Curious About Cuba: The Great Museums of Havana

[Music] curious about Cuba the great museums of Havana from the very beginning the music the culture even the people is a result of a mixture of blending so different possibilities he wrote in this house for Whom the Bell Tolls like Cuba everywhere that's amazing I love it I really love it curious about Cuba the great museums of Havana next on great museums major funding for great museums is provided by the Eureka foundation dedicated to the educational power of television and new media exercise your curiosity explore America's great museums Havana hardly any place on earth carries the hope and the heartbreak of Cuba's capital city resplendent at one turn in ruins at the next Havana bursts with plazas cathedrals castles mansions monuments and museums the museum's of Havana offer more than a taste of history they reflect Cuba's role as the key to the new world Old Havana the cobblestone core of the city has witnessed 400 years of Spanish colonial rule and a century of revolution tucked in and around the colonial district stand fragments of the wall that used to protect the city and more than 40 museums museums of cigars and cars museums of rum and revolution there's even a Museum of chocolate encontrar no vent Obito marcio's inside those museums we can breathe the city's history des it's like paying its people support its culture por ejemplo for example the palace of the captains general the museum a colonial art or the house of africa after last night's unity where the house has ages reflect moments and the relationships between Cuba and Iran with the rest of the world city historian a Sevilla Leal leads the ongoing restoration of the colonial district Old Havana City itself is a museum-quality collection of extraordinary buildings nosotros aqui esta mujer officially value here we restore monumental buildings which are very valuable and we can use them as hospitals schools cultural centers libraries homes we have given an injection or a blood transfusion to the old city the task is enormous the work is urgent nearly every week a crumbling building collapses being a gas on winter in our case it was a battle but to save the city not just the old part of the city but also the spirit of the whole city we are standing on the old square is one of the most important colonial squares of Old Havana and it used to be the Market Square before the domestic market where people come to sell flowers vegetables fruits and it was also a place where parties took place so it was very alive so we decided to create the square as it was in the old colonial times the restoration of the building started in the 80s they were all former homes of aristocratic families today there are cultural institutions restaurants or schools galleries and on the top floors we have some social housing we have created small apartments for people to live because one of the most important ideas of this restoration is keeping families around and children playing and so it's one of the the most important challenges of our work when we started restoring the building surrounding the square it was very difficult because as you can see some of the buildings still have structural problems when we develop the restoration projects the research includes looking for original frescoes and mural paintings when we find old decorations sometimes we cannot recover it all the upper parts are the ones that last more so sometimes at the top of the buildings we find very well-preserved mural paintings and of course also the numbers of the house when we try to reconstruct all the original buildings of a block the numbers have changed in the 200-300 years but when you have the old numbers you can identify the different land plots [Music] after finishing with a restoration of the four most important colonial squares we are moving to these streets and to the v square so we are concentrating a lot of efforts a lot of restoration efforts on this street it's a very important street because as you can see it ends at the Capitol building we're in the republican times was the head of the senate and the parliament and we are rescuing a lot of valuable important buildings that are on the way yes on Mariah Street one of the oldest streets in the city students of the Havana workshop school are restoring a complex of buildings that originated in the 17th century but I dig another moment but one us in order to come this far it's been necessary to train hundreds of young people and also few have learned the forgotten traits the lost arts there was also social purpose in the whole project because there were a lot of young people that were not doing anything we're not studying we're not working so it has the purpose also of creating jobs for the for the young people living in the historic Center and in Havana City in general Juan Carlos Perez is director of the school founded in 1992 cuando la : peso Minoan T dos a via GU no official prácticamente o en desu abrasive so some of the some of