CUBAN TRANSITIONS

On our first morning in Havana Vieja, we were guided on a tour by a representative from the Office of the Historian of the City.  We saw the Plaza de Armas and a beautiful cathedral, as well as incredible city views from the Hotel Ambos Mundos.  The historian then walked us through a residential street, which had not yet been restored.

In Havana, the focus is on tourism, not on housing, which our tour guide admitted is a huge problem.

The trash in the street, and rugged looking buildings, showed us a different Havana, one that hadn’t been restored.  When we visited the scale model of Havana, there was a color coded map, demonstrating the overwhelming use of city buildings for housing, while very few were designated as “tourist” sites.

After Havana was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site, two square kilometers in old Havana were restored, in partnership with the Office of the Historian of the City, at its head, Eusebia Leal Spengler.

Spengler is well known in Old Havana, as the man responsible for the restoration.  He has refurbished more than 300 historic sites, while acting as the official historian of Havana.

However, critics reveal that while much of the city has been restored, it has been mostly for the benefit of tourists.  By law Cuban citizens still cannot stay in the restored hotels.  The restoration strategy for the city relies heavily on revenue from the tourism industry.  As more buildings have been restored, tourism has increased, allowing the government to invest even more in new restoration projects.  Leal admits to the devastation of the border between what is restored, and what remains untouched.

On January 1^st, this year, around 9:30 PM, a three-story building collapse killed at least three.  The fall is blamed on the severe housing shortage, and the need to stay in dilapidated buildings.  About 300 buildings collapse a year, while restoration efforts remain very focused in a small section of Old Havana.

In her poem, “the rafters,” translated by Krisin Dykstra and Nancy Gates Madsen, Reina Maria Rodriguez alludes to the condition buildings in Havana.

“under us are gravestones

–it’s  said that they’re stable

and that we’ll reincarnate ourselves

on this mixed architecture.”

In talking with Wesley, a 28-year old student I met at the University of Havana, I discovered the frustration of Cubans towards the tourist industry.  Wesley saw the money come from tourists’ pockets, and fuel more tourist development, rather than fix existing problems for tourist citizens.

The housing and physical differences in the buildings of the city create an even greater division between Cuban citizens and tourists, who often stay within the restored tourist boundaries.

Sources:

photo credit, Jessie Ditmore

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/05/world/americas/05iht-havana.4.8600724.html?pagewanted=all

http://www.havanaarchitecture.info/restoration.html

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/01/18/2595816/havana-building-collapse-kills.html

http://jacketmagazine.com/26/meadows.html

http://www.havana-guide.com/havana-buildings.html

http://ctp.iccas.miami.edu/FOCUS_Web/Issue59.htm