Leche y yogurt, Sancti Spiritus

Following yesterday's post, here is another typical painted sign for one of Cuba's food outlets. If counter number 27 is open both mornings and afternoons, those wanting some milk and yogurt should arrive there early!

Location: Calle Plácido, Sancti Spiritus

Mercado comunitario Mariana Grajales, Sancti Spitirus

In a back street of the historic centre of Sancti Spiritus, the capital of the namesake province in central Cuba, this little painted sign marks the entrance to a small community market named after Mariana Grajales, an icon of women's struggle and of the fight against slavery and for the island's independence.

Mercado
Comunitario
Mariana Grajales
Horario
de 11.00 am a 1.30 pm

Location: Calle Plácido (?), Sancti Spiritus

Hotel, Havana

A very simple sign that adds a lovely touch to a façade full of charm (shame a truck hid part of it).

Could this former hotel in the heart of Habana Vieja have been the Nueva Luz? This particular hotel on Calle de la Amargura was mentioned in 1959 by famous Argentine writer and journalist Rodolfo Walsh in the article "Calle de la Amargura número 303" about Jean Pasel. Pasel, whose real name was Juan Carlos Chidichimo, was an Argentine war correspondent. Persecuted for his progrssive views by many Latin American governments, he joined an expedition to overthrow the Haitian dictator François Duvalier. Most of the rebels, including Pasel, were killed on a beach shortly after landing. In the article Walsh writes that Pasel owed the hotel US$58 and had had to leave part of his belongings there as a guarantee.

Hotel

Location: Calle de la Amargura, Havana / Pictures taken in April 2010

La Mexicana, Trinidad

To start the new year, here are a couple of pictures more of La Mexicana, the shop from Trinidad, Cuba, where the 'Happy New Year' sign came from. Surprisingly, the pictures were taken in late March, when New Year's Eve was already a distant memory. The sign is just there all year round!

As for La Mexicana, it is a butcher's. However, as this is Cuba, there is only a small amount of meat available at subsidised prices, as indicated on the chalk board above the cash register.

In spite of what was painted on the wooden board, the butcher's was closed when we passed there at around 9:30 am as there was no meat. It did not seem to have had any the previous day either, the last date entered on the chalk board being two days earlier.

Location: Calle Simón Bolivar, Trinidad / Pictures taken in March 2010

Happy New Year!

Best wishes for 2013 to all the followers and readers of this blog!

La Mexicana Feliz Año Nuevo

[La Mexicana Happy New Year]

Location: Calle Simón Bolivar, Trinidad / Picture taken in March 2010

El Tigre de Oro, Santa Clara

I once read that El Tigre de Oro (The Golden Tiger) in Santa Clara, Cuba, used to be one of the town's best bakeries. As it was siesta time when we passed there, we could not check whether that reputation was still deserved.

Even if this lovely sign was painted relatively recently, El Tigre de Oro bakery may predate the Cuban revolution by several decades. Indeed I wonder if it was not behind the brand of galletas de chicharrón (biscuit or bun with pork rind) "El Tigre de Oro" that was advertised in some local publications in the 1930s.

Panadería El Tigre de Oro

[Bakery The Golden Tiger]

Location: Calle Céspedes, Santa Clara

Ferreteria, Havana

Since few limited companies were formed in Cuba after 1959, we can reasonably assume the ghost sign for ironmongery company Alba Ltd predates the triumph of the Cuban revolution. The 1949 edition of the Cuban phone directory lists a Ferretería Alba but in Calle Monserate. Maybe it moved to a new address at a later stage or the store in Calle Brasil was just a branch of the same company?
The Art Deco metal plaque above the door is worth a look.

Barely noticeable between the door and the metal shutter is another ghost sign. It says simply "Billar" ("Billiards") and was painted most certainly after the ironmonger's closed down. Was this a workshop where they made billiard tables, or simply a place where people could come and play? With the shutter closed, I couldn't check.

B i l l a r

Ferretería Alba S.A.

Location: Calle Brasil, Havana / Picture taken in April 2010

Bar cafeteria Primavera, Santa Clara

This painted sign for a Cuban bar and cafeteria seemed perfect to celebrate the arrival of spring (this is what primavera means in Spanish).

Bar
Cafetería
Primavera
Horario
De: 9:00 AM a 8:00 PM
Lunes: 1:00 PM a 8:00 PM
Location: Calle R. G. Garófalo, Santa Clara / Picture taken in April 2010

Unión de Jóvenes Comunistas, Havana

Spotted not too far from the Plaza de la Revolución in Havana, this bright sign was painted a couple of weeks before the 9th congress of the Unión de Jóvenes Comunistas (UJC - Youth Communist League) opened in early April 2010. As with other UJC signs, it incorporates the league's emblem designed in 1962 by Virgilio Martínez with the figures of Julio Antonio Mella, Camilo Cienfuegos and Ernesto 'Che' Guevara, and the words "Estudio, trabajo, fusil" ("Study, Work, Rifle"). As for the sentence written below, "Everything for the Revolution", it is a classic slogan reproduced throughout the island.

