unexpected freedom to explore and photograph some of the architecture of the Prado, to which we'd been professionally introduced that morning.

Disclaimer:  Dave is writing the next paragraph from memory, and does not pretend even slightly to know anything substantial about architecture.

Some brief observations about Cuban architecture.   Havana, and by reputation other cities which we did not (yet) visit, are renowned for striking buildings, showing specific architectural styles, beginning with the Spanish colonial period and continuing forward to the present modern and postmodern edifices.  For each recognizable style, the influences of contributing cultures can be traced by historians.   Adaptations for tropical conditions – for example, porticoes and large windows with shutters to permit better air circulation and to help dissipate heat and humidity – are common.  With a little help (see Profesora Maria, below),  one can quickly learn to recognize the colonial, neoclassical, art deco, and modern styles.  The patterns and modifications thereof are distributed all around Havana and its suburbs.  Sometimes a neighborhood might be predominantly one style (e.g., Miramar), or there may be clusters of buildings of similar style (Habana Vieja), but frequently a street will have a willy-nilly, jigsaw character,  with different prototypical exteriors positioned side-by-side, or one atop the other.  Over many years, as buildings change purpose or where there are more or fewer inhabitants, both interiors and exteriors may be altered to serve functionality.  Among the older and more visually appealing homes, hotels, office buildings, and so on, are profoundly ugly Soviet-style buildings, which comprise much of the modern architecture of the country.  They look like clumps of Moscow or East Germany, deposited in a tropical setting.  The end result of all these influences can look a little crazy:

Architectural styles can be jumbled

                                                                         
The morning featured an educational walk, starting in Parque Central across from the hotel, proceeding north along El Prado, heading east into the adjacent commercial and residential area, and finishing at the Edificio Bacardi.  Headphones were essential for the lecture and tour, given by Maria Elena Martín.    Professor Martín is an architect and professor of architectural history at the Instituto Superior Politécnico de La Habana.  She is fluent in English.  She is also adept in protecting a group, all of us very distracted and looking up, from the omnipresent potholes, uneven sidewalks, and homicidal motorists.

The morning was warm and bright.  We started at the Jose Martí statue in Parque Central, and circumambulated the park, with Professor Martín pointing out the functions and architecture of the several important buildings bordering the park.  One building is the other half of the Museum of Fine Art, the non-Cuban art repository.

                                                                 

Martí waving at our group, Hotel Inglaterra behind him

National Theater, Baroque style

Capitolio, neoclassical, and National Theater next door (evening photo)

We trundled past Esquina Caliente, at the southwest corner of Parque Central.  Here there is a daily, ever fluctuating group of baseball addicts, discussing Cuban and American baseball.  By report, all are statistical wizards, and what looks like congenial argument is actually congenial argument.  Fighting is rare.

                                                                             

Advocating an opinion at Esquina Caliente

In Cuba, even dogs love baseball

Parque Central, like its similarly-named twin in New York, is a space for folks to meet and be met.  Humanity from all social classes gathers here.  The baseball discussions are one attraction.  The availability of hotel guests for gulling is another.  Just hanging out in greenspace is a third.  MJ and I had several people-to-people encounters here (the real reason for our trip, after all), worth remembering.

Our first evening, walking on our own, we were goodnaturedly pestered and followed by a charming bici-taxi driver.  Although giving bici-taxi rides to foreigners is illegal, most drivers ignore this law, knowing that they can charge gringos a higher fare than they can charge locals, and that they will very probably collect it.  We learned that some bici-taxi drivers are moonlighting, earning extra income above their day job wages as lawyers and doctors.  They attract riders on the strength of their salesmanship.  Remember MJ's friend?

Late one afternoon, Dave was people-watching at Parque Central, and was startled by a sharp whistle.  (Wolf-whistling is supposed to be a Cuban plague, and with kissing sounds, romantic come-ons, etc., there is even a name for it – piropos.  We experienced none of this (or at least Dave didn't) but of course nobody in our group was a hot-pantsed Eurogirl.)  Dave turned to see a young policeman, who looked about 17, running into the chaotic traffic on Calle José Martí, to embrace and support a very drunk and stumbling hombre.   The guy had, miraculously, stayed upright into the center of the traffic stream.  The young officer halted traffic, escorted the fellow to the far side, pointed him down the side street, and returned to his post in the park.

