{"id":309121,"date":"2024-09-08T12:57:53","date_gmt":"2024-09-08T16:57:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/?p=309121"},"modified":"2024-09-08T12:57:53","modified_gmt":"2024-09-08T16:57:53","slug":"villa-elvira-the-house-where-emilio-bacardi-passed-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/cuba\/villa-elvira-the-house-where-emilio-bacardi-passed-away\/","title":{"rendered":"Villa Elvira, the house where Emilio Bacard\u00ed passed away"},"content":{"rendered":"

On August 28, 1922, Emilio Bacard\u00ed gave a glimmer of hope. For him and his family, it had been an unfortunate summer, due to the worsening of his heart condition, which had left him bedridden for the last few weeks.<\/span><\/p>\n

On that Monday morning, he felt that he was regaining strength after overcoming a heart attack three days earlier. He warmly welcomed the visit of some friends, among them the promising Fernando Ortiz, and, in the afternoon, he debated with the past fervor of a tribune about sectarian violence in Ireland, concluding that the problem lay in the fanaticism and intolerance of that society. He did not know it yet, but he would not live another day to tell the tale.<\/span><\/p>\n

His heart stopped a couple of hours later, around six in the evening, just as the sunset began to cast its streamers of shadow around the mansion of eclectic architecture and prominent grace. Like in a scene from an anthology. It was up to Dr. Antonio Guernica to seal the death certificate with leaden handwriting and, with the scribble of death, the specter of mourning was born.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEmilio Bacard\u00ed\u2019s life declined peacefully and majestically, like that of a biblical patriarch, and he had, at the time of his death, the luminous melancholy of the setting sun. I still seem to see his noble and artistic bust, crowned over the bed, with all the appearances of a peaceful and happy dream. There, at the very edge of that bed, his most worthy consort, Elvira Cape de Bacard\u00ed, living and sympathetic harmony of heart and intelligence, watched over the final sleep of the great patriot and benefactor, and with silent tears, not profaned or disturbed by cries or gestures, serene and faithful like a Niobe, she paid the memory of her beloved husband the best homage of well-felt pain,\u201d testified the journalist and friend of the family Joaqu\u00edn Navarro Riera, the popular Ducazcal, in an evocation chronicle published in <\/span>El Mundo<\/span><\/i> on August 27, 1925.<\/span><\/p>\n

He died in Villa Elvira<\/span><\/a>, a picturesque estate on the outskirts of Santiago de Cuba whose doors were always open to those who, attracted by the charisma and magnetism of his fame, wisdom and benevolence, came to greet or meet the lofty politician, writer, patron and businessman. That was how virtuous Emilio Bacard\u00ed was.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In that part of the eastern geography, the well-known family took root, was happy and elevated its best hopes to the wind. Until they themselves took flight. Never again, with the triumph of the Revolution, was it used as a family home. After the exodus of its owners, it would have numerous uses, generally linked to the service of various groups of people. And as if the wake of the twilight that marked the autumn of the patriarch were becoming eternal \u2014 Gabo would say \u2014, gray patches fell on the house and its history slipped away among the fallen leaves.<\/span><\/p>\n

Simple name changes?<\/b><\/p>\n

It all began with a love story, when Don Emilio \u2014 as a gift for his beloved wife \u2014 had the strange idea of <\/span>\u200b\u200b<\/span>baptizing with the name of Elvira the regal villa that was enclosed between the second intersection of Cuabitas, where the central train passed, mango-tree lined avenues and a hill of emerald greenery. Or did it all begin a little earlier, with a tragedy? Let\u2019s recap.<\/span><\/p>\n

