Cuba fieldcourse 2010
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- CHINATOWN (BARRIO CHINO)
CENTRO HABANACentro Habana was previously the most fashionable part of Havana and housed its main commercial centre (the streets of San Rafael and Neptuno which were once Havana’s most expensive commercial streets). The road running between Central and Old Havana is Paseo de Martí (also called Paseo del Prado) built between 1770 and the mid-1830s. This wide street was intended to rival the boulevards of many European cities such as Paris and Madrid. Nonetheless, the Central area of Havana does not draw in tourists like Old Havana and does not have World Heritage Status so has not been earmarked for restoration. Many of its buildings are in very poor state of repair (some collapse every year – take care!) and the streets contain large potholes. The residents have some of the worst housing conditions in the city with frequent power cuts and many households living without water. Consider:
CHINATOWN (BARRIO CHINO)History: Havana’s Chinatown comprises a few blocks around Calle Zanja. Its entrance is marked by a large Chinese arch and it contains a number of Chinese restaurants and other stores. Although the area is relatively small, the Chinese have had a significant impact on Havana’s cultural identity. The first Chinese labourers (coolies) were brought to Havana in 1847 by a British company. The first shipment comprised 300 men who were brought to work in the city on eight year contracts. 206 survived the journey from China and established what would become the largest Chinese community in Latin America as entrepreneurs and immigrants were attracted to Havana. The first Chinese restaurant opened on Calle Zanja in 1858 and, in time, a number of Chinese theatres would also be established in the area. Chinatown, however, was heavily affected by the nationalisation of private businesses in 1959. After the Revolution, many of the Chinese community left Havana although a number of associations remain trying to protect the traditions of the Cuban-Chinese community. Today, the Chinese are noted as the ‘third’ major influence on contemporary Cuba’s cultural identity (along with the Spanish and African elements). 
Consider:
EL CRISTO DE LA HABANA This is the large statue of Christ that is visible as you look across the Bay of Havana from Avenida del Puerto. It is a fifty foot marble statue of a ‘Cuban Christ’ with Mesitzo features representing the mixture of races and cultures in Cuba. It was placed on the hillside in December 1958 (just before the Revolution). Also on the Eastern side of the bay are the towns of Regla and Guanabacoa, which are home to Afro-Cuban syncretic cults. Regla is home to one of Cuba’s most important and revered saints and the Church (Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de Regla) located near the ferry terminus is still visited by many Cubans today. In her African incarnation, the Virgen de Regla is Yemayá, orisha of the oceans. It is unsurprising, therefore, that as a coastal port, Havana declared the virgin as its patron saint in 1714. In many churches, you will see statues of this saint – a black virgin carrying a white child and dressed in the blue of Yemayá. See also: Religion in Cuba HABANA VIEJA (OLD HAVANA): Layout: When cities were built by the Spanish in the New World, their layout was governed from Spain by the Law of the Indies. Under these regulations, cities were intended to be laid out in a grid around a single central square. This square was to house the main public, civic and religious buildings including the Church, governors palace and so on. While the layout of Havana roughly conforms to this legislation, the rules were loosely interpreted. Instead of one main square, Havana has several including the Plaza des Armas, Plaza de la Catedral, Plaza de San Francisco and Plaza Veija. By 1584, Old Havana had four main streets: Calle Oficios, Calle Mercades, Calle Real (now Muralla) and what is now part of Calle Cuba. The first street to be paved was Calle Empedrado in 1821 at a time when Havana was growing rapidly (from approximately 100,000 in habitants in 1800 to 250,000 by 1900). The increased population of the city forced the local government to introduce planning laws in 1818 and in 1862, which regulated land use and building for new suburban districts. New development had to be laid out in a grid plan and the width of streets was increased from 6m to 14 meters in the suburbs (compare, for example, streets in Old Havana with those in Centro Habana and Vedado which were largely developed after the introduction of planning laws). The roads in Old (and Central) Havana have names whereas those in Vedado are numbered. Many of the street names have been used to commemorate particular events and people. After the revolution, a number of streets were renamed as part of a process of memorialisation – in effect, the government were (re)creating a sense of imagined community around a new history of Cuba that was based around historical events and people who stood in opposition to colonialism and occupation. A  rchitecture within Old Havana: Early Cuban architecture was heavily influenced by the architecture of Spain. You will notice that many of the colonial houses in the city conform to a basic style: large wooden doors leading into a one-storey house built around an open central courtyard (see, for example, the restaurants La Mina (Plaza de Armas) or El Patio (Plaza de Catedral)). Over time, the numbers of storeys within these buildings increased and many buildings became more baroque in style. Most of Old Havana’s buildings date from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and many of the most extravagant residences have been converted into Museums or Restaurants). Some good examples of Havana’s colonial architecture can be found along Calle Oficios.