the activities some of the trades had been completely lost blood radiation for example during the 18th and 19th centuries in Havana what we have is the type of stained glass mounted in a wooden framework and that type of carpentry had completely disappeared - slo-mo traditional case in no shahu di san marco diploma this is a traditional lead framework on the right the traditional wood framework I am una muerte de un trabajo del medio punto classic o ver lo que matatini elegido to rock alone e'en so here they have to work with a classical arch typical from colonial Cuban architecture they start with very simple designs and later on this shape gets a lot more complicated this has been a restoration from the ground up including the repair of the traditional red tile roof when the project is finished the entire school will be moving on loma veo cuando la ciudad Beeman the most beautiful thing is when a city lives without assessing a restoration means that people live and move about naturally and interact with the city is that I think is the most important secret to give life to the city and not to involve it that is my idea [Applause] by its own definition Cuban society is a complex blend a multicultural fusion a product boiled up out of the bittersweet story of sugar which is told at the Havana Club Museum of rum this of Colombo's during his second trip to America he brought the first sugar cane white sugar king is unready from here sugar cane is native from Africa from Africa went to India from India to China from China to Portugal and finally to the Canary Islands from where Christopher Columbus broke into here during his second trip in 1493 Cuba's climate was good for sugar cane the weather is so hot so humid that's a good combination to the sugar cane at the very beginning only three varieties but in Cuba have been creating 150 different type of sugar games the first sugar meals appeared in Cuba in fitting Hungary's they used wooden sugar cane presses we used to put inside the meal the sugar cane to squeeze into a squashy to get the juice and large sugar boiling pots and that the sugar cane juice has to be heated cookies to evaporate the water of it is around 70% of the choosing water how to live up raised in the 1800's sugar transformed Cuba into a wealthy plantation society injuring 400 years the Spaniards imported to Cuba around 1 million of African people horrible because the 20 30 % the trouble from Africa to Cuba in Cuba they used to work very hard sitting hour per day the average life was around 8 years today sugar cane is still the island's most important crop think about it is like big nothing is waste we use everything from it means sugar me rum paper wood polish or medicine etc etc but the happiest Shire is the wrong to make rum molasses made from sugarcane is fermented distilled and aged the final step is the blending very important because in Cuba everything is like that from the very beginning in Cuba the music the culture even the people is a result of a mixture of blending if we don't blend it's not human that's why we have to blend it like Cuban people in 19th century Cuba 100 different African ethnic groups were mixed together in the crucible of slavery they forged the roots of their African heritage into new Afro Cuban customs an act of cultural survival the Casa de Africa museum explores the diverse origins and traditions of Afro Cuban culture displays of music dance religion and art express the vigor of Afro Cuban customs the collection includes contemporary pieces gifted from African nations whose descendants live in Cuba this modern day sculpture carved from a single piece of wood is from the Yoruba area of Nigeria she represents the African woman as procreator of the world a being typically in character it's very typical of the Yoruba area but also the entire African continent I was also fine now so for my Malita like the hair in the way she meditates while being pregnant and we see she is bringing a new being into the world Pacifica which is why we chose her as the logo of our institution in Cuba the enslaved your Rubens wanting to practice their native religion under the watchful eyes of their Spanish captors disguise their own deities as Catholic saints the result Santeria meaning the way of the saints here the beat of the sacred bata drums summon Shango the risha of war virility thunder and blood beaded chords initiate the ritual dance of ocean the Risha of gold sexuality rivers and honey African influence is evident in nearly every aspect of Cuba's dynamic culture without African labor Cuba as we know it would not exist consider a Cuba with no sugar no rum and no tobacco through this narrow doorway in Old Havana the exotic aroma of tobacco wasps from the cigar museum Casa del tobacco inside a stack of cured and aged tobacco leaves prepare to meet their destiny well dynamo haka ah will over here we have our master twister Alexis from La Casa de la bono museum a master twister is an expert in rolling all of several hundred standard