On
the Passing of Eusebio Leal, Historian of the City of Havana
The Sweet and Consoling Union of Love and Hope for the Homeland
- Radio Havana -
On July 31,
the Cuban nation was saddened to learn of the passing of Dr. Eusebio
Leal Spengler, the renowned and much loved City of Havana Historian.
Eusebio Leal led a life of service, dedicated to preserving the
authentic historical and cultural patrimony of Cuba and its people. He
did this through his teachings and writings and, notably, through his
vital work to preserve and restore the beautiful heart of historic
Havana -- Havana Vieja.
Eusebio Leal was a member of the Central
Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and an elected deputy of the
National Assembly of People's Power of Cuba. TML Weekly
is publishing below a tribute to his life and work written by the
editorial staff of Radio Havana.
 
How difficult a blank page is at this moment.
There are no words that can fill the emptiness or describe the sadness
and shock that Cubans who loved and admired him felt on receiving the
news.
There were years of intense work, rescuing our
patrimony, returning a part of our identity to those of us who were
born on the Island. We never imagined how much effort there was behind
each undertaking, how many years of sacrifice, of incessant struggle.
Eusebio Leal Spengler dedicated his life to that.
His physical disappearance pains us, has shocked
us. We thought he was immortal, a man who would always be here to
preserve not only Old Havana but the entire Cuban patrimony which he
loved so much. But once again death has played a trick on us.
 "We are part of
the great challenges and great moments," this great man would say at
times. He was not only part of them; he was a witness, a maker of
ideas, of dreams, of realities, he battled against windmills, but
achieved results. He was a Quixote of our time.
In 1981, by decision of the Government, the Office
of the Historian of the City of Havana took up the great challenge of
carrying out the first restoration plan. Behind that enormous effort,
after so many years of pushing for it, was Leal. And he carried it
successfully for decades, nourishing a dream-reality, returning the
capital to its splendour, nurturing the spirituality of every human
being, little by little transforming our perception of a city that has
already seen five centuries of existence.
As he himself said, a work like this, with
international impact and public recognition, could only be accomplished
in a Revolution like ours, with the support of a leader like Fidel. And
our Historian had to live through an intense and fruitful time that
began for him in 1959, when the process of revolutionary changes, of
renovation in all areas of Cuban society began. This idea is what
reaffirms his deep revolutionary conviction: "We are the custodians,
the inheritors and continuers of the cultural, social and political
heritage of a nation."
Hero of Labour of the Republic of Cuba, a Cuban
who has received countless awards, decorations and honourary
doctorates, Leal has been, thanks to his "gladiatorial stewardship,"
the discoverer and re-discoverer, every day and for years, of his
Havana, our Havana. From a very young age, he dreamed of restoration,
something he accomplished in spades. He was fortunate to have Emilio
Roig de Leuchsenring, the first City of Havana Historian, as his
teacher and guide, whose vitality and love for the capital he imbibed,
to the point of declaring: "Without Emilio Roig there would be no
Eusebio Leal."
A lover of books, a Christian, a militant patriot,
a total son of his times, Leal is, as Dr. Ana Cairo once said, a great
example of revolutionary humanism in Cuba, because he polemicized, he
accessed new knowledge, he shared his knowledge, listened to people and
was moved by their spiritual needs.
We further quote Dr. Cairo who, with her
typical clairvoyance said: "Leal is an example of the best
virtues, a representative of a generation that was self-taught, but
whose humble origins did not lead to his marginalization, two things
that today seem to go together. In his case it showed that one can be
poor and have education, civility and culture [...]. Leal must continue
to be a model for Cuban society."
In everything that Leal did, in everything he
defended, we cannot forget his patriotic vision, grounded in the ideas
of Marti -- "that sweet and consoling union of love and hope for the
homeland" -- thanks to which he carried out truly invaluable
transformations for the country.
 In this sense,
Eduardo Torres-Cuevas, another one of our most profound intellectuals,
once asserted -- also repeating a phrase from Martí: "I
believe that Leal was truly one of the most real and valuable men of
our time ... Understanding reality and working to change what had to be
changed of that reality, and at the same time [understanding] the
utility of the work, the utility of virtue. And that demanded of him --
which was natural -- a professional and human ethic that imbued all of
his work. It would be difficult for me to try and speak in a fragmented
way about Leal's work. One way or another, his work extended over a
wide field, and I would say that this breadth was a result of the
utility of his vision, of a non-pragmatic utility, of what had to be
done and how to do it, how to produce really useful transformations. We
are talking about a utility that mainly relates to values."
At the Book Fair that was dedicated to Leal, the
Historian of the City of Havana stated that he wished life was longer
to give him the opportunity to do more and more, because what he had
done so far seemed meagre to him. But by way of an anecdote he
concluded that all was not in vain. He put it this way: "A few days
ago, as I was walking through a plaza in Old Havana, a father
approached me with his little son so the boy could greet me. I asked
him: And what do you want to be when you grow up? And the boy replied:
Me? A historian.
"That is why Eusebio Leal has kept his spirits up
and always gets re-energized. Previous historians did it, Doctor Roig
did it. I have had to do it, others will have to do it. They will
appear with other names [...]. What we have sown and what we have done,
he concluded, we must hope and have faith that it will bear fruit in
the new generations."
This article was published in
Volume 50 Number 29 - August 8, 2020
Article Link:
On
the Passing of Eusebio Leal, Historian of the City of Havana: The Sweet and Consoling Union of Love and Hope for the Homeland - Radio Havana
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
|
