Friday, February 3, 1984/The Battalion/Page 13
Havana’s colonial center restored to old splendor
United Press International
I HAVANA, Cuba — Fidel Cas
tro’s revolution may have wiped
out many traces of Cuba’s colo
nial past, but there is one part of
that heritage it is anxious to pre
serve — the old city of Havana.
A 2-square-mile area in the cen
ter of Havana contains about
1|000 colonial era buildings that
have been allowed to decay over
the years. The task of restoring
the area to its former brilliance
has been taken on by Havana
Mayor Oscar Fernandez Mell, a
former physician, guerrilla com
mander and member of the
Hentral Committee of the Com
munist Party.
t l:: Fernandez Mell and storation
experts and craftsmen have been
working on the project for four
years and already more than 30
buildings have been completed.
Ef Among them is the 18th cen
tury palace of the captains-
general beside Havana harbor. It
Has the seat of Cuba’s govern
ment for much of its history, in-
'Some of jduding the brief period of U.S.
onstraiiitfoccupation at the turn of the cen-
t and tht' turv.
■ Current plans call for work on
own t»is Jan additional 10 to 13 buildings a
SA spoWyear through the end of the cen-
evemhiiJtury until the entire area, de-
ike a pic dared a world historic landmark
by UNESCO, is rescued from
g real food decay.
GeneTkJl 1 Fernandez Mell says the pro-
engineer Ij:,
mnd ere* I
iv on sclid|
problems i|
iiarvpowil
iciailorta 1
"All of the wealth of Cuba used to go into
maintaining Havana's lavish lifestyle. Our
priority has been to invest in rural develop-
iiorate the great fxnerty that ex-
We have made great strides in
but Cuba is
a poor nation and still has to make hard
choices.Oscar Fernandez Mell, mayor of
Havana
ject, despite its evocation of
Cuba’s colonial past, has not been
opposed by his revolutionary col
leagues.
“To the contrary, I wish every
thing I did was as uncontrover-
sial as this project has been,” he
said.
Firt undertaken as a local in
itiative, the project now receives
more than $>1 million a year in
funding from the national gov
ernment, Fernandez Mell said.
He said additional funding is ex
pected from the United Nations.
About 600 architects, restor
ers, psychologists and craftsmen
led by historian Sergio Gonzalez
work full-time on the project.
Shortly before Castro came to
power in 1959, the former gov
ernment of Fulgencio Batista
planned to demolish the historic
section of the city, then among
the most valuable real estate in
the capital, to make way for more
profitable structures, Fernandez
Mell said.
One of the first proposals he
considered when he became
mayor eight years ago was to pro
ceed with the projected demoli
tion.
“Old Havana is what gives our
city its singularity,” he said. “I de
cided we would not destroy it.”
In the end his colleagues
agreed it was not necessary for a
socialist state to destroy the pre
vious culture’s heritage or the
artistic roots and preferences of
the people.
While such a large-scale res
toration does compete for scarce
resources in a city that still ex
periences shortages, including a
shortage of housing, the historic
al importance to the world makes
the investment a legitimate one,
Fernandez Mell said.
The restoration is being
undertaken block by block to en
sure consistency of treatment.
The completed buildings remain
in public use as homes or shops,
while at the same time serving as
a living museum open to the
public.
Those who continue to live in
the district must agree to share in
its upkeep. A committee, includ
ing psychologists, judges appli
cants for residence in the area.
The shops that remain are
furnished in colonial style. Many
of them are restaurants that
serve traditional dishes. There
are plans to close many of the
streets to motorized traffic as a
convenience to pedestrians.
One stately old three-story
building that was once the home
of a slave trader is about to be
opened as a ceremonial recep
tion center for the mayor.
A trip through the area puts
the visitor in a time machine back
to the 18th century. There are
ground floor offices where busi
ness was conducted around
arched double patios designed to
get natural ventilation during
Cuba’s sweltering summers.
Spacious living quarters are on
the second floor, and the apart
ments originally housing slaves
are on the third floor with ceil-
Merger won’t cause
‘domino effect’,
Texaco chief says
United Press International
trbines ai^
anding of|
st shuttle
alacedall
TULSA, Okla. — Fears that a
w thirdstelffi r ’ . .
‘mergei oi lexaco Inc. and Get-
jH, tyOil Co. would trigger a domi-
’al backups n( !. effecl of bi S . oil com P anies
c . r taking over smaller ones were
emotional and unfounded, Tex
aco U.S.A.’s president said
i for so T , i ^
Inursday.