cigar shapes and sizes called violas primera conditioned para que ser una bono they in order to be a premium cigar it has to be rolled by hand five varieties of tobacco leaves mixed together will give this cigar a distinct flavor and aroma we're dead episod now as we see in this finished cigar he has to give the cigar its outer layer la kappa son ser hecho nada de la region my the layers are selected from the most important region in cuba Pinar del río province in the area of well tobacco which grows the best quality leaves in the whole world one of the most famous brands is Cohiba the name harkens back to the religious traditions of the indigenous Cubans the native tie knows through the ritual of the Cahawba the tie knows communicated with the gods using the smoke as a conductor hey Hassan we do all visi endow iowa busy and ok they perform rituals asking for water asking for a prosperous harvest asking for good health they heal skin sores and stomach problems using the leaves of the tobacco plant el momento my importante Gdynia and the most important moment in their community in their everyday lives was a ritual to the gods the European ritual of a good smoke involved more than a great Cuban cigar elaborate cigar rings and labels were produced by the millions even the essential cigar box itself was a work of art the inspiration was to have Cuba's cigars travel the world in elegant packaging Juan Lozano hondo day when we talk of cigars we are talking about Havana we are talking about Cuba we are talking about our identity our culture you [Music] carved out of the pores local limestone the Cathedral of Havana swims with Baroque curves and flourishes an architectural manifestation of the fantastic wealth of 18th century Havana a common symbol it is like a symbol of Havana a Plaza for a city by the sea a Cathedral that seems to move like the waves of the ocean Cathedral Square is the smile of Havana the first and most important square in Havana is Plaza de Armas laid out near the harbour in 1519 and guarded by Castillo de la rielera the oldest stone fortress in the Americas in the center of Plaza de Armas children play beneath the statue of Manuel de Cespedes father of the homeland who started Cuba's first war of independence in 1868 the plaza song and squares are the soul of a city they are the open spaces the gallery the place where we greet each other every day where we love where we see the light the most commanding building on Plaza de Armas is the palace of the captain's general built in 1791 it is now the museum of the city but for over a hundred years it was the headquarters of the Spanish colonial government here the military governors and their families enjoyed the good life surrounded by crystal marble silver and gold the most important halls are dedicated to Cuba's 19th century struggles to break away from Spain a colourful procession of flags leads to the most precious one of all the original national flag of Cuba in this room are objects belonging to Cuba's 19th century revolutionary generals and heroes the glasses of general Maximo Gomez who excelled in leading the fearsome machete charge the saddle of the bronze titan antonio maceo the great mulatto general famous for his strength and courage who died fighting for Cuba's freedom the sword of Jose Marti founder of the Cuban revolutionary party and the instigator of Cuba's final war of independence Jose Julio Marty Jose Marti was truly the most brilliant man he was a great genius I know Cuban people are proud of him we could not speak about Cuba without speaking about Marti Jose Marti is everywhere in Havana in Central Park at the National Museum of Fine Arts in Revolution Square well Jose Marti is a founder of the Cuban nation of course and he started the the second war of independence in Cuba which was a popular war where common people intervene exit slaves and peasants who finally defeated Spain and God obtained he won independence the story of Cuban independence is told in part at the Jose Marti birthplace which opened as a museum in 1925 this humble colonial home where he was born in 1853 is hallowed ground in Havana ain't don't say hockey what to Nadal boy in this room where he was born we can see some important objects all from his childhood Aida yell go read the small towel and the cup he was baptized in a braid of his hair which was cut off when he was 4 years old although Marty's father Mariano mati was a sergeant in the Spanish army young Jose openly opposed colonial rule when he was barely 16 officials confiscated a letter he wrote to a school friend and judged it to be treasonous I came back here you can see an image of the attack on jail the jail where he was a prisoner he was sentenced to six years with hard labor in a quarry the brutal work resulted in physical injuries which afflicted him the rest of his life a town shuttle it was just a boy as you see in this photograph a weak skinny boy and very short thing is a photography SF wavered Clara made and we form a go to me so