By September 1904, in his mayoral efforts to expand educational institutions in the city, Bacard\u00ed gave up his old country house so Katherine Tingley could set up a headquarters of the <\/span>Raja Yoga Academy<\/span><\/a> she had founded in Point Loma, a community near San Diego, California.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"This
This is how the house looked in its days as the Raja Yoga Academy, before the accidental fire that forced its major remodeling. In the photo, the U.S. military delegation that visited Santiago in 1906. Photo: El F\u00edgaro (04\/03\/1906).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At the end of the afternoon of June 27, 1907, someone at the school dropped an oil lamp and the explosion on the floor unleashed a fire that spread within minutes to the entire premises, which were then made of only wood. There were no deaths, but the material damage was considerable and the building was charred. Madame Tingley had no choice but to take her theosophy elsewhere and return the land to her sponsor.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"In
In July 1895, the Diario de la Marina recorded the occurrence of a fire on the property.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Where there were ashes, the capricious Emilio arranged to build the solid one-story house with a tower at the back that can be seen today; much larger, more comfortable and ornate than the previous one. It was accessed by a wide marble staircase, at the foot of which flower plants perfumed and gave greater prestige to a portal of Greek columns. The profusion of large windows with careful ironwork, chandeliers, fine furniture, works of art, among other baroque and decorative additions, rounded out the palatial profile. In addition to garages and service quarters. Thus Villa Elvira was born, as a revived love nest.<\/span><\/p>\n

We could even go further back in the passages of time. I do not know exactly when the illustrious man from Santiago acquired the property. However, from archive photographs and references in the nineteenth-century press it is easy to know that it initially belonged to his ancestors on his father\u2019s side.<\/span><\/p>\n

Towards April 1893, the <\/span>Diario de la Marina<\/span><\/i> reported in three lines the death \u201con his Los Cocos estate\u201d \u2014 which was what it was called at that time, although other sources mention El Cocal \u2014 of the merchant Jos\u00e9 Bacard\u00ed Mas\u00f3. Of Catalan origin, he was the brother of Don Facundo, and together they had founded the <\/span>rum industry<\/span><\/a> that quickly achieved fame. So Jos\u00e9 was Emilio\u2019s paternal uncle, and as if that were not enough, as he had no recognized descendants he ended up naming his nephew as his executor. It is presumed that it came to him by way of inheritance, although there is no notarial proof.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Los
Los Cocos estate in the Cuabitas valley towards the end of the 19th century. Photo: Taken from the book \u201cBacardi Book Tale of Merchants.\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At the beginning of July 1895, the estate went up in flames. The chroniclers suggest that it was a case of sabotage by some Spanish guerrilla group in retaliation for the conspiratorial work of the Bacard\u00ed family, in particular of Emilio, who under the pseudonym Phoci\u00f3n was the head of an efficient clandestine network that guaranteed the sending of soldiers and resources to the insurgent army. These activities cost him his arrest in the summer of 1896 and a year of exile on the Chafarinas Islands, off the coast of Morocco. During this period, the estate must have been registered under the partnership of Enrique Schueg and Pedro Ramos, surely in the role of frontmen to protect it from a legal point of view from a possible expropriation by the authorities.<\/span><\/p>\n

On May 12, 1900, this alliance was dissolved and the house returned to being under the Bacard\u00ed seal. This is confirmed by his first will, written on the early date of January 25, 1902, when he suffered dizziness that made him fear a fatal congestion: \u201cI therefore arrange as follows.\u2026 The Arroyo Viajaca estate, on state land, was purchased as the right of possession for my daughter Marina, so put it in her name.\u201d This was another way of identifying the property within the family, alluding to the stream that crossed nearby.<\/span><\/p>\n

During the following years it would be the country house or recreational home of the family domiciled two blocks from C\u00e9spedes Park, in the heart of the city. In the Cuabitas residence they found restful rest and privacy far from the daily business and city bustle. There they organized banquets and family parties, hosted friends, celebrated champagne balls, party meetings and sociocultural events.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Front
Front of Villa Elvira during one of the usual family gatherings, 1920s. Photo: Author\u2019s archive.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

