>> From the Library of
Congress in Washington, DC.
>> Ryan Moore: Good
morning, everyone.
We're going to begin today's event.
Welcome to the Library of Congress.
This event is sponsored by the
Philip Lee Phillips Map Society,
it's the friends group of the
geography and map division.
My name's Ryan Moore.
I am a specialist in the division
and I am also the Executive
Secretary of the Phillips Society.
And today, we are happy to
present Islands in the Stream,
lecture by Julio Cesar
Perez Hernandez.
And, also on the screen, I just
want you to take note of some
of the other activities that
the Society is involved with.
Our latest publication is by Louis
De Vorsey, it's called The History
of the Gulf Stream's Missing
Chapter, a very interesting piece
that discusses who actually
discovered the Gulf Stream.
Benjamin Franklin is assumed to
have discovered the Gulf Stream
and understood it scientifically.
This author makes a
different argument about that.
Very interesting piece,
it's available in the back
and it's also available online
where you see loc.gov/phillips.
You can download the color
PDF and read it at home.
Our forthcoming publication
is by Cheryl Fox.
She's an archival specialist
here at the Library of Congress,
and she's looking into the history
of Philip Lee Phillips himself.
He began some overseas
acquisitions trips in 1905
and this was the beginning
when the Library
of Congress actually was going
out into Europe and other places
to bring things back to make this
library a world-class library,
in competition with
France and England.
This was is the time of Teddy
Roosevelt, this is the time
when the United States was
extending itself into Latin America,
and the library saw itself as
part of that larger mission
to be a status symbol worldwide.
It's a very interesting piece.
So, the last piece I have to say
today is that this event is brought
to you by a group of donors
that was established in 1995,
by Chief Ralph Ehrenberg
who is here, somewhere.
And these group of folks are very
interested in collecting maps,
history of maps, and discussing
maps, and not just maps alone,
but maps as a window
to discuss the world.
Their donations make this possible.
If you're not a member of the
Society, it has 400 people
and institutions together
contributing,
we ask you to consider joining.
No contribution is too
small and I assure you,
no contribution is too large.
We are very happy to work with
you if you are in that camp.
So please see me or see the Chief.
So, without further adieu,
I would like to bring
up a colleague of mine,
Anthony Mullan.
He is an expert in Latin
American maps, the Caribbean,
and the Iberian Peninsula, and he's
going to kick things off today.
So, without further adieu,
please welcome Mr. Mullan.
[ Applause ]
[ Silence ]
>> Anthony Paez Mullan:
Thank you, Ryan.
It is a great pleasure for me
to introduce Julio Cesar Perez
Hernandez to this audience.
Today, Mr. Perez Hernandez
will present us
with an historical overview
of Cuba, through the medium
of maps, plans, and engravings.
Mr. Perez Hernandez is an
international consultant
and world-class expert in Cuban
architecture and urbanism.
He is a scholar and author
of several articles, books,
and forthcoming works
on architecture
and urban design in Cuba.
He received his degree in
architecture from the School
of Architecture at the University
of Havana in 1982, where he served
as adjunct professor
from 1998 to 2006.
He undertook advanced
study as a Fellow
at Harvard University Graduate
School of Design in 2002,
and in 2013 he returned to
Harvard as a visiting scholar.
As a recognized architect,
urban planner, and consultant,
he has developed and worked
on designs and projects
in the US, Europe and Cuba.
His works have not only included
commercial, new commercial,
cultural, and residential projects,
but also historic preservation.
Today, Mr. Perez Hernandez
will narrate a history
of Cuba using maps,
plans, and engravings.
And he will conclude by
discussing his publication,
Master Plan for 21st Century Havana,
that describes a comprehensive
urban project
for the future redevelopment
of Havana.
And before turning the program over
to our speaker, I would like --
I would briefly like to turn your
attention to our extensive holdings
of cartographic material for Latin
America, the Caribbean region,
and the Iberian Peninsula.
A few statistics will suffice
to demonstrate the breath
and depth of the collection.
The geography and map division holds
more than 1000 manuscript plans,
1000 manuscript plans, maps,
and atlases alone related
to Latin America, the Caribbean, and
the Iberian world from 1550 to 1900.
Of these, that is of the manuscript
materials, 81 are manuscript maps
or plans of Cuban bays,
harbors, towns, or cities,
mostly from the 18th century,
but not, not, not entirely.
In addition, the division possesses
more than 140 uncatalogued maps
of Cuba, covering the
period from 1896 to 1925.
For those of you don't know
much about Cuban history,
this was a very important period.