go in the photo you can clearly see the prison uniform that he wore and the chain around his waist and the shackle locked around his right foot a a people a mohawk said but here we have the shackle the actual shackle that they attach to his right foot after he was released he kept it for the rest of his life banned from Cuba Marty roamed Europe and the Americas he earned a law degree taught school worked as a journalist and plotted his revenge in 1881 he settled in New York with his wife and son yet Esalen sido botamo Excel bondo fee small room we're in reproduces his office in New York at 120 Front Street here is his desk and the table where he wrote articles for his liberation magazine patria in 1894 Marty and general Maximo Gomez met in Marty's office to plan the necessary war the only portrait of Marty painted during his lifetime was painted in New York donde se puede a procedure this is the portrait you can see him sitting at his table writing on his finger is a ring made from a link in the chain he had worn in prison as a boy yes Annie you tenían robado la palabra oh and this ring had the word Cuba engraved in it it meant so much to him that he wore the ring until his death and it was not found afterwards these are the personal objects he carried at his death a leather pouch his Spurs a pocketknife and a small Cuban flag made of beads by the women of Cuba on May 19th 1895 during the first skirmish of the war for independence Marti was killed on Cuban soil riding headlong into Spanish enemy lines he had a sense of what the human nation should be they still call it the murky stream he wanted to start a great democracy along the mellah comb the famous seawall that looks out across the Straits of Florida the people of Havana share with the sea in the distance Castle moral established in 1589 to repel pirate attacks guards the entrance to the harbor this view is the face of the city and it hasn't changed much in five centuries what has changed is the way that Cubans view themselves the National Museum of Fine Arts explores the evolution of the Cuban identity through centuries of art creo que bueno el arte tiene siempre I believe that art must always be a call for attention always it must not be complacent and it has to disturb us and also prove what we are the museum's two buildings reflect Cuba's split personality on the one hand showcased in a palace of international art there's the classical European heritage on the other hand housed in a modern palace there's the art of Cuba here you can find our best collections our best artists on a real incredible expression of Cuban identity in colonial times art in Cuba was predictably from initially religious subjects dominated after religion there was the land the works of the master portrait painter Guillermo colossal represented maturity in Cuban art saya Molossia it is called the siesta it is like a dream she's looking at the sea in any minute she's going to fall asleep look at the drawing of the young girl's hands how refined well drawn there is nothing shocking in the composition everything is elegant pretty pleasant to the eye in 1929 everything changed when Victor Manuel painted the tropical gypsy it was something new that identified us maybe Indian maybe white and maybe mulatto she has a so different possibilities no so we in Cuba considered her to be the Mona Lisa of the Americas the artists we Fred olam the son of a Chinese immigrant and a mulatto mother was the personal embodiment of those possibilities lom's work combines elements of african cubist and surrealist art Blom was part of a group of Cuban artists who trained in Paris and who call themselves the avant-garde their aim was to implant the truly Cuban the truly national into their country's art still lifes by Amelia Peleus bright and brilliant with tropical colors illustrate that everything old was new again getting me to say do you want my favorite ones Paul D Calvin Rica's Archie Jorge Jorge Archie was the portrait artist of the avant-garde generation Y so by thatthis he did some landscapes like the spring but there are portraits in the spring as well Carlos Enriquez transgressed all of the existing rules of painting starting with his technique of transparencies guru Henry que bueno penny Carlos Enriquez well he is a genius of Cuban painting without a doubt and he's also worshipped he's a kind of fun fontelle Hitler in human painting the kidnapping of the mulatos was inspired by legends of the Cuban countryside this violence that looks so spontaneous has been very well thought out yeah la la la la testa and the artist has conveyed this violence through the circles he has placed which end in this horse that seems to be leaping out of the painting in the 1930s Marcello Poe galati envisioned a new kind of landscape the landscape of the city pero como la presenta how does he present this the shapes the shapes of the men but the human shapes seem to be part of the industrial machinery another cog in the system abstract art dominated in the 50s