A New Conversation

In some ways Cuba at the beginning of the 21st century is a world frozen in the early 1960s. What Americans call antique cars—1950s Buicks, Chevrolets and Cadillacs—chug along the streets of Havana, held together by wire, tape and Cuban ingenuity. There are such post-modern hotels as the Riviera built by American mobster Meyer Lansky side by side with historic buildings and fortifications dating from the 16th century, many decaying and near collapse. Along the tree-lined streets and wide boulevards of the Vedado and Miramar districts, where Havana’s middle class and wealthy once lived, are stately homes and grand villas now divided into tenements.

Daily life is difficult for the average Cuban. However, there is no starvation, literacy is almost universal and healthcare is among the best in Latin America. Shining through the daily hardships is the traditional, animated spirit of the talented Cuban people as witnessed in their music, dance, lively dialogue and cultural institutions—particularly their museums.

A month before Cuba commemorated the 50th anniversary of its 1959 communist revolution, AAM President Ford Bell and I visited Havana at the invitation of Eusebio Leal Spengler, the widely respected historian of Havana and director of the Havana City Museum. The visit was driven by a broad imperative for AAM to build bridges to sister institutions abroad in our uncertain post-Sept. 11 world.

We had two goals for the visit. First was to learn about Cuban museums and the Cuban museum profession and to share that information with the American museum community. Second, we wanted to discuss with our Cuban colleagues the possibilities for opening dialogues and exchanges between Cuban and American museums and professionals, a discourse that has been largely absent since the institution of the U.S. embargo in 1962. The timing of our visit corresponded with new approaches toward Cuba projected by the then-incoming Obama administration and liberalization initiatives by Cuban President Raúl Castro, who had recently replaced his ailing brother, Fidel. What we found was an energetic museum culture and talented colleagues.

The structure of the Cuban museum community, although smaller in size, is similar to our own. There are 315 museums in Cuba, or approximately one for every 38,000 people. (In the U.S. the ratio is roughly 1 to 50,000.) Cuban museums are divided among national, provincial and municipal institutions whose subjects include art, natural history, science, and regional and local history. As in the United States, most of the museums in Cuba are small institutions. There are museums and sites operated by the Ministry of Defense related to the 1959 Cuban Revolution, and botanical gardens and museums of archaeology and anthropology that are part of the University of Havana. There are no private museums in Cuba.

Ninety percent of Cuba’s museums are under the jurisdiction of the National Council of Cultural Heritage (CNPC) in the Cuban Ministry of Culture. Most of these museums are modest and serve primarily local audiences. Council President Margarita Ruiz told us that CNPC museums employ “several thousand” and are focused on the “improvement of the people through culture and an understanding of the past.”

Finca Vigía, Ernest Hemingway’s country house overlooking Havana, is the most popular museum operated by the CNPC. The house where the Nobel Prize-winning author lived for 20 years has been largely untouched since his death in 1961. Hemingway’s beloved fishing boat, the Pilar, has been restored and sits in a special pavilion on the villa’s grounds. The preservation of Hemingway’s 9,000-book library and his personal effects poses significant conservation challenges for the museum’s staff. Director Ada Rosa Alfonso gave us a personal tour of the non-climate-controlled house and relayed her hopes that Hemingway’s importance to both Cuban and U.S. history would inspire increased contacts with American conservators and literary historians in today’s changing political environment.

CNPC also operates Centro Nacional de Conservación, Restauración y Museología (CENCREM), the country’s major conservation and museological center housed in Old Havana’s restored 17th-century Convento de Santa Clara. María García, the centro’s director, supervises a staff of 75, of whom 32 are conservators. The balance is composed of museologists and architectural historians. The converted rooms of the former convent serve as studios where conservators work on objects from Cuba’s museums, historic buildings and churches. The centro also holds classes in conservation and museum studies. While we were there students and young professionals from Cuba and several Latin American countries were attending a lecture on museum management by a Spanish colleague. Before the tightening of the embargo in the early 1990s, professors and students from the United States came to CENCREM to lecture and learn, but these exchanges have largely dried up. Like most of the Cuban colleagues we met, María García was optimistic that the future would open new opportunities for exchange.

Museo de bellas artes (MNBA), cuba's largest and most important art museum, is considered one of the finest art museums in Latin America. It is directly under the jurisdiction of the Council of State, Cuba’s highest governmental body. The museum’s Palacio de Bellas Artes, which reopened in 1995 after extensive renovations, presents the history of Cuban art from the 18th century to the present in modern, well-lit and climate-controlled galleries. Among the exhibition highlights are the works of the modern Cuban painter Wifredo Lam, the sculpture of Agustín Cárdenas and pieces by noted contemporary Afro-Cuban artist Manuel Mendive.

The Museo recently exhibited works from its collection at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo in Monterey, Mexico. While Director Moraima Clavijo was grateful that Philippe de Montebello of the Metropolitan Museum of Art attended the reopening of the museum’s building in 1995, she said that her museum suffers from a lack of interaction with U.S. art museums. Echoing what we heard from other Cuban colleagues, Clavijo told us that her many requests for a visa from the U.S. Department of State have gone unanswered.

