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14 / 07 / 2004
Eusebio Leal (Historian of the city of Havana): “Heritage is preserved if it is open”
The director of the Historian’s Office of the City of Havana, who participated in the morning session of the Dialogue “Tourism, Cultural Diversity, and Sustainable Development,” pointed out that tourism should look at the communities with love and not with judgmental eyes to take note of some of the details about the task of restoration in the historic center of the capital city.
Eusebio Leal, director of the Office of the Historian of the City of Havana, known and recognized in this sphere of restoration for his work on the recovery of the historic center of the capital of Cuba, began his participation today in the Dialogue “Tourism, Cultural Diversity, and Sustainable Development” assuring us that, “Americans have a very clear sense of inter-culturalness and diversity, we come from Spain, Africa, with Greek-Latin roots, sustained in an indigenous culture; we are a type of Mediterranean American.”
For this his intervention was supported by the idea that, “it is egotistical to try to preserve hermetic boundaries, heritage is preserved if it is open.” Nonetheless, he called people’s attention to aggressive tourism, that doesn’t respect the norms of heritage established on an international scale, and is also against those that seek help from tourism for pornography, the stealing of heritage, and the attack on family and on local cultures.
In 1967, Eusebio Leal was named the director of the Museum of the City of Havana, but it wasn’t until 1981 when he became the head of the tasks of restoration at the historic center of Havana, declaring it in 1982 as heritage of humanity by UNESCO. From then until now, he has directed restoration tasks and the entire program of tourist and social rehabilitation of this part of the Cuban capital.
Under the title, “Tourism and Cultural Patrimony,” Eusebio Leal has enumerated the conditions needed for the task of restoration to be fruitful, “Firstly, observe the deterioration and prepare to restore it, and, secondly, culturally train people so that they participate in the process, and also have the will to do so.”
Likewise, he referred that, in his personal case, “he has devoted himself to saving the city, trying to share the benefits of tourism” and, in this sense, he considered it to be “it is legitimate that ones own heritage generates the resources for its recovery without representing a burden for the States.”
His recommendation to link the heritage with tourism was the following: “Try to preserve culture as a shield, as an intense spiritual flan that obliges others to understand our culture.”
The Dialogue, “Tourism, Cultural Diversity, and Sustainable Development” began at the Forum today and will last until July 16.
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