Public and Private Space within the city: As you walk around Havana, think about the differences between public and private space. At a very simple level, you can think, for example, about ‘homes’ as private spaces and commercial spaces as public spaces but in Havana many of these clear distinctions have become blurred in recent years. The ‘Special Period’ has been accompanied by a decline in commercial activity and a deterioration of food services. Since 1995, the government have allowed small private restaurants to operate in the living rooms of local people and these ‘home restaurants’ (paladares)1 have become the main gathering places for the people of Havana while many of the restaurants in Old Havana are quiet in the evening. As a result private spaces have increasingly replaced public spaces as meeting places for locals. This is one example of a way in which previously private space is now becoming public. Consider:
Visit Plaza des Armas, Plaza de la Catedral, Plaza de San Francisco and Plaza Veija and consider:
Habana Vieja: UNESCO World Heritage Site: Castro’s policy of directing economic resources toward rural areas resulted in the deterioration of Havana, particularly the old city, but restoration efforts began in the 1980s. In 1982, Havana Vieja and the adjacent fortress were declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. Although debate continues about the appropriateness of the relatively small area delineated by UNESCO, the World Heritage Status of the area has had a significant impact in terms of the preservation of the buildings within Old Havana. Two government bodies share responsibility for aspects of the old city: namely, The National Centre for Conservation, Restoration and Museum Studies (CENCREM) and the City’s Historian’s Department of Architecture. In 1987, the Grupo para el Desarrollo Integral de la Capital (Centre for the Integral Development of the City: see Mirimar) was established to create a singular vision of the city. H  abagüanex: Eusebio Leal, the city’s historian, has played a major role in preservation activities within Havana. In 1994, Leal created Habagüanex, a joint venture-for-profit-firm owned by the City Historian Office, the management body of the project responsible for the architectural conservation and restoration of Old Havana. Today, Habagüanex is probably the most powerful state agency within Old Havana providing ‘a cultural historic product focused mainly on Old Havana’. It operates by generating hard currency (CUCs) through tourism and related services in Habana Vieja and then uses these funds for historic preservation and the development of community projects. Habagüanex owns many of the restaurants and bars within the historic part of the city including El Patio, La Mina, Hostal Valencia, Hanoi and others.
In its own words, Habagüanex seeks to ‘develop tourism in Old Havana with greater diversity and cultural identity to satisfy the needs, tastes and preferences of [its] clients. It is [their] aspiration to provide the best tourism product in Havana, dynamically and efficiently organised, distinguished by quality and originality, by an atmosphere characterised by security, hospitality and essentially Cuban nature…We believe that this combination will satisfy the demands and expectations of clients, to ensure that Old Havana is a comprehensively planned tourist resort’. In the first year of its operation, Habagüanex generated US$4 million towards regeneration costs, which included the preservation of buildings and a range of social programmes including the establishment of kindergartens, schools, services for the elderly and other community centres. No doubt there are some tensions in the activities of Habagüanex that seeks on the one hand to preserve and develop Havana as a tourist site while also seeking to address a number of social problems within the old city including unemployment, crime, poor levels of education etc.. Given the high costs of any regeneration activities, it is perhaps unsurprising that restoration activities in Havana were initially confined to a few streets, plazas as well as certain individual buildings. For example, restoration focussed on a series of ‘development axes’ centring on the streets of Oficios and Mercaderes and Obispo and O’Reilly as well as the Plazas of Catedral, Armas, Cristo and Vieja. Until the 1980s, the predominant policy in historic preservation was passive: focussing on the restoration of individual buildings and the opening-up of the old centre through the retention of open space created when buildings were demolished. There was, nonetheless, considerable debate about the ‘old’ and the ‘new’. On the one hand, state agencies argued for strict and ‘faithful’ compliance with the formal and decorative features of the past including the use of traditional materials and skilled craftsmen. On the other hand, by the late 1980s, some were arguing that ‘preservation’ should make use of the skills of young architects in the city who sought to bring an innovative approach to interior design and who wanted to fill the empty lots of the Old City with new structures that blended harmoniously with their settings. Evidence of their work can be seen in Plaza Vieja. In reality, much of the restoration work within Havana has sought assurances from the past when Cuba was in a better economic position and, as a result, some argue that current restoration efforts suffer from ‘heritage-site syndrome and narcissism of historic preservation’ such that the past has become ‘mummified and fetishized’ in the architecture of the city (Scarpaci et al, 2002). They argue that historic landscapes have been acritically reproduced and although many are historically ‘accurate’, the new restored and perfected Havana is not one which registers with the collective memory of modern day Haberanos. One example of this ‘heritage site syndrome’ is planned for Ministry of Education in that planners are considering demolishing the current building and replacing it with a replica of the Santo Domingo Convent. It is hardly surprising that Havana has become an important location for the film industry! Since the beginning of the ‘Special Period’, resources for preservation and regeneration have been scarce. One of the main challenges for planners in Old Havana today is to explore ways of creating a multi-functional space in the Old City as commercial activity declines and the area becomes increasingly quiet in the evenings. Today, Habagüanex funds are largely being directed towards social programmes for the residents of Old Havana. The main programmes currently under way are the restoration of the Malecón (first fourteen blocks) and the San Isidro neighbourhood (a red-light district in the south of Old Havana). As you walk around these areas consider:
MALECON H  istory: The Malecón (meaning seawall) was planned towards the end of the nineteenth century and was intended to protect Havana from the Caribbean weather particularly, from the hurricanes that hit during autumn and winter. It came to fruition in 1901 when Cuba was under American administration and the neighbourhood of Vedado was expanding with the arrival of new wealth. The seawall was initially built from Old Havana as far as the monument to the US Maine in Vedado but was extended in the 1950s to Mirimar as the suburbs of the city expanded. The Malecón now refers to the whole of the seafront area along Avenida de Maceo. It is an important public space within the city and acts as a meeting place as well as a place of entertainment.
From the outset, the Malecón was a popular place to own property despite the perennial dangers from storms and floods. Although many of the buildings along this road are now in a poor state of repair, it is clear from the facades that this stretch of road (particularly from Old Havana to Hotel Deauville) was once of impressive architecture. The Malecón is currently being restored. Make sure you visit: The Monument to the US Maine and US Interests Section (both located close to Vedado). Consider:
MUSEUM OF THE REVOLUTION The Museum of the Revolution is housed in what was once Havana’s presidential palace. The Museum is note-worthy, not least, because it is one of very few ‘symbols’ of the revolution. Unlike many other revolutionary governments, buildings have not been seen as important ideological symbols in Cuba and there are few monuments to the revolution itself (look, for example, at Revolution Square). In part, this may be a product of a law prohibiting the erection of monuments or naming of streets to anyone who is living (including Castro - The only monument to Castro in Havana is located on the corner of Calle 12 and 23 in Vedado). Consider:
Compare this museum with the Museum de la Cuidad you visited in the morning:
PLAZA DE ARMAS Originally known as Plaza de la Iglesia, this square became known as Plaza de Armas after it was taken over as a parade ground for the army. Many of the buildings and features that you see in the square today were developed in the eighteenth century as the square became the bureaucratic and military focus of Havana. The plaza is typical of the squares of Old Havana, except for its lack of a church (although there was originally a Church in the square - built in 1555). The west of the square is dominated by the Palacio de los Capitanes Generales completed in 1791 and the residence of the Spanish governors until independence, then home to the republic’s presidents until the Presidential Palace was constructed (now the Museum de la Cuidad) while on the East side of the square is the Castillo de la Real Fuerza, the oldest surviving colonial fortress in the Americas. On the south side of the square are a number of twentieth century buildings, which are now museums but it was here that US embassy was originally located. The buildings surround a garden in the centre of which a statue of Carlos Manuel de Cépedes was constructed in 1955. Cépedes became a hero of the first War of Independence when he launched an uprising at his plantation after he called for the abolition of slavery and set his slaves free. In the nineteenth century, Plaza de Armas was an essential meeting place for elite Haberano society. In the twentieth century, as the American embassy was built, the area around Plaza des Armas became the financial centre of Havana with the National Bank of Cuba, the National Bank of Canada and the National City Bank of New York locating along Calle Obispo and the Loma del Comercio (trading centre) opening for business in Plaza de San Francisco. Today, Plaza de Armas is largely tourist area containing a number of restaurants including La Mina (which is a Habaguanex restaurant). In Plaza de Armas and Plaza de la Catedral, you will probably see mulatas dressed in nineteenth century costume. Look also at the questions about the four plazas under Old Havana. 
