Havana Crossroads of the World 1958
[GENTE Magazine, Vol. 1, Havana, January 5, 1958, No. 1, American Edition]
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HAVANA CROSSROADS OF THE WORLD
PHOTO CAPTION - STOP
for a moment on any street-corner in downtown Havana and watch the
passing parade of human faces. Scrutinize them carefully and what
do you see? That blond man over there for instance–the man with
the
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PHOTO CAPTION - Lovely
royal palms, trade marks of the Cuban landscape, lend their tropical
splendor to the grounds of the Capitol Building in Havana. In the
spacious sidewalks in front of the Capitol are sidewalk cafes
reminiscent of Paris.
PHOTO CAPTION – Confident,
free and happy. These are the characteristics of the Cuban
people. Their dress is light for comfort under the warm rays of
the Caribbean sun. Above is seen a street crossing on Galiano
Avenue in the center of Havana's fashionable shopping district.
THE CUBAN CAPITAL THE FRIENDLIEST CITY ON EARTH
blue eyes and curved nose. Who is he? He is evedently
[evidently] Jewish, but is he European or American? Is he from
Berlin, Prague or from the Bronx in New York?
Hazard a guess but chances are you'll be wrong. Them man's name
is Goldstein, but he's Cuban. He's as Cuban as the Cuba Libre.
And that slight man over there, walking fast. His eyes are black
and slightly slanted. His face is the color of old ivory.
Asiatic, you'd say at once. But when he speaks it's in
fluent Spanish, or "Cubano" as Cubans say when referring to the Spanish
spoken in Cuba. The man's name is Wong, but he's Cuban too.
And what about that youngster over there the boy with the brown hair
and green eyes, the jaunty step, creased blue jeans and white
T-shirt? He'd be as much at home in Flushing, Chicago, Denver or
Tuscaloosa. But he answers to the name of Fernandez and speaks no
English.
And so they go, dozens of them passing by. The young, the old,
the pretty and the handsome. Now take that lovely girl looking in
the store window, the one with the slightly salnted eyes and the silken
hair. She looks like a beauty from Bali, but she's be carrying a
jug neatly balanced on her beautifully-groomed head. But this
isn't Bali; this is San Rafael Street in the
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PHOTO CAPTION – Havana's
Paseo de Marti, better known as The Prado, is shaded by gorgeous laurel
trees which form a verdant archway for passerby. The Prado
divides the downtown area into two parts, the old colonial section of
the city and the neighborhoods which were developed later.
PHOTO CAPTION – This
scene is undoubtedly familiar to the American reader. This is
Havana, but the crowd might pass for any other crowd in Philadelphia,
Chicago or Los Angeles.
A MELTING POT OF RACES AND CULTURES
heart of Havana's fashionable downtown shopping district.
The Cuban types are varied and always colorful. There's the
Indian, an oldster with the wrinkled and impassive countenance of an
inhabitant of the Andean plateaus. And there's the Negro, a
veritable hercules who gesticulates with his powerful arms and shows
flashes of gleaming white teeth through his thick lips as he chatters
and laughs.
The visitor to Havana is overwhelmed by the multiplicity of types that
he sees in the Cuban capital. He is constantly amazed at the
harmony and gaiety of Cuban life and the joyous spirit in which nearly
a million Cubans live, work and play together in what has been called
the "Babel of the Tropics". For this is the crossroads of the
world, a melting pot of races and civilizations, a city bewitched which
casts its spell over the visitor with a contagious "joie de
vivre". In a matter of hours he is enraptured, his indifference
gone. He has found a new home.
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PHOTO CAPTION - A
nook in the heart of Havana is famed Fraternity Park with its fountain
of old marble. In the background rises the Aldama Palace, in colonial
times the residence of a very wealthy family.
The Metamorphosis of the Junker
It was always thus in Havana...
They tell the story here of the first German minister to Cuba, in the
days before World War I when was an infant republic. The minister
was a strict "junker", a proud and haughty emissary of Kaiser
Wilhelm. He wore enormous mustaches, and his manner was that of a
disdaining grand duke.
Colonial Palaces and Skyscrapers Side by Side
His movements were those of an automaton.
As a result, a group of neighborhood youngsters who used to play
baseball in an empty lot in front of the ministerial residence were
surprised one day to find the German envoy watching them intently from
his front porch. His cold blue eyes seemed to mask a natural
curiosity as he watched them take their turns at bat.
But, as we said, this is Havana and things have a unique way of turning
out in Cuba. No Prussian junker remains a junker long in the gay,
informal atmosphere of this happy-go-lucky city...
For one day shortly thereafter, a prominent Cuban diplomat and
politician happened to visit at the residence of the honorable
representative of Kaiser Wilhelm. A servant opened the door and
informed the Cuban visitor that the minister was not at home. He
then directed the visitor's gaze across the street –and there was the
minister playing second base for the neighborhood nine.
And the formerly very stiff junker was doing all right, too. He
fielded ground balls like a professional and brought cheers when he got
a base hit on his first time at bat.
One Hundred Cities One
Different men build their home in different ways because they live in
different areas and in different lands. The types of homes that
can made from wood and stone vary as the number of people on earth.
Havana is different, but it's also the same. As you cross with
the traffic lights at the corner of Galiano and San Rafael Streets in
the heart of the city's downtown section, you might almost think that
you are at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street in
Manhattan. The same wide boulevards, the same impatient traffic,
the same crowds and the same luxuriously furnished store windows.
