Eusebio and History.

The largest of the Antilles owes much to a dreamer in love with history who became its apprentice and eternal cultivator, who made the preservation and restoration of the island’s cultural and architectural heritage his most altruistic and supreme enterprise and whose imprint, four years after his departure, reverberates in the streets of the beloved city to which he always gave his heart.

That passion for unraveling the mysteries of yesterday led this self-taught Havana native named Eusebio Leal Spengler, born on September 11th, 1942, into the arms of historian Emilio Roig, who entrusted him with his knowledge as a teacher and to whom he succeeded as director of the museum of the capital city and, later, of the Office of the Historian of the City.

To his Bachelor’s Degree in History he added a postgraduate degree on restoration of Historical Centers and later graduated as Doctor in Historical Sciences and Master in Archeological Sciences and in Latin American and Caribbean Studies, was elected director of the Program of Restoration of the Patrimony of Humanity and was a member of the Cuban Academy of Language and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

The former Palace of the Captains General, the fortress of San Carlos de la Cabaña, the Castle of the Three Kings of Morro and the National Capitol, among many others, included the extensive list of enclaves of the capital’s historic center, whose restoration he headed with enormous expertise and sense of belonging.

He was also honorary leader of the National Union of Historians of Cuba, the Commission of Monuments of the City of Havana, Goodwill Ambassador of the United Nations system and advisor to the theme for the Eradication of Poverty of the UN Development Program.

Among his innumerable awards, he received the Honoris Causa distinction from various Latin American and European institutions of higher learning, the orders of the Liberator Simon Bolivar of Venezuela, the Order of Arts and Letters of France, the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic and Juan Marinello of Havana, as well as the Cuban National Culture, Lazaro Peña de Primer Grado and Felix Elmusa, among many others.

He has also been awarded multiple medals such as the Victor Hugo and the World Decade for Development, 1300 years of the Bulgarian State, as well as the key to the cities of Panama, Morelia, Cusco, Michoacán del Campo, Cartagena de Indias, etc.

After a prolific professional career as a scholar, politician, essayist, researcher and historian, a pancreatic cancer finally took his life on July 31st, 2020 at the age of 77, and the manifest admirers of his work, national and foreign, paid the appropriate tribute to this transcendental Antillean hero.

And I still remember when, aware of his presence in the Athens of Cuba, I joined the list of journalists in training who did not hesitate for a second to chase him around the Yumurian city to, as followers of his sapience, immortalize the moment with a casual snapshot that, today as a gift of those times, I keep among my most precious treasures.

Written by Yadiel Barbón.