During these 30 years, there
was the Spanish-American war,
there was also the
independence from Spain,
Cuba's independence from Spain.
And from the same time period,
the geography map division holds,
holds 42 catalog maps
and plans of Cuba.
And the division continues to review
dealers' catalogs and offerings
for other cartographic material,
significant to the understanding
of Latin American and
Caribbean history and culture.
Our most recent acquisition to
date is a large manuscript map
that we acquired last fall,
which is a map from 1811,
which shows Louisiana, Spanish
Texas and the Trans-Mississippi West
which was prepared by
Father Jose Antonio Pichardo
and that was prepared for the
Spanish viceroy of New Spain
to determine where the
boundary line should be drawn
between the United
States and Mexico.
And now, I'd like to turn the
program over to Mr. Perez Hernandez.
[ Applause ]
>> Julio Cesar Perez Hernandez:
Good afternoon, everybody.
There's so many things that I can
say when I'm in Washington, DC,
a city that I love, not only
because it's the capital of the US,
but it's just that it's one of the
most beautiful cities in the world,
not only the US but
in the whole world.
So, I am very pleased and
honored to be here and I would
like to thank you for
joining me in this adventure,
in this journey this afternoon.
I am particularly grateful
to the US Library of Congress
and it's geography and map division.
Mr. Ralph Ehrenberg, the Chief
of the division, also Ryan Moore,
Diane Schug-O'Neill, people have
been in touch with since last year.
And the very origin of this
lecture is this building where I,
where I came to request
authorization
for using a special map for the
book I'm currently working on.
I was particularly honored
and pleased to come here
with my dear friend, Leonard Hacker
and his lovely wife
Naomi [assumed spelling].
And we had a wonderful time thanks
to the kindness, extreme kindness
of Chief Ralph Ehrenberg,
who we just met.
Meeting people like Mr.
Ehrenberg in this sort
of institution confirms
how great this country is
and how well represented
it is by its institutions.
So thank you for being here.
I hope that you enjoy.
I am also grateful to, very much
to again Diane Schug-O'Neill,
for her kindness in
sending me the, the maps.
It treasure them, Diane.
Thank you.
So, the lecture slide show is
also very much related to the US
and the US history
and the US literature.
"Islands in the Stream" was the
title of Hemingway's last novel.
As you know, Hemingway lived in
Cuba for some time and several
of his writings happened there.
First, in 1928, when he
first arrived in Havana
at the Ambos Mundos Hotel
and then after the long time,
he spent I think a year in
the outskirts of Havana,
after his wife purchased
the property for him
to peacefully write there.
Hemingway used to fish also in
the waters of the Caribbean,
and at some point he was even
pursuing Nazi submarines there,
so it's another interesting
topic for any other lecture.
Hemingway and Cuba we could make.
But then, the background of this
picture is this famous 1500 map
by Juan de la Cosa, the first map
that confirmed that
Cuba was an island.
I'm here to talk about Cuba,
of course, but I'm here to talk
about the world and
the world of maps.
The key to understand
the history of the,
of the world is the history of maps.
So maps bring people together,
maps help understand the world,
and there was a time when
maps made the difference.
I'm talking about that time when
the Europeans mastered the oceans,
especially the Portuguese.
And this is to show you that
this guy, Martin Waldseemuller,
whose map I'm showing you,
this is the one I was looking
for when I came here last September,
reflected the island of Cuba
in his 1507 map too,
just several years,
seven years after Juan
de la Cosa did.
And Waldseemuller also made a
mistake, and the mistake consisted
in naming America, America.
So, we're here today, this will
start a fight some years later
and I will let you know about it,
and he, he was aware of his mistake
because he tried to mend
it, he tried to fix that,
but at the time he was trying to do
that, it was impossible to do just
because of the increase of prints.
So, everybody would name
America this whole continent and,
and it took some time, as I said,
to clarify, and in fact, centuries.
And, this is where Cuba is
shown, here's Carta Marina,
it says Terra de Cuba
here, Land of Cuba.
And, but again, I would like to
refer to Columbus' background,
because if we are here today, we
are here today because of Columbus.
We are here today thanks
to Columbus.
We are here today thanks
to the Renaissance.
And Columbus, in a
way, was a Renaissance
and benefitted from
his contemporaries.
This is a chart from 1455, the
[inaudible] pareto, pareto chart.
Where you see the how the
islands were represented,
not very accurately,
not very precisely.
We can see here this very
enigmatic name of Antille,
which means the anthills.