This day, from the Hot Corner, we were circled and "entertained" by an elderly, silver-haired man in a plain black suit.  His face was in motion, second by second exchanging one rubber or plastic mask-like countenance for another.  His expressions were quite macabre.  We can't remember, really, what he looks like.  Were he not edentulous his repertoire would probably have been less expansive.  He was, no better way to say it, in our faces with his sequence of distorted comic poses, morphing quickly from one to the next, all the while remaining mute.   Professor Martín ignored him, an easy thing for her since she wasn't his target.  Sure enough, after his last grotesquerie, his outstretched hand betrayed his real motivation.  We doubt that any of our group contributed.  Dave regrets, a little, that he didn't quietly slip the man a CUC.

We bunched along the west side of José Martí, then processioned along El Prado.  Hotel Inglaterra has undergone interior modernist restoration, a striking contrast to its more traditional exterior, but yet faithful to historical themes.  We took this sequence of photos in the lobby/restaurant of Hotel Inglaterra, showing its modernist redesigning with retro arches and meticulous tile artistry:

Caddy-corner from Hotel Inglaterra, our own hotel, Parque Central, displays another restoration option, that of adding thoroughly modern renovation to an older historic base or framework.  Only the corner portion of the first two floors remains of the original building.

                                                                             

Only the "prow" of the hotel, two lowest floors on the corner, is original

As we walked north along El Prado, Professor Martín explained how the hodgepodge arrangement of the historical architectural styles came about, and how these buildings have been redone, as needed for functionality, over many decades.  In this area of Havana are prime examples of so-called "barbacoas,"   built in response to the severe housing shortage in Cuba.  "Barbacoas" are created in multistory residences by dividing the vertical dimension of an apartment in half.   So divided, there are then two apartments from one, each with the same width but only half the ceiling height.  Access to the upper apartment is via a newly installed side stairway.  Typically, the "loft" apartment has much poorer air circulation, being above the normal doors and windows, and is unnaturally warm.  Hence, it is a "barbacoa" – barbecue.  Look closely at the following photos, and you can see some horizontal divisions in the tall doorways or windows that reveal barbacoas.

El Prado was designed in the 1920's on the model of a European boulevard

The mansion of former President of Cuba José Miguel Gomez is on Prado, but it was closed this day.  So there was extra time to enjoy the magnificent Palacio de los Matrimonios.  We ascended the grand staircase to the second floor.   Civil marriages are formalized here, many per day.  The building is said to be "neo-Renaissance."  Style aside, it is gaudy, beautiful, and ornate.  Two oil paintings in the main hall portray the landing of Christopher Columbus in eastern Cuba and a stylized street scene, from the 1700's, of Plaza de la Catedral.

Ceiling, main room, Palacio de los Matrimonios

Columbus claims Cuba for Spain and the Church;
Tainos at the left are not deliriously happy about it.

The driver, a slave, is also dressed formally

From here we strolled by, but did not enter, the famed Hotel Sevilla.  Around the corner from Hotel Sevilla, Professor Martín elaborated upon the complex exterior of an attractive, albeit greatly run down, Edificio Balaguer.  We don't know what this building was back in its heyday, but for now it has been divvied up into apartments.

                                                                               

Exterior of Hotel Sevilla

All modes lead to Hotel Sevilla

A modern glass edifice reflects Hotel Sevilla

The reincarnated Sloppy Joe's

Edificio Balaguer

Portal of Edificio Balaguer, and denizens

Professor Martín concluded at Edificio Bacardi, the Havana headquarters of the Bacardi family business.  This, she said, is the best-preserved Art Deco architecture.  The building is open for tours, but our excursion was confined to the lobby and tasting room (no tasting in there anymore).  The Bacardi family, which has been intensely anti-revolutionary, and which has funded efforts to depose Fidel Castro, aims to return to Cuba someday and resume business as before.   Such, at least, is the scuttlebutt on the street.  This day, ironically, a poster in the main elevator carriage promises the return of the Cuban Five, agents of the Cuban government who are currently in prison in the USA.  If the Cuban perspective be credible, the Cuban Five infiltrated groups of right wing Cuban expatriates.  From inside, they were reporting, simultaneously to the CIA and to Cuba, the particulars of illegal counter-revolutionary terrorist schemes that were being cooked up by the ex-pats.  On pretext that they were actually Cuban spies, the agents were arrested and jailed by the US, and were convicted of espionage.  Some reservations about judicial fairness have been registered.  Cubans, a politically savvy people, are very aware of these men and their fates.   Many circulars, posters, billboards, and even yellow ribbons advocate for their release.  Recently, one man has returned home.

