Cuba Travel Blog

When looking at one of the many available pictures of Winston Churchill one doesn’t need to be very accurate to  notice the link between the  famous British statesman and Cuba. His well known image invariably appears smoking one of the distinguished Cuban Cigars “Romeo y Julieta”, that’s why the cigar company decided to give the name Churchill to one of their best sold “vitolas”. But you’d be mistaken to think  this is the only existing bond, without going deeper into the trajectory of the person that would guide England in the hard times of the second world war.
 

Just a little after the conservatives lost the elections and Churchill had to step down from the prime minister chair, he arrived in Cuba  exactly on the 1^st of February of 1946. Churchill was accompanied by his wife Clementine and his daughter Sarah and stayed at Cuba National Hotel monopolizing the interest of all the Cuban society of the time.

 He was already 71 years old but the vitality that allowed him to successfully face so many battles in his rich existence were evidently intact. This was quickly noticed by the hotel workers who, after the departure of the distinguished guest and as a response to the curiosity of the press on knowing the details of Churchill’s stay, commented that the man began to cause trouble at early morning times. Churchill would wake up at 5 in the morning and from that moment on he would raise hell in  the whole hotel staff. His whims were overwhelming for those who had the mission to serve him well as if he still were  the English primer.

One rainy day, upset because the weather did not allow him to take his usual swim in the pool, he suddenly ordered to pack his suitcases to leave and later on counter-ordered to unpack them as soon as the sun came out. Another day , as if by magic, Churchill disappeared for several hours. Not even Clementine could respond to where he could have gone. The man resisted the passing of time and  giving up certain pleasures of life. Much later, it would be known that Sir Churchill had escaped to  enjoy the beauty of the women of Havana in an exclusive and secluded house of ill - repute. He spent his free time playing cards with whoever would care to accompany him and the press of the time wrote: “He eats, drinks and smokes without restrictions of any class. And a lot.”

It was also said  that, on one occasion Churchill asked to be taken for a drive around the city in a convertible and, since the Cuban protocol did not have any such  vehicle, the proprietor of the Partagás cigar factory, maybe in an attempt to  snatch the famed client from “Romeo y Julieta, offered his own car and served as a driver in exchange for a visit to the Partagás Factory. Almost at the end of his stay, as it was expected to occur, he was invited for lunch by the president of the republic Ramón Grau San Martín. Lunch offered yet another anecdote. Churchill left to the Presidential Palace, with all the etiquette the occasion demanded and gave reliable proof of his English origin as the delegation drove around the palace for 10 minutes in order for the ex-premier and the statesman to meet at the scheduled time. Yes Sir, punctuality first. When lunch ended, the Cuban president made Churchill go out to one of the terraces of the presidential house to observe the people of Havana who had gathered to greet him. He spoke to the crowd, in perfect Spanish; he said: “ I take this opportunity to say “Long Live the Pearl of the Antilles!”

At the end of his stay in the Island he made an enthusiast declaration: “If I did not have to meet with President Truman, I would stay here for a month”.

He left to the United States ending his final contact with the Island. This was the last, but not the first. Many years earlier, as many as 50, the initial encounter between Churchill and the Caribbean Pearl took place. It was in Cuba he had had his fire baptism in his twenty first anniversary.

On November 30, 1895, the young official Winston Churchill did not have time to celebrate his birthday as, forming part of the Spanish troops that tried to hunt down the Mambises led by General Máximo Gómez in the region of Sancti Spiritus, he found himself in the middle of a skirmish where, a bullet failed to injure him by only one feet from his head, killing the horse that followed his. Of the incident he would then write in his memoirs: “At least this way, I had been under fire; from this moment I commenced to adopt a more analytic position of our enterprise in Cuba from the one  I had before”.

What was Winston Churchill doing in Cuba? Well, “adventure for the sake of adventure”, as we would later write himself in his recollections.

One year after he joined the military academy of Sandhurst, and since England had not been  involved in a martial action for a while, he dedicated his vacation to coming to Cuba to observe the already long conflict between the Spanish metropolis and the Cuban “ mambises” to experience war and to report for the London journal The Daily Graphic. This time, his visit to the island lasted a month. The reasons for his departure are not clear: He could have been forced to leave due to  the scandal that provoked  in London the presence of a British military in a foreign conflict; but maybe it was that incident of the bullet  letting him live on the day of his birthday that forced him to come back  and look for more  pressing ideals.

In Cuba, Churchill received the first of his numerous laurels; the Red Cross, which was granted to the Spanish Officers. Of his fellow combatants he wrote: “I have not given much thought to their bravery, although they are very well versed in the art of retreat”.

He also dedicated, in his ample biography, long passages to the Cuban patriots of the

“ Manigua”: “The insurgents gain popular support constantly. There is no doubt they benefited from the sympathy of the majority of the Cuban population.”…”they were armed with a terrible knife called the machete”.

