CUBA: Head of Old Havana restoration efforts Eusebio Leal receives Queen Sofia Prize

Record ID: 1525645

  • Title: CUBA: Head of Old Havana restoration efforts Eusebio Leal receives Queen Sofia Prize
  • Date: 23rd December 2007
  • Summary: (L!2 ) HAVANA, CUBA (FILE - AUGUST 22, 2007) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF MEN AND WOMEN DANCING WITH STILTS LEAL OBSERVING DANCERS
  • Embargoed: 7th January 2008 11:41
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Cuba
  • Country: Cuba
  • Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment
  • Reuters ID: LVA7U2R2GWKSFUB7LQ5H1KFUC3OI
  • Aspect Ratio: 4:3
  • Story Text: A Spanish organization recognized Cuban historian Eusebio Leal on Tuesday (December 18) for his work in the restoration of historic Old Havana.
    The board for the Queen Sofia Prize voted unanimously to award Leal the prize, one he hopes will continue to attract the world's attention to the restoration projects in Havana.
    Leal, who attended an awards ceremony on Tuesday in Mexico, said he learned he had earned the prize two weeks from a bulletin released by the Spanish government.

    "With the publication in the official newsletter of the Spanish government, the prize is fully confirmed," he said.
    Almost half a century of communist rule has saved Havana's eclectic architecture from the urban developer's bulldozer, but a lack of repair has taken its toll on neo-Baroque and Art Deco gems.
    Dozens of colonial buildings and beautiful squares in Old Havana have been restored since the U.N. cultural agency UNESCO designated it a world heritage site in 1982.
    The prize will hopefully bring more funds to similar projects for the cash-strapped Cuba.

    "Every thinking person knows that to renew and restore with social and cultural motives costs what Napoleon considered indispensable and is relative to win a war: money, money and more money. Today we know that's not the case, but it does require money," Leal told Reuters earlier in the year.
    Leal added that his restoration project has been in line with Fidel Castro's project for the country, but always looking to reinvent itself to keep up with the times.

    "Everything I have done has been in cooperation with the social project of the country, but believing firmly in something the liberator (Simon Bolivar) once said: When we don't invent we make mistakes. And I don't believe in the reinvention of socialism as the creation a Frankenstein that is made up of pieces of a cadaver. I believe we are capable of creating," he said.
    The time warp of picturesque Old Havana is magnet for tourists and the renovation should lead to more and more tourist dollars for growing industry.

    "It's good. They're doing what they do in other places to renew the old things and it's very interesting," said French tourist Jose Luis Garcia while he made the rounds through Old Havana.
    Italian tourist Maurizio Casarin said there's been a notable change over the last three years.

    "I was here three years ago for a visit and I really think Havana has improved a lot as far as the restoration of the city. They've done a lot in the last three years. I've seen some marvellous things and I think that's commendable," he said.
    But while some of Old Havana has been restored, much of the rest of the city of 2.2 million people is falling into decay and in need of work.
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