An idyllic estate<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cWhy don\u2019t we stay here forever, enjoying this clear and bucolic environment that leaves the soul in paroxysm?\u201d Don Emilio must have made a similar invitation to his wife \u2014 or vice versa \u2014 so that the couple decided to move permanently to the rural area of <\/span>\u200b\u200b<\/span>Cuabitas, about six kilometers north of Santiago, between Quintero and Boniato, which became their habitual residence in the last decade of his life, after giving up politics to devote himself entirely to writing and philanthropy.<\/span><\/p>\n

Although today it seems somewhat bleak, Cuabitas sparkles to the passerby its old \u201cresidential neighborhood\u201d appearance. Given its tranquility and dreamlike nature, it was chosen early on by the cream of Santiago society to build their summer houses. Count Duany \u2014 millionaire of the 19th century \u2014, the Bravo Correoso, the Berenguer, the Henr\u00edquez Ure\u00f1a lived here; in 1898 Mariano Corona printed <\/span>El Cubano Libre<\/span><\/i> there and Calixto Garc\u00eda set up camp in the so-called Casa Azul; in 1905 the journalist and patriot Desiderio Fajardo Ortiz, El Cautivo, died there. Closer to the present, among the names linked to the town we have the poet and art critic Antonio Desquir\u00f3n (1946-2014) and Reinaldo Cede\u00f1o, champion of Cuban literary and cultural journalism. Cuabitas is a town with history and heritage.<\/span><\/p>\n

For Don Emilio it was not only a soothing refuge. He found inspiration there and could almost always be found reading in his library, writing novels and articles, exchanging correspondence with family and friends. He took advantage of this to compose some volumes of <\/span>Cr\u00f3nicas de Santiago de Cuba<\/span><\/i>, his masterpiece. He also welcomed friends and travelers from all over the world who later left enchanted by the Bacard\u00eds\u2019 hospitality.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\u201cYou
\u201cYou only have to look around those rooms to understand how exquisite the spirits that live there are. Emilio Bacard\u00ed\u2019s house is a marvelous environment,\u201d described El F\u00edgaro in July 1918. Photo: Author\u2019s archive.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To give you an idea, the long list of personalities welcomed in that home included Ana de Quesada, widow of C\u00e9spedes; the former Mamb\u00ed president Salvador Cisneros Betancourt; General Freyre de Andrade, Secretary of Provincial Government; Mar\u00eda Luisa Dolz, Diego Tamayo and participants of the Fifth Conference of Charity and Correction in 1905; and the U.S. military delegation attending the unveiling of monuments in 1906 in the former scenes of the war of 1898.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bacard\u00ed shared the joy of living in an environment of whispering groves and splendid polychromatic gardens in blossom. Ever since his early years he had educated his pupils in the collection of dissimilar landscapes; he had seen the world: America, Europe, Palestine, Egypt.\u2026 His enlightenment knew no boundaries. Like a prophet he preached the understanding of human existence in communion with nature. Hence his mania for attributing metaphysical values <\/span>\u200b\u200b<\/span>to each piece of furniture, object, tree. The locals still speak of the Bacard\u00ed Stone, a rock placed on the hill at the back of the patio, where he used to climb and sit for hours, immersed in deep meditation. Don Emilio called it the Stone of Energy.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"A
A splendid room where art and nature come together. To the right of the image you can see the elderly patrician, dressed in white and peaceful, enjoying one of his rests in the shade of the mango trees. Photo: Author\u2019s archive.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThe patio itself of the house is something worthy of admiration. It simulates a grotto made with all its stalactites and stalagmites. And the flowers that are artistically placed there in valuable pots are beautiful and strange,\u201d detailed Enrique Cazade in a chronicle published by <\/span>El F\u00edgaro<\/span><\/i> in July 1918.<\/span><\/p>\n

In his tropical villa, the respectable septuagenarian enjoyed his grandchildren, Sunday barbecues and occasionally bought a lottery ticket to invest in public works whatever chance deemed to grant him. On one side of the house was the sculpture workshop of his daughter Mim\u00ed, where the artist\u2019s prodigious hands made fantastic creatures emerge. Distributed throughout the poetic-style gardens and extensive corridors, these pieces gave the villa an exotic touch that amazed visitors. It was an extremely familiar atmosphere. A small oasis of art, nature and emotions.<\/span><\/p>\n