Of his presence in Cuba with the Spaniards a myth was created which haunted him for many years although he tried to get rid of it in several occasions. Anyway, in 1930, absorbed in enrolling the United States into World War II, an American congress man accused him of being an enemy of the United States in the war of 1898 against Spain. Truth be told, by this time Churchill was in India or in the south of Africa, yet drawn by his passion for rum and cigars from his “Pearl of the Antilles”.

By Liborio País.

Maybe you, interested in the values Havana has to offer as a destination in the Caribbean, already know or have read about the insignia institution of all Cuba hotels; The Hotel Nacional de Cuba. Maybe you know about its architectonic particularities, of its formidable and elevated location in front of the sea, of its competitive services and, it is possible, you may even recognize its almost 80 years of experience providing service, and of it being the preferred accommodation of all the famous people that have visited the major of the Antilles. Inaugurated in the end of 1930, Hotel Nacional de Cuba has triggered many comments and its goodness has traveled around the globe.

But even if you are a connoisseur of the Island, it is highly improbable that you know many of the stories  this eclectic building keeps. Of hardly one of these stories I will be sharing with you in this, my first article for the Cuba Travel Blog.

I will begin by telling you that the Hotel Nacional could today stand in a totally different place… Its actual location is in fact what most distinguishes this hotel within the urban map of Havana. The hotel is located in the coastal outgoing land of Punta Brava, in the highest position of the Taganana hill, almost at the extreme of the Caleta de San Lázaro. This location use to be a regular place for pirate ship landings during the XVII and XVIII centuries, reason why the Spanish metropolis chose the position to establish the famous Canon Battery of Santa Clara, of which some relics can still be found in the hotel gardens. But as mentioned before it could have been built in another location.

It was the second decade of the past century and Havana was in need of a luxurious hotel. It should be noted that by this time, Cuba already received some 60 thousand tourists a year. The President of The Republic was Gerardo Machado and in his Cabinet of Ministers outstands a man that in time and with his efforts in charge of the Public Works during the governing of Gerardo Machado, would gain himself the name of “ The Intrepid”. We are referring to Carlos Miguel de Céspedes. It was this man who most boosted the idea of building the Hotel Nacional de Cuba.

An immediate reaction arose from several interested investors. The American Casa Morgan pressured the government of Machado to allow them to build and operate this hotel. A delegation of American bankers and entrepreneurs was in Havana in these days headed by Mr. Browson, president of the Purdy & Henderson construction company. Its members had interviews with Mr. Céspedes and manifested that if the government were to yield the grounds  of the ancient Havana Jail, the company would build a magnificent hotel of 500 rooms. It was the intention of these men to build the hotel more to what was the center of Havana, just by the entrance of the Havana Bay, so that the future hotel would face the lighthouse of the Castillo del Morro.

Carlos Miguel told the Americans that this location could not be used for the project since the Government had already designated these grounds to the construction of the Palace of Justice, whose  plans had already been delivered by the Forestiers famous French planner; Céspedes had a better place in mind.

Mr. Browson reacted in fury and faced the Minister. Out of control, he told him that he would accept no other spot than the one he had requested. When Céspedes realized he was being pressured he called the construction company president a “zoquete” ( blockhead ) and told him it was impossible for them to do any business at all. When the other members of the American delegation noticed that the Minister was not someone that could be “blackmailed”, they intervened managing to calm both men and, a while later, they all agreed to visit the location that the Cuban representative had in mind and was willing to offer.

A while later Céspedes would tell the story to the press in the following words:

“When Mr. Browson got to the location, there, to the ancient Canon Batterry of Santa Clara, he was speechless. Not only did he congratulate me for my vision but also wanted to close the deal immediately. “

The contract for the construction of the hotel was however auctioned, at least apparently, and was won by Purdy & Henderson who also represented the interests of the Hotel Plaza in New York and the Morgan House. 3 million pesos would be invested in the hotel.

Another proof of intransigence was presented by Carlos Miguel when he proposed that in the contract it should be very clear that only the Cuban Flag was to flutter in the property. This determination would provoke yet another incident. These were times when the American flag would wave in the official buildings by the Cuban flag.

The day of the signature of the contract gathered what was the high society of the time in Havana with president Machado. While the contract was read Céspedes noted that the clause he had asked for had been omitted and, to President Machado’s surprise, Carlos Miguel tore the contract in pieces demanding a new contract where it would be clear that only the Cuban Flag would flutter by the hotel.

This story, related to the beginnings of the installation, is only one of many that the hotel treasures. So, when visiting this property and enjoying the privileged view of the Havana coastline,  you will now know how the location was argued and finally established. With stories like this one, we will be back very soon. For now I say goodbye to you all.