but after the Revolution there was a renewed interest in human beings circumstances I'll prove all at the triumph of the Cuban Revolution led Cuba to enter very suddenly into contemporary history Cuba's best-known pop artist was Raul Martinez our intro lujo in la ola introduced the collage and photography into his work at a time when this had no antecedent in cuban painting he was always innovating the turmoil and tension of the 60s prompted a violent form of Expressionism in some cuban artists with grotesque figures and tormented lines antonia aires reinterprets the Annunciation Antonia Dona was able to capture very well in her painting all the drama and the violence of those first years of the 60s here a pregnant housewife working at her sewing machine is visited by a dark angel yep resuming this is actually this dark angel who announces to this modest seamstress that her maternity will not have a happy ending Felice but that it is totally tragic that her maternity will end in a miscarriage as Cuba settled into the 70s the hyper realism of Flavio Garcia Nia reflected contentment Toula gusta necesitas amor or all you need is love as a song of the Beatles it's a portrait of side Olivia and other artists she only shows her face her beautiful face and communicates peace and happiness the power of love was also a subject for cervando cabrera moreno sinuous lines and the intensity of the color blue give the peace and rhythmic dynamism Bhama are a four-shot we reinforce the eroticism that me merges office peace the way those two bodies fit into each other makes it lose sight of the two bodies and you see one large mass one great volume all elting into one in 1990 the cuban sculptor Cacho was only twenty years old when Cuba's economic partner the Soviet Union collapsed using branches leaves rope dirt and wax he reinterpreted Cuba's national shield a beret so machete there is a sugar cane machete like the ones used in Cuba to cut sugar cane with the way in which he makes a revaluation of a national symbol from the codes and materials of poverty has a very important meaning for visual arts at the time even in hard times Cuba has a hold on the hearts of many mundo Senado by antonio lee hyo fernandez donnell like cuba everywhere that's amazing i love it i really love it the artist takes the shape of the island and makes a whole world with little Cuba's from 1939 to 1960 writer Ernest Hemingway lived at finca Mejia a hillside estate ten miles east of Havana Fink of ahia was not only his home it was his creative breeding ground he said that Cuba has particular juices some juices attend regime perhaps a whether they climb and degrees in the house the surrounding places and the atmosphere perhaps it was that but he said you were fill me wasted with juices productive novelist lisandro taro was a student when he met Hemingway for the first time later he was a founder of the Hemingway house museum because he had almost importance in Hemingway in literature and for human life Hemingway la pintura Blanco I mean the aiming way then paint it white these days think over here remains almost exactly as it was on the David Hemingway and his wife Mary left Cuba for the last time Hemingway the house is open and airy nearly every room sports Safari trophies from Hemingway's big-game hunting days von Ohain mahi narco era la Vida they came in way in shoe brands Allah now we imagine Hemingway living here in this great living room Lavinia kisses Jason tawa you will come back here seething his favorite armchair widow then have a drink of a gin or whiskey the bar was and still is conveniently located right next to his favorite armchair Hemingway enjoyed music in the corner is his phonograph still in working order half a century later lining the walls of the library and practically every other room as well there are more than 8,000 books a siempre que vea haba okay Eva cualquier lugar siempre con probbaly dos and anywhere he go you but he'll buy a book el Hemingway Leia and English he read in English in French in Spanish in Swahili in goosal Ian Bryan Russian and in Braille Hemingway's private quarters occupied one wing of the house there is his bedroom in his room but he never has lived there it was that was always full of newspapers magazines and Mail next to it a small study with a desk but he never worked there it was more like his personal museum full of souvenirs and memories on top of a red Matadors cape Hemingway displayed his knife collection yet by Lysander them and it is the blood of the bull still remains stain on the cloth mr. secretary owes you su esposa not his Secretary's not his wine lady and no one they didn't have access to this private space yes I was privy and don't know acne ti interruption imagine if it was writing he didn't mean any interruption by anyone I'm not even know know where no one could interrupt Hemingway daiquiri ASEAN his creation Graham chili dad needed tranquility my favorite part is where he wrote standing right there and then in the top of that bookshelf