Another category of Cuban museums are those related to the 1959 revolution. At the Museum of the Revolution located in Havana’s former Presidential Palace, bullet holes from the failed 1957 attempt to assassinate dictator Fulgencio Batista scar the interior spaces. The upper rooms of the palace have been converted into galleries tracing the history of Cuba’s two-century struggle for independence from Spain and then the United States. José Andrés Pérez, the museum’s director, led us through the antiquated but informative displays, explaining that efforts were underway to restore the building and introduce modern techniques to exhibitions on José Martí, Fidel Castro and Che Guevara. Except for comic presentations of the two Presidents Bush and Ronald Reagan as cretins, there is surprisingly little propaganda in the displays. Unlike similar presentations favored by communist regimes in the former Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China, Cuban museums have avoided hyped political messages. While on the street Che Guevara’s image decorates T-shirts and coffee mugs, it is rare to find glorified representations of Che Guevera or Fidel Castro in Cuban museum galleries.

Adjacent to the Museum of the Revolution is the outdoor Granma Memorial displaying the boat that carried Castro and his rebel band from Mexico in 1956 to begin the last phase of the revolution. The display also contains parts of an American U2 plane shot down during the Cuban Missile Crisis and an eternal flame dedicated to the heroes of the revolution. The Ministry of Defense also operates San Carlos de La Cabaña, the large 18th-century fortress overlooking Havana Harbor. Here re-enactors set off cannons each noon.

During our sojourn in cuba, ford bell and I were particularly impressed with work of our host Leal, who was appointed historian of Havana and director of the City Museum in 1967 at the age of 25. The decisive moment for Leal’s vision of restoring Old Havana (Habana Vieja), a World Heritage Site, came in 1990 with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Eastern European communist governments that had been subsidizing the Cuban economy. In 1991 Cuba entered what it calls the “Special Period” marked by economic crisis and the introduction of new ways of addressing the needs of agriculture, transportation, housing, industry and historic preservation. Beginning its work with a $1 million governmental grant approved by Fidel Castro in 1992, Leal’s Office of the Historian of Havana has led one of the world’s most innovative and successful historic preservation projects. The 1.3-square-mile Old Havana is effectively an autonomous urban enterprise zone managed by Leal through a multifaceted corporation that operates hotels, restaurants, retail shops, tourist-oriented businesses and real estate enterprises. The profits from these activities fund Leal’s ongoing historic restoration projects and a large social service agency operated by his office in collaboration with the Catholic order of the Sisters of Charity.

The complex scheme has included the restoration of Old Havana’s historic plazas; the restoration and conversion of historic structures into museums, boutique hotels and restaurants; the restoration and adaptation of unused churches into cultural centers presenting concerts and lectures; the restoration of functioning churches for religious services; the creation of educational programs for adults, children and families; and the staging of street theater and walking tours through the historic distinct. To accomplish its goals the Office of the City Historian formed two companies. Habaguanex, S.A. operates 18 small hotels, 50 restaurants and bars, and 70 retail stores in Old Havana—all catering to tourists. Fenix, S.A. manages rentals of apartments and office spaces as well as a taxi service and horse-drawn carriage rides in the historic district. In 2008 the office generated a $130 million profit, with 35 percent supporting ongoing restoration work and growing the business operations, 45 percent funding social services that benefit Old Havana residents and 20 percent going to the central government.

The project to date has created 26 museums housed in restored buildings, all but one in Old Havana. They range from large multi-gallery historic landmarks to “storefront”-style museums. In addition to the City Museum in the Palacio de los Capitanes Generales, they include the Casa Natal de José Martí, Farmacia Habanera, Museo de Arte Colonial, Museo Nacional Numismático and Havana’s earliest fortress, the 1558 Castillo de la Real Fuerza. There are also museums and galleries dedicated to textiles, ceramics, chocolate, and Asian, African, Arabic and Islamic culture. The museums under the Office of the City Historian house a quarter of a million artifacts ranging from archeological finds to Colonial Spanish silver to flags symbolic of Cuba’s revolutions.

In 1998 Leal’s office began providing classroom space in its museums to the schools of Havana. For extended periods of the school year, elementary school-age students follow their normal curriculum in museum galleries and receive special instruction in subjects including history, architecture and ecology. Leal’s educational efforts extend to degree programs in the preservation and management of cultural heritage at the newly restored San Gerónimo College in Old Havana. Established in the 2007-08 academic year, the six-year curriculum offers courses in museology, archeology, urban management and socio-cultural administration. The syllabus is the first of its kind in Cuba.

The restored 18th-century convento de neustra señora de belén (convent of our Lady of Bethlehem) in Old Havana is headquarters of Leal’s extensive social welfare assistance for the inhabitants of Old Havana. This includes a health clinic and pharmacy, physical therapy for the elderly, services for disabled youth, eye care and glasses for all ages, meals for those in need, support for single mothers, occupational training and, soon to come, housing for the elderly. Mass and other religious services are held at the convent, and there is a full schedule of crafts, musicals and activities for senior citizens. In hurricane season the convent also functions as an emergency shelter for the neighborhood. This social welfare work has received international recognition and support, particularly from Spain. “The more we save the more we can spend on social projects,” Leal says.

