Eusebio Leal, who oversaw renewal of Old Havana, dies at 77
Havana — Eusebio Leal Spengler, who oversaw the transformation of crumbling Old Havana to an immaculately restored colonial tourist attraction, becoming the de-facto mayor of the historic city center and one of the nation’s most prominent public intellectuals, died on July 31. He was 77.
He had been fighting cancer. Leal and his restoration efforts became so famous along the crowded streets of Havana that it often felt like he was holding court when he appeared in public, usually in his trademark, simple gray dress shirts and slacks.
Elderly women would tell Leal that the water that had stopped working in their apartment was back on thanks to him. Others would lodge complaints about their living situation or praise him for reviving Old Havana.
“To call it reconstruction of something that seemed dead and buried may draw dirty looks and dismissals that ours is a romantic crusade,” Leal wrote in a city bulletin in 2010. “But if that were the case, we wouldn’t feel embarrassed to be seen as romantics in times that are so apocalyptic.”
Born in Havana on Sept. 11, 1942, Leal earned a doctorate in historical sciences from the University of Havana, honing his skills as an intellectual entrepreneur who recognized that the resurrection of the city’s historic district could be a moneymaker. That became especially important when communist Cuba embraced foreign tourism en masse after the disbanding of the Soviet Union and the loss of its billions of dollars in annual subsidies to the island brought the economy to the brink of total collapse.
After a series of nationwide economic reforms and the December 2014 declaration of detente with the U.S., Leal’s government-driven restoration of Old Havana gained momentum with the opening of hundreds of private businesses, from elegant restaurant to art galleries, that filled with tourists as visits to the country soared.
Respecting the past
The boom raised worries about gentrification as expatriate Cubans or those with ties to foreign capital bought out longtime residents and turned their homes into businesses.
Leal spoke little about the new phenomenon, but consistently argued for respecting Old Havana’s past without being trapped by it.
“I’ve always spoken out against the mummification of the city,” he said in 2016. “It wouldn’t be wise to show off the past under glass.”
In 1967, Leal became city historian, replacing his mentor, Emilio Roig de Leushenring. He oversaw the reconstruction of the old municipal government building on the stately Plaza de Armas, then used a mix of charisma and diplomacy to get all of Old Havana designated as a UNESCO world heritage site in 1982.
That distinction brought international funding to revitalize the area, but Leal was also granted unprecedented autonomy by government superiors, allowing him to levy taxes in the neighborhood and keep the profits his projects generated to reinvest in new rebuilding efforts.
Leal was a member of Cuba’s parliament, but enjoyed more power serving on the Central Committee of the Communist Party. It was not uncommon for him to travel to the airport to greet arriving foreign heads of state, as well as oversee public political and cultural events.
Before Leal’s work, Old Havana had become a tangled collection of dark streets, winding past buildings in ruins, many propped up by poles to prevent their collapse. While pockets of open decay can still be found, they are now outnumbered by the regally restored plazas and colonial structures.