he put his typewriter in the top of a bookshelf and brought there standing and I think that's the nucleus in the house Hemingway I will que tenia varios a passion in la casa para escribir we should talk about even if he had a lot of space in the house to write L prefer eeeh a third to God to do so here standing very early in the morning sobre esta PL quesadilla case a coupe in this in this rock made of kudu pero dice Aloha frico according to the legend of the Africans k-star sobre una pieza turn over on a rock bed of kudu pro right here adidas adavi gory fuerza it gives strength to the men standing on it cuando escribir los dialogo slow ASEA directamente en su machina describe a royal NY he wrote the dialogues he directly wrote them here in the Royal because it was very natural when he was writing those dialogues the descriptions he wrote by pencil always in very bold and round letters he wrote in this house for Whom the Bell toll and this work sold you know 1 million copies that was the first book that make him an important writer yep importante now something here great importance the original manuscript are for Whom the Bell Tolls one goes rode in a staff car on the road to to el escorial cuando op assemblies Cordillera no more documentation written in Hemingway's own hand is preserved in the bathroom on the wall a record of his weight with notes about his travels and diet was rescued from under six layers of paint macabre he stole a soup esto Morgan a record of his ways pero también con - Yahoo testimony OD como su salud salsa you said you ran the testimony of how his health was deteriorating for me that's the most remarkable thing in the house because he had that that that worried about his wake and then the blood pressure to 2180 arterial tension which is in Momo's eh the first signature of Hemingway que pasaba du Chien t'les Dec Ocho Libre waiting was 215 pounds Allan Poe coma joven Manley she was very young very light in weight allow Ultima notation is lat notes been T cuatro de Julio 24th of July / 1960 Hemingway pasaba so lo siento noventa Libre see me Hemingway was waiting only 190 and a half pounds it was not the result of a diet el resultado de salud the video raga it was a result of a deteriorated health como la me no ha sido la Phil Oh Sofia de toda la Rita ratio la Mayo cantidad elementary naleda ultimate abba DJ minghui one piece of evidence at think over here more than any other speaks to what Hemingway loved most about Cuba his fishing boat the Pilar 34 feet long and made of American black oak she was custom built in Brooklyn but is now being restored at finca Bahia he get addicted to Marley Marley fishing and once he had a seven 750 pounds cat arrow and the normal darling Hemingway award the Pilar in nearby Cojimar once a busy fishing hub Cojimar was the inspiration for the village in his Pulitzer and Nobel Prize winning novel the old man in the sea at the end of the day he hung out here at la terraza with a local fisherman on the wall our photos from 1960 Hemingway's final year in Cuba when he met Fidel Castro for the first and only time that year Castro entered and won Hemingway's annual fishing tournament Hemingway left Cuba for the last time on July 25th 1960 in 1962 on the one-year anniversary of his death fishermen of Cojimar erected a monument to their American friend it was cast from melted-down propellers deck ornaments and scrap metal they collected the sea Hemingway once wrote is the last free place there is to carry param pita de verre de comprar mem Kapoor Lucci today money portulaca in Havana's central park under the watchful eye of Jose Marti life unfolds in the usual way a little commerce a little leisure a little competition between rival baseball fans [Music] across the way stands a building riddled with bullet holes a testament to the conflict that has characterized Cuba after the independence of nineteen two of the war that mafia started really a lot of American companies came here and started to buying everything very cheap of course so the independence was not really a true first paint in the United States the United States had a friend in president Valencia Batista who ruled Cuba through graft corruption and terror he torture and killed many people the movement to overthrow Batista began in earnest in this building at the corner of 25th and Oh in an apartment now called the Abell santa maria museum unit 603 was the home of a bell and his sister i de it was also the secret headquarters for the revolutionary movement in havana at this desk young Fidel Castro and his comrades plotted a surprise raid on the mikata barracks in Santiago they plan to sweep in steal weapons and take over the government the attack was set for July 26 1950 three it was a failure well then but these deaths repression was enormously kill almost called those who went into the AIDS expedition including a bell Santa Maria you know as a prisoner and they took out his ice three years later this yacht the grandma brought 82 exiled revolutionaries