Leal’s critics claim that these activities are an effort to placate Old Havana’s 93,000 residents, many of whom live in poverty while their neighborhood is converted into a “Potemkin Village” for tourists. To walk through Old Havana’s neighborhoods can indeed be jarring. Pristine restorations stand side by side with dilapidated and collapsing buildings that are home to thousands. In the center of the recently restored Old Square stands a beautiful new marble fountain guarded by tall iron gates. We were told by residents that the gates were erected to prevent them from using the fountain as their primary source of water.

But it would be unfair to view Leal’s efforts cynically. He has attempted to preserve and restore the World Heritage Site of Old Havana in the face of catastrophic economic challenges. His only practical choice was tourism, the country’s major source of hard currency. Old Havana annually attracts thousands of tourists from Canada, Great Britain, Spain, Germany and France whose spending supports both historic preservation and the humanitarian needs of the community. Leal’s blending of entrepreneurial skill with a social conscience could serve as a model of how museums can advance their missions while simultaneously addressing the economic and humanitarian needs of their communities.

In describing his working philosophy Leal told us that “we have our head in heaven and our feet on earth.” His management style is collaborative, with horizontal relationships that allow for the free flow of ideas. His goals are clear—“restoring buildings restores values”—and he has been dogged in achieving them under severe financial constraints. Central to his efforts is the safeguarding and strengthening of Cuban identity. Countering Cuba’s legacy of foreign dominance, he affirms, “Let our uniqueness be respected.” He has received many international honors for his work and has developed ongoing relationships with historians, historic preservationists, architects and museum directors, particularly in Europe and Latin America. He told us that he was in communication with S. Dillon Ripley, the secretary of the Smithsonian, and other American colleagues before the tightening of the U.S. embargo in the early 1990s. Since then contact with American colleagues has been minimal. He would like to change this and initiate dialogues with American museum professionals and preservationists that would in turn create exchanges of ideas, experiences, expertise and technology. He would specifically like to exchange information on methodologies for acquiring, handling, presenting and conserving collections, as well as the application of the latest technologies to museum work. Echoing many of the Cuban professionals we met, Leal expressed his hope that a new era in U.S. and Cuban relations will open avenues for such exchanges.

But creating a new dialogue will not be quick or easy. Our visit and discussions with Cuban colleagues introduced us to the impact of the 50-year U.S. embargo and 50 years of communist rule. The embargo has only hurt the Cuban people while strengthening the government’s claim that it is protecting Cuba from “Yankee imperialism.” Centralized communist rule has also wreaked havoc on the Cuban economy. It is clear, however, that the Cuban people do not want to return to the days when their lives were controlled by companies and mobsters from the “800-pound gorilla” to the north.

On Aug. 1, 2009, eight months after our visit, Cuba’s Parliament enacted the “Law of the National System of Museums of the Republic of Cuba,” creating a national museum structure under the Ministry of Culture to inventory collections, codify standards and systemize the implementation of professional methodologies in collections care and presentation. The law reflects the conviction of the Cuban leadership that preserving Cuba’s heritage and national identity as well as the values of the 1959 revolution are key national priorities. It’s instructive that the law on museums has been enacted in the face of severe economic hardship, the most difficult since the early 1990s, brought on by the world economic recession, the embargo and Cuba’s continued commitment to a Soviet-style economy.

Although the historic complexities of U.S.-Cuban relations remain, there is much to be gained by increasing communication and collaboration between Cuban and American museum professionals. First, it is obvious that after 50 years of near silence we need to open a dialogue with our colleagues working only 90 miles away. Americans will benefit from reducing our ignorance about Cuban history and expanding our appreciation for Cuba’s culture through program and exhibition exchanges. Cubans, who have historic ties to Americans, will benefit from similar exhibitions and cultural programs on American culture and history going to Cuba. In the areas of professional education and conservation techniques we have much to learn from each other. Cuban museums can benefit from our technologies, and we can gain from their experiences in integrating museums into formal educational structures as well as their use of museums to meet social needs of the community. We need to invite our Cuban colleagues to our professional meetings and conferences and assist them in obtaining visas from the U.S. State Department. Americans should take advantage of the many professional conferences and international meetings presented by our Cuban counterparts on subjects ranging from historic preservation to Latin American art.

Since Sept. 11, 2001, we have come to understand that our national security rests on more than military might. Our knowledge, appreciation and acceptance of other cultures and traditions inform how we approach the world and how others view us. Museums have been and can be even more valued bridges to enlightenment about others and informing others about us. As the United States and Cuba seek a fresh relationship, American and Cuban museums can and should be in the forefront of the new conversation.

Robert R. Macdonald served as chair of the AAM Board from 1985 to 1988. He is director emeritus of the Museum of the City of New York, vice chair of CAMOC/ICOM and vice chair of the South Carolina Aquarium.