Museum de la Cuidad: you should spend a short time in the Museum de la Cuidad. Like a number of other buildings in Havana, this has gone through various incarnations as a residence of Spanish governor general, presidents of the republic and now the museum of the city. Compare this museum with the Museum of the Revolution. The content is rather different with the former exhibiting relics of Cuba’s pre-revolutionary history and the latter focussing on the events of the 1950s.
PLAZA DE LA CATEDRAL 
Plaza de la Catedral was the last square to be laid out in Old Havana. It is on the site of the Plazuela de la Ciénaga (Little Square of the Swamp) and, despite being subject to flooding at a time when water-borne diseases caused considerable mortality, it was an important recreational location within Old Havana in years gone-by. In the seventeenth century, a royal proclamation prevented building within the square in order to preserve the square for the common good but buildings gradually appeared throughout the eighteenth century and, when the square had been dried out, it became an exclusive location for rich Haberanos to build their homes (see, for example, the restaurant El Patio). In 1788 work began on The Catedral de San Cristóbal, with its two unequal towers, which now dominates the square. It was built by the Jesuits and once apparently held the remains of Christopher Columbus although historians suggest that the remains were actually those of the explorer’s son Diego, Governor of the Indies. Consider:
PLAZA DE SAN FRANCISCO DE ASIS Plaza de San Francisco is the second oldest plaza in the city with a square having existed here before the first Franciscan convent was built here in 1591. Yet the history of this square extends further since it was in the area between Plaza de San Francisco and Plaza des Armas that the indigenous people of Havana are believed to have settled. In many ways, this square is typical of those found in Europe with its central fountain and church built in 1719. Nonetheless, this plaza feels more open than many of the others in the city because it faces the sea and the dock where cruise ships dock. Given its location, the Plaza has traditionally been the heart of Havana’s commercial life, surrounded by many warehouses and the original location of the city’s market. The Church within the square has a rich history having been requisitioned by British colonists in 1762 and becoming a very fashionable Church with Havana’s elite in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Today, perhaps the most symbolic aspect of the Church are the twin chairs used by Fidel Castro and the Pope during his visit to Cuba in 1998.
PLAZA VIEJA Plaza Vieja is bounded by Calle Mercaderes, San Ignacio, Brasil and Muralla. It has gone through many different incarnations since it was first laid out in 1584. Originally, the square was intended to be entirely residential in response to the loss of Plaza des Armas to the military but its centre had a number of different functions. The space was used for public entertainment (processions, bullfighting, masked balls etc.), for executions and, in 1772, the first café in Havana was opened in this square. In 1835, the square housed the open market after it was moved from Plaza San Francisco at the request of the monks. The arrival of the market was subject to much protest from the wealthy residents of the square who had chosen to live in the square because of its close proximity to the commercial centre of the city but its suitable distance from the noise of the port. Many of these colonial mansions remain despite the changing fortunes of the square. When the market was closed, it was replaced first with an amphitheatre and, in 1952, the square was raised to a metre about street level when the authorities built an underground car-park. The car-park was demolished in 1995 by order of Eusebio Leal, the city’s historian, when the restoration of Havana got underway. Today, many of the houses in Plaza Vieja have been converted into compact units in order to address the housing problem within Old Havana. 