back to Cuba to finish what they had started Fidel his brother Raul Camilo Cienfuegos and the Argentinian Che Guevara called their revolution the July 26th movement in honor of the earlier failed attack on moncada barracks the grandma and other revolutionary tools of war are on display at the Museum of the revolution ironically this 1920s neoclassical building was the former presidential palace and home to Batista on New Year's Eve 1958 a frightened Batista abandoned the presidential palace and fled Cuba as the revolutionary forces closed in on Havana Castro declared victory on January 1st 1959 trayless is not really a politician like people say he is I think he's more of a poet and idealist this modest building in a working-class suburb of havana contains perhaps the best evidence of the idealism that fueled Castro's revolutionary zeal this is the National Museum of the literacy campaign Dober Oh Fidel Castro that says dr. Fidel Castro described obelisk Revo para decirle que esta muy feliz por que aprender la areas Cree beer I write to you to tell you that I'm very happy because I learned how to write and read thanks to you and to your revolutionary government so Fidel once I go back to the mountains I will build a huge school so that Cuba will be a literate country Cuba did become a literate country in 1961 the entire country was mobilized as nearly two hundred and seventy thousand literate Cubans spread out across the island to teach nearly 1 million illiterate Cubans to read and write Omaha bada-boom in the library hundreds of albums contain hundreds of thousands of letters personal letters from literacy students to Fidel Castro [Music] estee era como la evaluation finale this was actually like a final exam the final proof that they had really learned how to write and read the teachers were responsible for collecting the letters and organizing them into scrapbooks for their regions como se puede precis our todos los algunos tienen una characteristic a differenty as you could see every single album has a different characteristic but the letters are all thanking Castro and his Revolutionary Government for teaching them how to read and write Fidel Castro nunca mais until one astok Apprendi Illyria's Cree this is Fidel Castro I've never felt human until I learned how to write and read patria muerte Ventura Mo's 1 Martinez Castro had promised to wipe out illiteracy within one year and he did classrooms sprang up everywhere instructional materials were developed teachers were outfitted with uniforms students were given eye exams and free glasses ah this DB pre gala Conrado and ET on January 5th 1961 18 year old Conrado Benitez became the first of many volunteer teachers to be murdered by counter-revolutionaries despite the danger nearly 100 thousand young people between the ages of 10 and 19 volunteered in the youth brigades parents allow their children to travel the countryside for eight or more months working the fields with the campesinos by day and teaching them by lamplight at night well don't let us down I mean this is great many of the teachers in the youth guedes were very young the youngest was seven years old and many of the students were very old is another letter from from from an elder citizen of 86 years of a state - 86 dr. fidel car dr. fidel castro te quiero mucho i love you very much Cyprian Bosque seek reimburse on December 22nd 1961 as Castro declared Cuba free of illiteracy triumphant teachers from across the island marched to havana's Revolution Square carrying enormous pencils they arrived by boat on foot by train they came to celebrate the promise of the revolution the power of the people and the future of Cuba what a long effort this country has done for many many many years to obtain justice for its inhabitants and the fight has not stopped yet it is rebellion perpetual rebellion the stately national decorative arts museum in Havana's wealthy Vedado district is a neoclassical mansion built in the 1920s once the private home of one of Cuba's richest families it epitomized upper-crust elegance in the European tradition Etta casa que es Mansion was the home of Maria Luisa Gomez Mena Countess of Livia Camargo yo pienso que es una I think this is certainly one of the best homes in Vedado it is a classic example of a fine house well constructed with the best materials the marble comes from Carrara and the ironwork from France La Puerta Magica doors although made of mahogany a Cuban wood were later carved in France and brought back to Cuba the home reflects the great wealth that the Gomez Menna family gained as part of Cuba's sugar aristocracy in the early 20th century hey this period was also called the time of the fat cows Maria Luisa and her family rode the crest of this wealth along with their friends I don't notice when I go she was a person of exquisite taste she was very rich but she was also a woman of culture in her parlor the furniture is Louis the 15th in her salon a secretary that once belonged to Marie Antoinette from the