Then you are walking down a lovely
UP-TO-DATE COMFORTS AND ANCIENT TRADITIONS
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PHOTO CAPTION - Cathedral
Square dreams of centuries past. The square remains exactly as it
was in the days when witches were burned in Salem and pirates stormed
the rich settlements of the Spanish colonial isles. Only the
uotline [hotline] of an automobile indicates that this is 1957 –
instead of 1557.
PHOTO CAPTION – Leading
to Havana's Presidential Palace are many majestic avenues flanked by
modern buildings, and also small streets like this which still seem to
resound to the echo of footsteps of men of the era of the cape and the
sword.
PHOTO CAPTION – Few
places in Havana have as rich a historical background as this. On
the left is the Castillo de la Fuerza, built some four centuries
ago. In the right background is the Cabana fortress. In the
right foreground near the small temple with classic architecture is the
under which the "Conquistadores" observed their first man on Cuban soil.
EXCITING EXPERIENCES IN AN ATMOSPHERE OF TROPICAL SPLENDOR
avenue lined with trees and thick shrubbery, and you may wonder if this isn't Paris.
A few moments later you may find yourself in a narrow, one-way street
with tall colonial-style buildings rising steeply on either side.
On many of the doors you will see the coats of army of old Castillian
families. And you could easily imagine that you were in old
Toledo.
This, is truth, is Havana. One hundred cities in one, a
cosmopolitan center where the warmth and similarity of the people have
barred the door to the feeling of hardness and smug sofistication
[sophistication] and absence of human warmth so evident in many of the
world's great capitals.
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PHOTO CAPTION – The
Almendares River forms the boundary line between Havana and the
township of Marianao lying to the west of the city. The banks of
the river are lined by shipyards, fishermen's huts, varying industries,
the dwellings of poor families and sumptuous residences. Beyond
the river in the Marianao section lie residential areas which rival for
their beauty and luxury suburbs in other world capitals.
PHOTO CAPTION – Havana's
Malecon, or shoreline drive, is known thorught the world. A
balcony out over the Gulf of Mexico, the Malecon furnishes an
unforgettable view to the first-time visitor to Cuba's shores. At
night many-colored neon and electric signs illuminate the drive.
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PHOTO CAPTION - The
Embassy of the United States is lodged in a building with ultra-modern
lines located in one of the most attractive spots in the Cuban
capital. Much of the embassy personel [personnel] lives in
apartments overlooking the embassy building itself.
PHOTO CAPTION - Near
the Maine Monument and the American Embassy an impressive skyline made
up of modern building is gradually ound for the buildings which look
out over its blue waters evolving. The Gulf of Mexico forms a
spectacular background.
The character of the Cuban is that of an expansive extrovert,
euphorious and hospitable. This has resulted in the preservation
and continued growth among a population of more than a million people,
many of them from the four corners of the earth, of that feeling of
familiarity and cooperation which is so often associated today only
with small cities and towns.
A Stranger Becomes a Brother
Perhaps the visitor to Havana feels somewhat taken aback at first by
the familiarity and warmth of his dealings with people he hardly
knows. The city receives him with open arms and it takes him time
to realize that this unaccustomed familiarity is in fact a finer and
more sincere welcome than the "red carpet" treatment accorded so many
distinguished guests.
Often during the rush hours, in the crowded streets and buses, one man
will want to move past another. In such circumstances the almost
universal expression is the formal and correct "Excuse me, Sir".
But this man, remember is a "Habanero", and for him there is no formal
and correct expression. Instead he says with a smile: "Give me a
chance brother".
That's how it is in Havana with a stranger, a man you have never seen
before but who will still treat you with the utmost kindness and good
fellowship.
Tradition and Progress go Hand in Hand
The most pampered millionaire can satisfy his most remote wants in
modern, up-to-minute Havana. For one thing Havana is so close to
the United States–literally minutes by plane from Miami and only four
hours from New York–that the very latest American gadget or invention
is one the market or in actual operation in Cuba with a few days after
its initial appearance in the U.S.
Havana is characterized by an acute anacronism [anachronism] –the new,
as typified by skyscrapers, air conditioning, electronically-operated
doors and the latest style automobiles, and the old, a people which has
still not been able, or has not wished, to let go the ancient customs
inherited from the Spanish "conquistadores" and their colonial
descendents.
All this is for the visitor to see. If he wishes to make his stay
in Havana a vital and living experience, he can visit the waterfront
bars, for instance, located in the gay seafaring and commercial
district. Or he can visit the elegant night clubs with their
fabulous and internationally-known floorshows, the smaller
tightly-packed cabarets where couples dance to the sensual beat of the
Caribbean rythmes [rhythms], the exclusive hotels, the working men's
sections, gorgeous residential zones and the city's suburbs with their
small but clean homes.
All this in Havana –the 1957 Cadillac, the jungle of television
antennae rising over the roofs of the houses and the creaking cart as
it is drawn past by an indolent mule, the happy-go-lucky youngster
dancing "rock'n roll" and the women of the poorer neighborhoods who
show off the dance rythmes [rhythms] of their slave ancestors at the
grandiose Havana Carnival.
The visitor to Havana can circulate freely in all of Havana's many and
varying atmospheres. Behind the wheel of an automobile he can
drive through the Cuban countryside on the many modern highways which
radiate out from Havana to all the nooks and crannies of this
interesting country. In every town and city he'll find the same
warm welcome. Havana, crossroads of the world, is Cuba's pride
and joy. And it is a city where two persons who have never met
before call one another "my brother".
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