{"id":225391,"date":"2020-07-31T19:32:01","date_gmt":"2020-07-31T23:32:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/?p=225391"},"modified":"2020-07-31T19:32:45","modified_gmt":"2020-07-31T23:32:45","slug":"eusebio-leal-is-dead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/cuba\/eusebio-leal-is-dead\/","title":{"rendered":"Eusebio Leal is dead"},"content":{"rendered":"

The hand trembles when writing it: Eusebio is dead. Another life that is leaving us at a time when he was most needed, just after the 500th anniversary of his beloved Havana. It\u2019s not a matter of making an inventory of his numerous merits and decorations\u2015undoubtedly well deserved\u2015for the work of a lifetime. Nor the Honoris Causa received in Havana, Athens, Rome or Montevideo. Neither his status as a distinguished member of the Smithsonian or the Academy of History of Cartagena de Indias. Neither of the orders he received in countries such as Poland, Peru, Colombia, France and Spain, among many others, but to account for the ultimate meaning of his work: the vocation for service.<\/p>\n

Eusebio was a Centro Habana man who knew how to overcome himself and light up with the star of knowledge, the one that also illuminates and kills. With barely a sixth grade, but with the mind where it was not seen, he took on a long journey by taking over the Office of the Historian and starting to lift Havana from its ruins, stone by stone, a task that many considered impossible at the time, during those years, he will say, \u201cwhen we were considered insane: \u2018He\u2019s crazy, but works a lot.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

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Photo: Otmaro Rodr\u00edguez<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

He knew how to sensitize and unite wills even in times of cholera. And he had the wisdom to create structures to implement that perseverance. \u201cThe Office of the City Historian is nothing more than a pseudonym for the nation and an expression of political will. We pride ourselves on its name and declare that it has not been an autonomous whim: it was necessary to combine capacity with the will of the State,\u201d he said. And he stressed, from his proverbial modesty, that the Office\u2019s work was \u201cthe result of an evolution; I have always denied that it is the work of an enlightened one, I reject for me the absolute leading role in these questions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eusebio Leal: \u201cLa Habana es un estado de \u00e1nimo\u201d<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n