For more information, please see the post about another sign painted by the UJC in Havana.

9 Congreso
Todo por la Revolución
I really like how the "9" has been cleverly incorporated into "Congreso", even using the first 'o' to make the proper ordinal "noveno" ("ninth").

Location: Avenida de la Independencia, Havana / Picture taken in March 2010

Casa Rivero, Havana

The Casa Rivero no longer imports electric goods but its ghost sign still hangs on the façade. The texture of both the wall and the rusting metal sheet on which this ghost sign is painted combined with the fading colours make it pretty unmissable.

Tel. W. 9115		Casa Rivero		Tel. M. 2414
Importador efectos eléctricos

Location: Calle Muralla, Havana / Picture taken on: 04/04/2010

Unidad básica Joaquín de Agüero, Camaguey

On 12th August 1851, Joaquín de Agüero and three of his companions, Tomás Betancourt, Fernando de Zayas and Miguel Benavides, were executed by firing squad in the city of Puerto Príncipe (nowadays Camaguey), in central Cuba. The previous day they had been sentenced to death by the Spanish colonial authorities.
Joaquín de Agüero may not be the most famous hero in the struggle for Cuban independence but some of his actions are worth remembering. Born in 1816 in Puerto Príncipe in a family of small landowners, Agüero was sent at the age of 21 by his father to Havana to study law but returned two years later because of his father's ill health. His father died shortly afterwards and at the end of 1840 Joaquín de Agüero inherited the family's farms and six slaves. Two years later he founded the first free school in Guáimaro, a town of a few hundred souls about 70 km southwest of Puerto Príncipe. If the authorities thanked him for his action, they became extremely concerned when, on 3rd February 1843, he freed his eight slaves and gave each of them a plot of land they could cultivate and earn a living from. At the time pressure was mounting to abolish slavery but the Spanish authorities and large landowners were firmly opposed to such a measure. In that context, Agüero's decision was perceived as a grave offense against property, reason and justice and he was summoned by the governor of Puerto Príncipe to explain his action. Fearing for himself and his family, he left for the United States a few months later but, homesick, returned to Cuba after three months.
Back on the island, Agüero spent most of the time at El Redentor, his farm near Guáimaro, and became increasingly involved in the underground independence movements. By 1849 he was a leading member of Puerto Príncipe's Sociedad Libertadora, whose aim was to organize an armed uprising. This took place on the 4th July 1851 in San Francisco de Juracal, near Guáimaro. Agüero and his followers published a declaration rejecting Spanish authority and demanding independence before heading towards the more remote part of the region. Yet the forty-man strong force was badly organized and inexperienced in military matters. Hunted by Spanish troops, they were rapidly defeated. Agüero was betrayed and arrested on his way to Puerto Príncipe, from where he was hoping to reach the coast and escape to the US (*).

Following the independence several streets, avenues, squares and schools were named after Joaquín de Agüero. In Castrist Cuba, where many shops and companies have adopted the names of some of the island's leading figures, the name of Agüero is also associated in his hometown with a collective catering enterprise that offers, according to the painted sign below, sandwiches, drinks and enormous ice creams!

Empresa alimentación colectiva
Unidad básica Joaquín de Agüero
*: in spite of having "Puerto" in its name, in the 19th century Puerto Príncipe was nowhere near the coast. Originally, when it was founded in 1514 as Santa María del Puerto del Príncipe, it stood on the northern coast of Cuba, near present-day Nuevitas. However because of repeated attacks the site of the settlement was changed a couple of times before the inhabitants moved inland in 1528, halfway between the Atlantic Ocean to the north and the Caribbean Sea to the south. The name was later shortened to Puerto Príncipe. The city was renamed Camaguey in 1898 when Cuba gained independence from Spain.

Location: Avenidad de los Martires, Camaguey / Picture taken on: 30/03/2010

Ferretería El Molino, Havana

This large house in the centre of Havana was built in 1887 for one of the city's wealthy families. Living quarters were found on the first floor while the ground floor was rented out to different businesses. One of these was the ferretería, or ironmonger's shop, "El Molino" ("The Mill"), which at some point in the first quarter of the 20th century became a limited company under the name "Ferretería Molinos S. A."
The ferretería and the other shops closed a long time ago and in 1986 the Casa Museo de África opened within its walls.

Ferretería "Molinos S. A."

Ferretería

El Molino ...a..