E James W. Kirmear, also vice
space ni chairman of Texaco Inc., was
cl Stewart the first witness for Texaco in its
und badpsdefense of a lawsuit filed by
feetawavl Pennzoil Co. seeking to halt the
Hit lifeline ®0.1 billion Texaco-Getty mer-
feat. The g er - Pennzoil itself wanted to
the same taerge with Getty,
ge Nelson/ “There’s a degree of emo-
iltoreachS'i honalism (in Getty’s allega-
mttle. dons,)” Kinnear said. “Decisions
flight ist °f this type are not made on an
■b 11 will emol i° na l basis. They are made
lape Canavfr|P n feet.
I “Texaco did not bounce
down and make an unfriendly
•^lyC tender offer. Pennzoil itself
wl I v made an offer. Texaco looked at
j itand made a friendly offer. We
COwWere successful.”
' Pennzoil of Houston has
ij asked U.S. District Judge James
i lOriv Ellison to issue a temporary
injunction halting the Texaco-
Getty merger as a violation of
i Internatiom antitrust laws. Pennzoil also has
filed a breach of contract lawsuit
- Officialsoliin 1 Delaware contending Getty
ildren’s Hob promised to sell stock to Penn-
onomiccritillzoil, then reneged in favor of
epressed MTexaco.
scent devastiw|
Lower Vafe' In contrast to testimony from
it appealfo[>E enilzo d witnesses, Kinnear told
rsday. Ellison the Getty acquisition
uddy M. 0»t wou fe not change Texaco’s poli-
:or, andRalpify*°f bidding with partners on
ntendentol high-risk offshore leases.
fmXdo f !s« P ; nnz ^ alle S es wi ; b ; lc -
„ ,„quisitton Texaco would be big
/crc cxtrfci 1 • ^
r oai» enough to go it alone on the ven-
ind thesitiHf'■ S ’ CuUin S out a P arter with
95 percent d !
ercent of its
egetables. k
ss has also ai:
due to the
i a news
receives
ing. It cui
tildren,
oken horaei
ms, and dt
rches, bu<
ttions
nancial sit]
ms are ui
set this eaiin
icial strain,',
tributionssaJ
located 3 c.
t, also was setl
-H boys and f
ling to enter!:
and
rcedes Live::
must pay if
s to particip!
•art of their
c relations d(
tgher said.
which Pennzoil and other smal
ler companies could bid.
Texaco’s policy has been and
will continue to be to spread the
risk, Kinnear said.
“You don’t put the mortgage
to the ranch on one opportun
ity,” he said. “We tried going it
alone 20 years ago and it didn’t
work out. We learned from
that.”
Pennzoil has expressed fear a
Texaco-Getty merger would
prompt a decline in oil and gas
exploration because it would be
less expensive for Texaco and
others to acquire reserves, such
as those of Getty, than for them
to find new oil and gas.
“The amount of exploration
of the two companies together
will clearly be no less than what
the two companies would do
separately,” Kinnear said.
“With the production of Get
ty’s reserves comes the obliga
tion to explore. To stay in busi
ness, an oil company must try
each year to replace the reserves
produced that year.”
Kinnear also dismissed Penn-
zoxl’s allegations that the acquisi
tion would lessen already lag
ging competition in all areas of
the oil industry. Listing each
area from marketing to produc
tion, Kinnear said the industry
was highly competitive.
Under cross-examination by
Pennzoil attorney Bill Burke,
Kinnear said he was not aware of
any industry or analysts’ specu
lation that Texaco was attemp
ting the Getty merger because
enforcement of antitrust laws
appeared slack during the
Reagan administration.
“We do not speculate on atti
tude,” he said. “We review the
law.”
JT KAPLAN
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ings so low their inhabitants
could never walk upright.
Even the room ooreman has
been restored, comple a niche for
Cuban-style witchcraft.
The renovated district is ex
pected to contribute to a revival
of tourism that already is under
way, Fernandez Mell said.
Nearly 200,000 tourists visited
Cuba last year, up from a low of
3,000 in 1968, he said.
The freshness and brightness
of the restored area contrast
Havana, but that does not trou
ble the mayor.
“All of the wealth of Cuba used
to go into maintaining Havana’s
lavish lifestyle,” Fernandez Mell
said. “Our priority has been to
invest in rural development to
ameliorate the great poverty that
existed there.
“We have made great strides in
bettering health and education,
where we have achieved stan
dards existing only among de
veloped countries. But Cuba is a
poor nation and still has to make
hard choices.”
He said it often was difficult to
find artisans who could master
the old building techniques in
order to restore the buildings col
onial style.
The most difficult to find was a
traditional stone mason. Only
one was left on all of Cuba. He
was lured out of retirement and
has now passed on his skills to a
new generation.
ness of the rest of once beautiful
>
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