Early years<\/b><\/p>\n

During the years following the deaths of Emilio and his widow, the daughter Marina Bacard\u00ed Cape and her family remained in Villa Elvira. Following tradition, the Covani Bacard\u00ed family kept the house as a center for events for Santiago\u2019s high society until they decided to emigrate in 1959. As occurred in countless similar cases of properties labeled \u201cbourgeois,\u201d the estate ended up occupied and it served successively as a militia school, a pioneer camp, a primary school and, finally, an educational center for children with special needs.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMy mother spent the Revolutionary Instruction School there, in the first years of the Revolution. I visited the place in 1972, when I was six years old. It was a pioneer camp. It still had original furniture, lamps and ornaments; I remember seeing sculptures in the basements, also in the gardens. We both have nice anecdotes from the days we spent there,\u201d recalls Clivia Rodr\u00edguez, a Santiago native consulted via WhatsApp by this reporter for the preparation of this text.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Likewise, Rosa Rodr\u00edguez, who also has a relationship with the Villa, keeps alive the stories her mother told her about the days she spent there around 1962: \u201cYes, there were sculptures. As students they had access to the dining area, since most of them were in shelters built in spaces adjacent to the main house, divided for girls and boys. Inside the house some rooms were occupied, and in front, in the entrance hall, there was a tennis table where they could play.\u201d One fine day in 1965, it was decided to move the Mariana Grajales school there, which would later become a boarding school.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mercedes Guasch, a native of Santiago who studied there and was also interviewed for this article, told us that the children who were, as in her case, in the home for orphans located in Santa Rosa were moved there. For his part, Antonio Radam\u00e9s spent his primary school life \u201crunning through those corridors,\u201d as he told <\/span>OnCuba<\/b>. \u201cThere were many period things in the main house, a piano, paintings, vases, part of the furniture, but nothing that identified the former owners.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In those first years of the Revolution, there were tense days, of just transformation for some and justified fear for others, when the eviction of objects and names began. As happened with the Bacard\u00ed factory, which became Ron Caney, Villa Elvira was also affected.<\/span><\/p>\n

The houses, who can doubt it, contain numerous material and symbolic elements that keep the history of their owners. So the aristocratic mansion suffered more than just a name change, as it had changed owners.<\/span><\/p>\n

There were times when the surname Bacard\u00ed became unpronounceable; he stopped being a patriot to become the mere owner of the rum company; his birthplace is not identified nor are other houses he occupied in the city preserved; for a time the bronze mask was removed from the monument erected in his memory by the magazine <\/span>Acci\u00f3n Ciudadana<\/span><\/i> in the 1950s, turning that faceless Jaimanita stone into an \u201cinnkeeper\u201d for drivers of the nearby provincial People\u2019s Power. Let us not forget the triumphalist attempt to erase the name from the Bacard\u00ed museum; only the infinite zeal and rectitude of the prominent intellectual and painter from Santiago, Miguel \u00c1ngel Botal\u00edn Pamp\u00edn (1932-2013) prevented such a debacle. \u201cMy father told me about it firsthand. He had to explain to the high official in charge of the mission that that would be a serious mistake. Luckily they didn\u2019t change it,\u201d Miguel \u00c1ngel Botal\u00edn Aguil\u00f3, the son, confirmed to me.<\/span><\/p>\n