Like many buildings in the historic centre of the Cuban capital, this house was wonderfully restored a few years ago by the Oficina del Historiador de la Ciudad de La Habana, the institution in charge of the capital's heritage. In the process, some of the names of the shops that occupied the ground floor and adverts for the products they sold were uncovered and a team of specialists in preservation and restoration of mural paintings from the Oficina's Empresa de Restauración de Monumentos was called in.
There is some debate about whether ghost signs should be restored to their original design, preserved in their current state or left to fade away. In Cuba the authorities seem to have chosen not to restore them but to keep them in the state they are in when the building they are painted on is being restored. Thus only the treatment necessary to prevent further damage is normally applied.

The picture below has been created by stitching two photos.


Location: Calle Obrapía, Havana / Pictures taken on: 03/04/2010

Cuba's Communist Party, Camaguey

After much delay, the Partido Comunista de Cuba (Cuba's Communist Party) gathered on April 16 for its sixth conference (the fifth one had taken place in 1997). Although the news of Fidel Castro's retirement as first secretary and his replacement by his 'younger' brother Raúl, and the proposal to introduce a term limit of two five-year periods to rejuvenate the leadership of the Revolution grabbed the headlines, it is the far-reaching economic reforms formulated in the policy paper Guidelines to Social and Economic Policy that have been occupying the delegates' minds and are of particular concern to Cubans. Not all proposals included have been made public but the aim is to liberalise the economy and increase further the role of private initiative at the expense of the state after the first reforms in that sense adopted last year by the government. In other words, this will open a new chapter in the economic history of the island. If you want to know more about these reforms, you can always check the press or, even better, come from September to the courses on Latin America at the City Lit in London (yes, I know, that's some shameless promotion).
Anyway, this sixth conference gives me the opportunity to post a sign representing the logo of Cuba's Communist Party. Although many walls are decorated with the symbols of the Unión de Jóvenes Comunistas (Youth Communist League) and of the Comités de Defensa de la Revolución (Committees for the Defense of the Revolution), the logo of the PCC is rarely represented in the streets of the island.


The logo was designed by Cuban painter Orlando Yanes and presented when the PCC was officially founded on October 3, 1965. It is based on a picture taken on April 16, 1961 at a ceremony organised in the Vedado area of Havana to honour and bury the seven victims killed the day before during an air attack by anti-revolutionary forces on two airfields near Havana (Santiago de Cuba's airport, in the east, was also targeted. These attacks prepared the ground for the Bay of Pigs invasion on April 17). In front of the crowd gathered at the corner of streets 12 and 23, Fidel declared:

What the imperialists will never forgive us for is that we are here, they will never forgive us because of the dignity, firmness, courage, ideological conviction, sacrifice and revolutionary spirit of the Cuban people. That is why they will not forgive us, he added, ...and that we have carried out a socialist Revolution in front of their eyes!

The picture captured the enthusiastic reaction of the crowd to these words: thousands of people raised their fists and brandished their weapons, showing their determination to repel their enemy at any cost. Yanes placed this powerful image into a red rectangle and added above the weapons a red banner, symbol of the working class and of the communist nature of the party, and the Cuban flag. Normally the acronym of the party is painted red with a white outline, rather than plain white as on the wall above.

Location: Avenidad de los Martires, Camaguey / Picture taken on: 30/03/2010

Casa de los Vinos, Havana

A simple restaurant, the Casa de los Vinos serves not only red and white wines, as the name and the sign painted by the entrance indicate, but also Spanish dishes.


Location: Esperanza, corner Factoria, Havana / Picture taken on: 03/04/2010

Laundry, Havana

I can't say I noticed that water was particularly hard in Havana but this laundry was apparently keen on promoting the fact it used softened water to wash clothes.

Lavamos su ropa
con agua suavizada
[We Wash Your Clothes
With Softened Water]
Location: Calle Campanario, Havana / Picture taken on: 21/03/2010

Vapor, Havana

Whatever was left of this ghost sign was preserved when this building from 1912 was restored a few years ago, but with only two words remaining it isn't possible to know for sure what was promoted there. Still, if I were to make a guess, I'd say this was the office of a maritime company that operated steamboats or of a shipping company. This may be a long shot but in the 1920s the Asociación de maquinistas navales (Marine Engineers' Association) had its headquarters in this building. Coincidence?

Vapor.. ... Españoles
[Spanish ... Steam...]
Location: San Ignacio (on Plaza Vieja), Havana / Picture taken on: 06/04/2010

Sociedad Cubana de Ingenieros, Havana

Although the Sociedad Cubana de Ingenieros (Cuban Society of Engineers) was disbanded in 1961, its coat of arms can still be seen by the entrance of its former offices. The building was built in 1920, twelve years after the foundation of the Society on August 11, 1908, and the mosaic was certainly laid at that time.


