Tearing Down Schools, Putting Up Hotels

Cuba: Tearing Down Schools, Putting Up Hotels
July 1, 2013
Rogelio Manuel Díaz Moreno

HAVANA TIMES — The first time I ever set foot in the Manzana de Gomez
walkway in Havana's old town, it wasn't to buy anything at one of its
ground-floor shops. I couldn't have done that even if I'd wanted to at
the time, the height of Cuba's interminable "Special Period" (economic
crisis of the 90s). If memory serves me right, even holding hard
currency was still illegal in the country.

The first time I ever set foot in the Manzana de Gomez, it was to take
part in a school competition (probably having to do with Physics), of
the kind organized by the educational system around the country.

For many years, the building housed a number of schools, theatres,
editorial offices and other cultural establishments, such as the Latin
American Culture Institute, chaired by renowned intellectual Fernando Ortiz.

The building was constructed over a broad span of time, between 1890 and
1918, and was primarily financed by the wealthy Gomez-Mena family. Since
its completion, it has been one of Havana's emblematic public sites. The
passage of time and lack of maintenance have resulted in serious
structural damage.

Thanks to a dispatch published by Prensa Latina, I have just found out
that the building is going to be turned into a 500-bedroom hotel. I
suspect they're going to conserve the building's façade, out of respect
for the city's architectural heritage, history and all that, which
historian and entrepreneur Eusebio Leal Spengler knows how to manage so
well. It's rather painful to think that, to do this, they will have to
relocate the schools there.

To tell the truth, the building has been in such a deplorable state for
so long that the schools may have been closed, and the students
relocated to other institutions in the area some time ago. Ultimately,
this was also the fate of the Faculty of Physics at the University of
Havana, and of thousands of other buildings – schools, residences,
medical centers and factories that deteriorated to the point of becoming
uninhabitable, deadly traps where no few souls perished.

The resources needed to repair them never did turn up, while no shortage
of these was squandered in other places of dubious social usefulness.

Now, if it's a hotel we're talking about, then there's plenty of money
to spend. Every good capitalist knows that, in order to make money, you
need to invest money. Perhaps the University of Havana steps will one
day lead to the entrance of another pretty hotel, which will prove more
profitable than a place where Maxwell's equations are taught. Perhaps
the Pedro Borras Hospital will someday be made into a golf resort, who
knows.

I doubt anyone consulted with the community, with the parents, teachers
or workers of the Manzana de Gomez, before deciding the building's new
destiny. In any event, if someone has any information in this
connection, do share it. Though no one will be left without an
education, the boys and girls of these schools, who are to continue
their Math, Spanish and History studies elsewhere, will walk away with a
slightly bitter lesson: that a place of learning is ultimately expendable.

Source: "Cuba: Hotels are more profitable than schools" -
http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=95650