                                                                             

Tower,  Edificio Bacardi

Irony

Tasting room, and upstairs the bar, from the old days

Edificio Bacardi, from the roof of Hotel Parque Central

Contrast – Edificio Bacardi to the left

Lunch was on the roof of the modern annex of the Hotel Parque Central.  There was a brief cooking demonstration of Criolla (creole) foods, and the repast was the two major creole dishes that were prepared.....along with the obligatory mojitos.  As we recall, one dish was called "tamal," but it was really somewhere between a soup and a stew.  Best of all were the 360º views of the harbor and the city from this glassed-in restaurant:

                                                                             

Edificio Focsa, tallest building in Havana, on the horizon

Some remarkable images of our quiet, mid afternoon walk (well, except for the birds and the traffic) down El Prado to the Malecón.

Late afternoon, Noa and his wife delivered our Noa serigraph to the hotel.  Personalized service from a very personable family.

MJ and I had met Nancy Reyes at the 2013 Santa Fe International Folk Art market this last summer.  She and other Cuban artists have been coming to Santa Fe, on cultural exchange, for several years.  We bought two of her whimsical paintings when she offered them in Santa Fe.  Nancy fortuitously timed the grand opening of her new gallery in Habana Vieja, named appropriately "Santa Fe Gallery," so that it occurred while the Folk Art Market group were there in Havana.  Many of her friends, her daughter Jessie Dominguez and her partner, artists Carlos Cáceres Valladares and Roberto Gil, and all the members of the band TradiSon came for the fiesta.  Nancy's daughter Jessie is a principal dancer with the Cuban National Ballet, and she performed a piece to honor her mother.

                                                                                 

Nancy Reyes's new gallery, Galería Santa Fe

TradiSon, who topped off Day 3 at La Boguedita del Medio, didn't play, but were completely up for some fun conversation.  MJ garnered paintings by both Carlos Cáceres and Roberto Gil.  Dave and Jonathan V. found the rum stash, Bogarted in the back room, and visited/partook with some of Nancy's family, out of sight of the main crowd (this is news to MJ as she edits this post).  A very fine, festive evening.  We wish Nancy great success:

"¡Atención Nancy:  Le deseamos mucho éxito!"

Dusk, and a fun walk down busy Calle Mercaderes to Paladar Mercaderes for a great dinner.

"Folk Art Market!  Folk Art Market!  This way!"

The family-owned Paladar Mercaderes was celebrating its first anniversary as a business.  We entered through a historic but empty first floor, climbing the stairs to the second floor restaurant.  The proud owner was most attentive, gracious, and upbeat.  Music by two young people, a guitarist and violinist, was just right.  At the conclusion of the meal, the owner appeared with a giant box of cigars:  "This is Cuba!  You must smoke a cigar!"  Dang.  Well, some of us did, just to make him happy.

Dave and Lois V.

The whole herd at Paladar Mercaderes

Only because the owner insisted

"You take that stinky thing outside!"

Would it surprise anyone to know that Jonathan V's mother Lois and sister Miranda are actresses?  (You can see an amusing animated slide show of Jonathon if you click on the first photo then, quickly, the three that follow.)

"Ya regreso!"

Before walking back to the hotel, Dave engaged the doorman outside Paladar Mercaderes to discuss the relative merits and demerits of futból and futból norteamericano.  It was an enjoyable discussion, in pidgin English-Spanish.

                                                                                 

"So, listen.  I wouldn't say this to just anybody.  I kinda picked you out 'cause I thought you might like to know.  Should I say this in Spanish?"

"That was the truth.  I shit you not."

Not gonna waste these just because dinner's over..

And finally, a couple of cameos from the evening, from Plaza Vieja and Calle Mercaderes:

"What's a nice girl like you.......?"