Eusebio Leal Spengler

Habitat Scroll of Honour Award 2007 Award for outstanding contributions towards human settlements development Please note that nomination and submission must be received by 15 August 2007. Nominations For *: Individual Name of Individual/Project/Organization *: Eusebio Leal Spengler Name of Person/s in charge: Eusebio Leal Spengler Nominee Details Address 1 *: Empedrado Nº 151, La Habana Vieja Address 2: Tacón Nº 1, La Habana Vieja City *: Ciudad de La Habana Country *: Cuba Zip Code: 10 100 Daytime Telephone *: 8 60 43 11 Mobile Telephone Number: Telefax: 8 66 80 75 Email: [email protected] Actions or Areas of Human Settlements *: Urban Management/Social development Doctor Eusebio Leal Spengler, Historian of the City of Havana, has created and promoted a revolutionary and humanist vision of the cultural patrimony recovery. The project of integral development and rehabilitation that he leads in the Historical Centre of Havana since 1967 has been recognized at national and international levels for its strategic importance in the economic, social and physical Human Settlements Achievements *: fields, linked to the patrimonial rescue with the main participation of the citizens in this process. Under that view, as more as the local economy is reactivated, new employments are generated, the conditions of the habitat are improved and the precarious profile decreases, with an imposed recovery dynamics that acts as a synergic effect that multiply the investments, enlarging the recovered areas and increasing the willing resources for the development of the Old City. Nominator details: Nominated by (person/organization) *: National Habitat Committee Address line 1 *: National Housing Institute Address line 2: 9th Ave No. 614 e/ 41st Ave and 6 St. Playa City*: Habana Zip Code: 11300 Country * Cuba Day time Telephone *: 537 206 8312 Mobile Telephone number 537 282 5900 Telefax 537 204 1183 Email [email protected], [email protected], Submit Registration Fields marked with * are mandatory. For any follow up action, please contact [email protected]. Contact information Please note that nomination and submission must be received by 15 August 2007. World Habitat Day Coordinator Information Services Section P.O. Box 30030 Nairobi 00100 KENYA Fax: (254 20) 762 3477 Email: [email protected] Prize: Habitat Scroll of Honour 2007 Nomination for: Individual Candidate: Eusebio Leal Spengler 1. BACKGROUND Dr. Eusebio Leal Spengler was born in Havana on 11th September 1942 in a social context that did not favour academic studies; therefore, his education was mainly self- taught. In August 1959 he started working in the municipal government and his interest in history brought him close to the work of Dr. Emilio Roig de Leuchsenring, Historian of Havana City and founder of the City Historian’s Office in 1938. After an intensive and deep preparation, he took the academic aptitude tests in the Faculty of Philosophy and History at Havana University in order to study History and got the corresponding university degree in 1979; he received later the degree of Doctor in Historical Sciences at the same university. By 1967 he was appointed director of the City Museum and of the Historian’s Office from where he continued his defence of the historical and cultural heritage of Havana City begun by his predecessor. He carried out the restoration of the Captain General’s Palace, today the seat of the City Museum, and in the 1970’s Dr. Leal devoted himself to compiling documents and collections, preparing documentary sources, and locating and choosing historical witnesses of Havana. In 1978 the former Old City within the walls was declared National Monument, which encouraged the government to finance the rehabilitation of the Historical Centre of Havana and designated the institution led by Dr. Leal to manage important budgets aimed at starting this work with an urban perspective. The value of this heritage and the preservation work carried out until then determined that the Historical Centre and its Fortress System were declared World Heritage in 1982 by UNESCO. At the beginning of that decade, Historian Eusebio Leal, in his eagerness to sensitize the population and create a popular awareness concerning the cultural, urban and architectural values of the Old City, started multiple lecture cycles. This initiative led to the creation of the television programme Walking in Havana, broadcast for over twenty years. His different articles about this topic appeared in the most important periodical publications of that period. Under his leadership, the City Historian’s Office followed a strategy of concentration of actions in urban restoration on the main squares of the Old City, its surrounding areas and the connecting streets. Priceless monuments were also restored, including the System of Fortresses and outstanding religious buildings. Aware of the responsibility that means to save heritage not only belonging to Cubans but to mankind, and facing the crisis experienced in the country in the 1990’s, the historian was forced to turn his institutions into income-generating entities in order to implement the ambitious social, economical and cultural project for the Historical Centre of Havana City. The State Council, through the Decree-Law 143 as of October 1993, declared this area as “Prioritised Preservation Zone” and gave the Historian’s Office the status of the only authority in charge of self-financed management. 1 Ever since an important amount of the funds is destined to the projects generating income in a rather short period of time in order to reinvest them and be able to continue the construction cycle without renouncing the cultural programme and prioritising the social programmes which influence the most vulnerable sectors of the local population. Dr Leal’s singular charisma, strong leadership and total devotion for more than 40 years to the recovery of heritage and the improvement of the living conditions of people living in the Historical Centre of the Cuban capital have made him deserve and receive countless national and international prizes detailed in the enclosed CV. 2. DESCRIPTION OF THE INITIATIVE OR PROJECT The Historical Centre of Havana City has a surface of 2.14 km2 and 3 370 buildings, most of them having inestimable values which represent the architecture between the 18th and 20th centuries. It has a population of around 67 000 inhabitants and some 22 700 housing units that along with services, administrative buildings, churches, squares and museums integrate a diverse and complementary set. The City Historian’s Office develops an integral, sustainable and self-financed project with political will and decision at the highest level. This new management model led by Dr. Leal considers culture in the broadest sense of the term as the main development axis and the human being as creator, carrier and transmitter of cultural patterns, the major figure in the process. In terms of human development, the strategic importance of the economical and social rehabilitation of the territory is recognised as closely linked to the rescue of heritage and its environment, these dimensions understood with an integrating approach. The participation of citizens in a process benefiting them is also promoted. The dynamics of recovery acts as a synergic and multiplying effect of the investments, widening the recovered areas and increasing the resources available for development. Within this context, Dr. Leal along with his team of collaborators and in close interaction with the authorities has established five main premises: • To save the national identity using research, promotion and cultural development. • To protect heritage by rehabilitating the territory through a continuous Special Integral Development Plan having legal force as a sum of participative management and planning instruments that make the implementation of the process integrally efficient. • To avoid the displacement of the local population by protecting them from the impact of the tertiary sector and establishing proper densities and quality of life. • To give the territory a technical infrastructure and basic services that can guarantee its functioning in correspondence with contemporary needs. • To achieve an integral, self-financed development making investment in heritage both recoverable and productive. Dr. Eusebio Leal also prioritises the development of human capital and has implemented an organisational structure covering from sensitisation and promotion of heritage values and their recovery to the socio-cultural projection, obtainment and 2 management of financial resources and physical rehabilitation. The use of cultural, tourist and tertiary resources of the territory has generated a profit amounting to 216. 8 million USD since 1994 to which 16. 2 millions are added in terms of applying the fiscal policy. Economic decentralisation has allowed immediate reinvestment of these resources, which has been to the benefit of urban and social recovery that allows to improve the living standard and to increase significantly the number of visitors and demand of services. Additionally, the National Bank has provided credits for 62 million USD for expensive works while 321 millions have been received from the State. The destination of 40 % of the resources for social works (housing, health and education institutions, among others), the application of social benefit policies and the rehabilitation of buildings destined to strengthen the community service sector has encouraged international cooperation to co-finance

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