People also related
the Antille Island
with the disappeared mythical
island that, you know,
is the subject of so
many texts also.
And then, you know, Columbus had
all these cosmographic knowledge
that he accumulated throughout
the years, the years he, you know,
Columbus was from, you know,
Italy but he spent most
of his life in Portugal.
And there, he started to
put together his plan.
Columbus was a visionary.
It takes a visionary, otherwise,
there wouldn't be America,
we wouldn't be here again.
So, Columbus knew he was, he
made his living as a, as a sailor
but also, as a book trader.
So he knew about books,
among many other things,
so he knew about Imago
Mundi, this book.
He knew also about Toscanelli,
who was a Renaissance man
who not only researched the
cosmos and taught geometry
to architect Filippo Brunelleschi,
but made this map of the Atlantic
that he sent to the
Portugese king announcing
that there would be a route to
India and China, other than the one
that they knew so far,
meaning that sailing westward,
you could get to the East.
And that's what Columbus
really was aware of.
And Columbus was also aware that
the globe, the earth was rounded,
especially after this
globe was made in 1492.
So, Columbus made several attempts
to convince kings in Portugal
and Spain for his trip, for his
so-called enterprise of the Indies.
Remember that Columbus
died believing
that he had arrived in India.
This is why he would say that
the aboriginals were Indians.
So this is where all the terms
for years came, love the Indies,
and the West Indies, and
all those geographic terms.
Yes, geography was key at this time.
So this beautiful stained-glass
is crowning one of the buildings
in Havana, showing and
displaying one of Columbus' trips.
As you know, he sailed
with special ships,
not any ship, but the Caravels.
The Caravels were particularly
good to face the winds.
And Columbus didn't know
about the seas and the winds.
You need to know that if you want
to come back, you want to return
to the place you departed
from, otherwise,
you're lost in the
middle of nowhere.
So here's what Columbus founded --
sorry, this is what Columbus
found when he arrived in Cuba.
He found very peaceful
aboriginals, wearing almost nothing.
Which confused him at
first because he contrasted
that with what he had read
from Marco Polo's voyages.
And he was confused, but still
he couldn't figure it out.
So this is why he took some of
them back to Spain on his trip,
on his first trip back to Spain.
And then this is where
Columbus arrived.
This very old map.
This is Baracoa in the North East
part of Cuba, where he arrives
on October 12th -- on
October 28th, sorry, of 1492.
This map, the oldest map
depicting Cuba as an island, here,
was done by Juan de la Cosa.
Juan de la Cosa came with
Columbus in his second trip.
So this is from 1500,
it's a treasure.
And shows for the first time
that Columbus was mistaken
because he only thought
that the land he had arrived
to was a continent
and not an island.
So this was clarified for the
first time by this very old map.
This is also another chart
that, chronologically speaking,
you could place after Juan de la
Cosa, and is the famous Cantino map.
Here you find also the
island of Dominican Republic,
the current Dominican
Republic and Cuba.
With this very picturesque
representation here of South America
and Brazil, that was the trend.
Maps, as we know them,
they were pieces of art.
They were ornated,
they were beautiful
as we cannot find current
maps, unfortunately.
So for us, here together
maps are works of art.
And that's what elevates maps
to the special condition.
Well, after Columbus returned,
he brought, as you know,
Diego Velazquez, and conquest and
colonization of America started.
It was a very unprecedented
process of colonization,
only compared to that
of the Roman Empire
that we are going to refer to also.
These tell you about the conditions
and the very precarious
architecture that Columbus found.
And also as how the Spaniards
started to be interested
in extracting the riches
from America.
Especially this picture is about the
processing of silver at some point.
In the beginning, especially after
Hernando Cortes went to Mexico,
and that was 1519,
Cuba was neglected
because the Spaniards were very
interested in bringing the riches
from Mexico and Peru, where they
found a very different condition
from the Caribbean islands.
There was no civilization
that you can recognize as such
in the Caribbean islands,
but there was a civilization
in Mexico and Peru.
In Peru, the ancient Tiwanaku.
And in Mexico, the
Aztecs and the Mayans.
They had canals, sophisticated and
civilized system of government.
They had temples.
They had a very organized
urban life, as you call.
So this is a map showing Christopher
Columbus discoveries during his
first trip in 1492.
All these islands were Columbus
reward after his long quest
in the ocean and after his
adventurous trip to America.
In the same way, this also chose
how the Spanish settlements were
abundant in Cuba.
And in fact, some clarification
is needed
because the original Cuban
settlements were settled,
and this is why I'm talking now
about not only the word maps
but also the Cuban cities,
and especially one of them,
which is the capital
of Cuba, Havana.