The new school<\/b><\/p>\n

In 2008 I had the good fortune to set foot in Villa Elvira for the first time. I went there with the help of the tireless Sara In\u00e9s Fern\u00e1ndez, founder and coordinator of the project \u201cDe la ciudad, las calles y sus nombres\u201d (Of the city, the streets and their names), which brings together researchers and popular chroniclers. Created on the initiative of Sara In\u00e9s in May 1999 in Santiago, and lacking an institution to support it, the project attempts \u2014 marked by the intermittency and voluntarism of its promoter, now retired \u2014 to exhume the forgotten episodes and characters of local history to restore them in neighborhood tributes.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sara In\u00e9s, a profound connoisseur of the imprint of Emilio Bacard\u00ed and who worked for 13 years as a specialist in the homonymous museum, \u201cdeserves an ode,\u201d as the journalist Reinaldo Cede\u00f1o brilliantly said. At the time of my visit, the place was undergoing construction work and looked dirty and chaotic.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"State
State of the building at the time of my visit in 2008. Photo: Igor Guilarte.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the outside areas, sturdy walls that had collapsed, mutilated bushes, fountains and destroyed benches were in plain sight. To make matters worse, Mim\u00ed Bacard\u00ed\u2019s eye-catching statues, or what was left of them, lay headless, dismembered and covered by weeds in what was once the romantic garden, now unrecognizable. The residence itself also had a fa\u00e7ade in a deplorable state, although it retained its stately aura. Inside, there were hollowed-out ceilings, peeling walls, stained floors and the spacious rooms turned into a vulgar \u201cflea market\u201d of construction materials.<\/span><\/p>\n

I, a callow youth with the orphanhood of a first-timer, did not have the good sense or the courage, I confess, to speak the truth and draw attention to that atrocious attack on what was supposed to be a site of heritage value. Based on the reflection that the years bring, I understand today that those workers did not act like that out of premeditation or vileness, but because of the lack of culture that kills people, according to Mart\u00ed.<\/span><\/p>\n

We returned in 2010, to a tribute to the Favorite Son, as Bacard\u00ed is known, with hundreds of pioneers from the Mariana Grajales semi-boarding school. The remodeling work had finished and I have to admit that the house showed a somewhat more attractive face. Some original objects \u2014 almost nothing: a rickety long-case clock, a Louis XVI style dresser and a mahogany-colored kitchen shelf \u2014 were in scattered corners inside the house. I was able to save them in photos, at least. I don\u2019t know if they are still there. I did not return.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

With great fanfare on April 23, 2019, a brand-new center was inaugurated on those premises, under the new name of \u201cCuba-Vietnam Friendship,\u201d aimed at providing specialized care to 120 students \u2014 from preschool to ninth grade \u2014 with physical-motor disabilities, belonging to the eastern region of the island. In order to be converted into that center, a capital investment was made that returned sumptuous graces to the place. But there is not \u2014 there never has been \u2014 a plaque from the monument commission with the legend that a hero of the country lived and died on that site. The people of Santiago remain indebted to their Quixote.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe house is in very good condition and has a history room with photographs and articles by Don Emilio Bacard\u00ed and Elvira Cape,\u201d the cameraman colleague from the Santiago TV channel, Andri\u00e1n Fern\u00e1ndez, tells me from a distance in a digital message. If his words are true, then a minimal work of justice has been done; and besides, it gives a hopeful light.<\/span><\/p>\n

Five years later, the educational institution, the third of its kind in the country, is a reference in the development and social integration of young people with special needs. The old Villa Elvira is today a place full of life and humanism. A work that the Bacard\u00ed-Cape couple would approve of.<\/span><\/p>\n

No matter how much dirt you throw or how many layers of paint you apply to the walls, there are traces that never fade. The house retains its soul. As if Bacard\u00ed had never left.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The picturesque estate located on the outskirts of Santiago de Cuba always kept its doors open to those who came to greet or meet the lofty politician, writer, patron and businessman.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12346255,"featured_media":309124,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13902,13912],"tags":[22988,19256],"ppma_author":[34888],"class_list":["post-309121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cuba","category-cuban-history","tag-cuban-history","tag-featured"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nVilla Elvira, the house where Emilio Bacard\u00ed passed away | OnCubaNews English<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It all began with a love story, when EmilioBacard\u00ed \u2014 as a gift for his beloved wife \u2014 had the strange idea of \u200b\u200bbaptizing with the name of Elvira the regal villa.\" 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