Consider:
Look also at the questions about the four plazas under Old Havana FRIDAY University, Revolution Square & Vedado Convene in the hotel lobby at 9am. Today, you will need to organise yourselves so that you go to the University of Havana and Revolution Square.
REMEMBER: 6pm meeting with Staff As you walk around, you need to reflect on the issues raised yesterday and on:
COLON CEMETERY Havana’s large cemetery was built in 1868 in a location that was, at that time, far from the edge of the city. It was completed in time for the burials of those killed in the first War of Independence and the victims of Havana’s cholera epidemic. Indeed, the first person to be buried in the graveyard was its architect Calixto de la Loira. Today, there are approximately one million people buried here. The cemetery is laid out in a grid-iron pattern and maps are available at the entrance. If you wander from the main sections of the graveyard, you see some of the most striking evidence of Cuba’s different religious cults including Santeria. There are a number of graves that are worth looking at including:
Consider:
PLAZA DE LA REVOLUCION History: This space was selected as the potential civic centre for Havana in the 1930s. Today it is described as ‘the most unappealing, bleakest deserts of space imaginable’ and as a place with no appeal for tourists yet it is one of Havana’s most iconic (if disappointing) locations. The square was originally planned as a ‘monumental space’ and was intended to be four times its current size but building was delayed and eventually scaled down. Building of the Plaza Cívica (later to be renamed) began in 1952 and continued through much of the 1950s. When Batista fled in 1959, the square had taken shape with a statue of José Martí as its focal point. It was renovated in 1996. The design of the plaza and the area around it was influenced by CIAM (Congrès Internationaux d’Architecture Moderne2), and particularly the work of Le Corbusier. For many Cubans, the Ministry of Justice building (behind the José Martí memorial – now Castro’s office) and the José Martí memorial depict the authoritarian and hierarchical view held by the developers of the square. The design of the square is seen by some as too obvious and imposing. The majority of the buildings that make up Plaza de la Revolución are government ministry buildings. The most famous building in the square is the Ministerio del Interior building (MININT) on the front of which is the famous black metal outline of Che Guevara and his words ‘Hasta la Victoria Siempre’. Che has an iconic status in Cuba and yet the building on which his image is found is one of the most feared buildings in Cuba. The Ministry of the Interior is part of Cuba’s internal security system that monitors the activities of the Cuban people. Cubans fear that their conversations may be listened to and are fearful of making any critical comment about Castro or the activities of the state. You will see cars of the staff of MININT around the city – they are noticeable because of their green number plates. Also around the square:
The Square is the main location from which Fidel Castro makes speeches to the massive crowds. The timing of his speeches are rarely made public in advance, instead, announcements are made on the streets of Havana. ‘Todos hasta la plaza’ is the call for the people of Havana to make their way to the Plaza de la Revolución. Although to some extent the Protestodromo, outside the US Special Interests Section, has become a new focus for protest against anti-imperialism, Revolution Square remains a focal point for Cubans and has been the location of some important events including the location where the Pope said Mass when he came to Cuba in 1998. Make sure you visit: José Martí Museum & Tower. Consider Revolution Square:
Consider José Martí:
From the top of the monument:
General Issues:
UNITED STATES INTERESTS SECTION At the point where the Malecón meets Linea, there is a large and heavily policed building which houses the US Interests Section within the Swiss Embassy. Given the continued strain in political relations between Havana and Washington, the US has no embassy in Cuba and is instead served by its Special Interests Section. You will probably be asked to walk on the other side of the road from the building and will not be allowed to take any photographs. It is worth having a look at the nearby billboard. It is the largest billboard in Havana and continuously displays anti-US propaganda. In front of the building, there is a square with facilities for speeches. This square (officially named Tribuna Abierta Anti-Imperialista) was built in 1999 during the Elian Gonzalez ‘episode’. During the Gonzalez episode, the Cuban authorities built a statue of a small boy in the arms of Jose Marti at the end of the square. As the child points at Havana’s most overt symbol of imperialism, this could be seen as a very visual representation of the continued and renewed tensions between the United States and Cuba. Consider:
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y comparing this ‘public space’ with other public spaces within the city, what observations can you make about the ways in which public spaces are developed and used?