Palace of Versailles the dining room is one of the most lavish rooms in the house the marble lined walls accentuate the 18th century bronze shields in the corners salvaged from a castle in France the table can seat 30 guests but right now it's set for 8 axl ammonia una Bahia really sodomy abuses China dinner service made by Meissen in Germany and it is called the castle China because on each piece there is a different castle over the marble fireplace hangs a clock by Martino clockmaker to Louis the 15th otavalo gave way a comprar for the countess bought this clock at an auction in France and brought it to Cuba as a decoration for the house the museum's collection of Asian art is spread throughout the house hey our alma mater this is the room of Chinese and Japanese lacquers originally this was Maria Luisa's music room hey then mo kamo PS a muy muy importante very important pieces such as the 17th century coromandel folding screen or a Maria with erotic Cuba by Maria Luisa Gomez Mina which was used in the imperial palaces in China although the collection has now grown to over 34,000 pieces when the National Museum of decorative arts opened in 1964 the objects it displayed were the treasures that maria luisa collected for herself but after Castro's 1959 revolution she shuddered her house and left the country no doubt hoping to return one day she never did to create the museum her home was nationalized government workers with metal detectors discovered some of her most valuable possessions hidden in the walls the Revolutionary Government also took an interest in Cuba's natural treasures in 1960 hilbert o silva was the youngest member of a group of cuban naturalists who met with Fidel Castro to propose a Natural History Museum the meeting took place at 2 o'clock in the morning and that conversation lasted until sunrise he'll belt oh and his colleagues met with Castro four more times in the following weeks always very late at night always till sunrise and at the end of the last meeting Fidel second well okay let's establish the museum in fact Cuba has 25 times more species of vertebrates and vascular plants than North America take a look at recent photocopy of the New York Times report published in 1991 and it's it starts saying for the first time in 30 years American and Cuban scientists are combining efforts to explore and catalog a plentiful diversity of plant and animal species that are believed to make Cuba the richest Island biologically speaking in the new world the isolation of islands encourages evolutionary novelties such as extreme body size in Cuba the smallest bat in the world the butterfly bat can eat only the tiniest insects like mosquitoes while the daredevil fishing bat possibly the second largest bat in the Americas hunts the rivers at night for fish nearly 300 migratory bird species that breed in the United States winter in Cuba migratory birds of course the majority of the migratory birds from North America spend most of the time outside the country in cool birds don't recognize political boundaries nor do the oceans pollution from Cuba in the Gulf Stream affects the seafood harvests along the eastern seaboard because these currents roll they lately along the east coast of the United States so it should be a common interest this in Kalama it's been said that the most important restoration is the one that is not if you take into account that part of the history of Cuba is in the United States and part of the history of the United States is in Cuba that our country has a mass of cultural work a history of a past that it also has a dream of a future I believe that an exchange of experiences in that sense would be interesting the city of Havana half a millennium of history honed by a hundred years of revolution at the end of the day habaneros are looking toward the future dreaming of a place to unwind to flirt to float to fish or to simply watch the tide break over the rocks as the Sun sets [Music] learn more about great museums at great museums org you can order this episode of great museums on DVD for 2495 plus 595 shipping and handling call 1-800 to three zero four four five three or order online at great museums org museums hold the treasures and tell the tales of the people and places that make America great [Music] you [Music] major funding for great museums is provided by for Eureka foundation dedicated to the educational power of television and new media exercise your curiosity explore America's great museums

Channel: Great Museums

Views: 54,360

Keywords: museum, cuba, havana, hemingway, cojimar, pilar, art, modern, history, castro, batista, culture, music, restoration, fresco, frescoes, painting, mural, spain, cigar, rum, marti, spengler, finca, vigia, literacy, decorative, reconstruction, plaza, africa, tobacco, slavery, sugar, cane, afro-cuban, dance, yoruba, santeria, morro, castle, palace, malecon, granma, moncada, documentary

Id: X4b_9VyWyzQ

Length: 56min 43sec (3403 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 09 2009