Location: Avenida de las Misiones (Monserrate), Havana / Picture taken on: 20/03/2010

Coca Cola, Santa Clara, Cuba

What are the chances of seeing in Cuba an advert for Coca Cola, a product that in many ways has come to symbolise US imperialism? Pretty slim I would have thought since there is no advertising on the island (but plenty of political propaganda) and Coca Cola ceased trading with Cuba following the nationalisation of its properties there in 1961 (*). Still, there I was, walking back towards the centre of Santa Clara from the monument and mausoleum where the remains of Ernesto 'Che' Guevara and his companions who died in Bolivia are buried (the socialist-style monument has some interesting sculptures and the museum is about the man himself rather the revolutionary hero, so regardless of what one thinks about Che, it's worth a visit), when I spotted this surprising ghost sign. Actually it is located almost opposite the Firestone tiles I posted earlier.

Tómese Coca Cola Bien fría 5c

[Drink Coca Cola Ice-cold 5c]

Coca Cola first appreared in Cuba as a fountain drink in the very late 1890s or 1900, in the aftermath of the 1898 Spanish-American War. The presence of US troops (most withdrew when Cuba gained formal independence in 1902 though) and above all the development of tourism boosted sales of Coke. In 1906 Coca Cola opened its first bottling plant in Havana. Sustained advertising campaigns in Spanish followed and sales shot up during the first half of the century. Soon after Coca Cola built one of its largest plants outside the US in Santa Clara, a centrally-located industrial centre 270 km east of Havana. Cuba was not only a huge market for Coca Cola's products but also the source of most of the sugar needed to produce the drinks.
However the victory of Fidel Castro and his barbudos, and the advent of the revolutionary regime was to change all this. For a few months US companies continued operating as usual but the relation between Cuba and the US soured after the government implemented its first agrarian reform in March 1959 (around three quarters of the arable land was owned by foreigners, mostly US companies). A few months later, when US-owned refineries in Cuba refused to process cheaper Soviet oil, in spite of what was stipulated in their contract, Castro nationalised them. The Eishenhower administration retaliated by suspending the Cuban sugar quota in the US. The immediate answer from Havana was the nationalisation of all remaining US properties in 1961, including Coca Cola. At the time the company had assets estimated at US$ 27.5 million in Cuba.

One of the last Coca Cola advertising campaigns in Cuba ran in early 1961. In January that year the government launched a year-long campaign to eradicate illiteracy and mobilised vast resources to achieve its goal. Coca Cola 'participated' by running a printed ad which showed a well-off white lady, with a bottle of Coke nearby, guiding the rough hand of her darker employee to teach her how to write. The message was "In 1961, the Year of Education, use your 'pause that refreshes' to teach reading and writing to whomever you have near." "Every little helps" (so says a famous British ad) but the 145,000 youth, students, teachers, and workers who volunteered to teach in rural communities and factories across the island certainly made more of a difference than the Coca Cola lady.

(*): True, it has been possible for some years to drink a Coke in Cuba but it is bottled by the Mexican subsidiary of the Atlanta-based giant (Coca Cola argues it doesn't authorise any bottler to sell or distribute its drinks in Cuba but it can't prevent them from doing so when they are located in countries where Cuban import-export companies can operate freely, as it is the case in Mexico. Obviously that's a convenient way of doing business without breaching the US embargo, although Coke would be classified as 'food' and as such would not be submitted to it). Coca Cola can be bought in Convertible pesos (CUC) at a cost roughly of one CUC (just under 1 euro). Tu Kola, the locally-made version of Coke, only costs a fraction of that in peso moneda nacional. Is there a difference between the two? I couldn't say. The smell of either of them is enough to make me sick.

Location: Calle Marta Abreu, Santa Clara / Picture taken on: 02/04/2010

Panaderia Neptuno, Havana

Naming a bakery after the Roman god of water and the sea may seem a bit strange (Ceres, the goddess of agriculture and grain crops could have been more appropriate) but actually, this shop takes its name from the street it is in.


Inside, customers can get not only bread at a fixed subsidized price in Cuban pesos (see the second part of an earlier post), but also other bakery products, which are not available with the ration book, and are sold at free market prices. As one can easily imagine, these "luxury goods", such as the croissant Neptune holds in his hand, can be extremely costly for those on an average wage and without access to hard currency. Provided, of course, that they are available in the first place!

Panadería Neptuno 8 Variados ofertas de productos liberados 24 horas

Bakery Neptuno 8 Various Offers of Products At Free Market Prices Open 24 Hours

8 is not the street number (which is 118) but the number allocated to this outlet in the local trade register.

Location: Calle Neptuno, Havana / Pictures taken on: 05/04/2010

Montalvo, Camaguey

I don't know if the food they serve in this small bar restaurant is any good but the way the name is painted, with jutting letters, is quite unusual. Did the sign writer get his inspiration for this design from some comic strip super-hero?


Location: Calle Santa Rosa, Camaguey / Picture taken on: 30/03/2010