But for us to understand the
urban condition of Cuban cities,
we need to go back to this very
old map from the 4th, 5th century,
that shows the roads to Rome.
The Roman Empire, they
founded cities
across the whole Europe
and also in Spain.
And the very precedents of
Cuban cities are the Roman
camps [inaudible].
They were fortified towns
where there would be streets
in both directions,
meaning there was a grid.
And at some point where this
grid met, there was an open space
that we can call let's say
the primitive plaza or square.
Then, of course, we find in
Cuba and we find in America,
this very origins of the cities
that date back from the Greek
from [inaudible] and
also from the Romans.
And this is the court, the
center, of these cities and towns
that were representing urban
life and public activities,
first in the Greek Agora
and then in the Roman Forum.
Where you can see certain
organization, spatial organization,
other than the more
loose Greek type.
So when it comes to the first
Cuban settlements, as I said,
Columbus arrived first
here in Baracoa,
and Diego Velazquez
founded Baracoa in 1511.
There are different opinions,
different scholarly statements
about was it 1511, was it 1512, but
it's most accepted that it was 1511.
So Columbus arrived here.
And if you follow the
grid, you don't find
that this is a perfect grid,
but instead, a very loose one.
Why? Because in Cuba
we had both influences.
We have the classical influence, and
we also have shared the influence
from Southern Spain and the Seville.
So this is why you see
this is a very loose grid
that basically followed the contours
of the geography of the place,
either the river or the sea.
So some streets kind of try to
be parallel to the coastline,
and this is why it's
explained that Havana has
in a way this similarity
with Seville.
So you see, Seville was, you
know, by the [inaudible] River.
And with presence of the Moors
for eight centuries, as we know,
and then Havana reflects
this influence other
than adopting its silhouette to this
marine condition here, this curve,
and that explains certain
curves in the grid,
which is not definitely
regular, is not regular.
It does not conform to
the law of the Indies.
And why am I saying this this way?
Because I get a lot
of people confused
with this, even scholars, okay.
So I'm clarifying this for the sake
of it, because none of these cities,
as you can see, they follow the
statements of the law of the Indies
that only came -- were
issued in 1573.
So by the time they came, all these
cities existed, especially Havana.
So, when you talk about the Indies
in America, you can refer them
to the foundations of other
cities, but not to the cities
that were founded and
developed, laid out, before 1573,
like these ones I'm
showing you in Cuba.
So, by the time you leave this
room you will be convinced of this.
So, this is Havana, this is the,
this vibrant capital of Cuba,
and everything was
different here for a reason.
Havana makes a difference
when you compare it
with the other cities
in Latin America.
It's not that I'm chauvinist,
it's not that I'm Cuban,
it's just that I'm
going to show you why.
Number one, Havana is
a polycentric city.
When you go to visit,
when you go visit the rest
of Latin American cities,
you find a plaza mayor.
In Mexico, in Lima, and Buenos
Aires, but not in Havana,
there's no plaza mayor in Havana.
Instead, there's a system
of pedestrian squares
that are interconnected, and
where you are not threatened
by cars, by the way.
And so, everything started
in Havana with its importance
and its importance derived from the,
from its strategic geographic
location, hence maps are important.
So, as I told you, the Spaniards
were doing a fantastic job,
if you want to be cynical, getting
all the riches from Mexico and Peru,
but the ships would not
go to Spain directly,
they would stop at
the harbor of Havana.
And they would be there
for around six months.
There were two trips a year.
So, in the meantime, these guys
were, I mean, the crews were
like the inhabitants, not permanent,
but tourists or sort of in Havana.
They needed accommodation,
they needed food,
they needed entertainment.
So, they would stay in Havana and
the other world powers, let's say,
the British, the Dutch, the French,
who were at that time the enemies
of Spain, they were aware
of this richness being stored
in the harbor of Havana.
So they would come to Havana
and they would harass Havana
and that happened for years.
In 1538, the king of Spain
commissioned Hernando de Soto,
who is also a name familiar to
you Americans, to come to Havana
as the governor and also as
the [inaudible] of Florida.
He was briefly in Havana,
building a fort to defend the city,
the city from the pirates attacks.
And he built a wooden fort that
was destroyed by other pirates.
So, as Havana became more
important, the Spanish crown decided
to provide Havana with
more permanent fortresses.
This is why they commissioned
Spanish engineers, Sanchez
and Colona, to build this, which is
considered the most ancient bastion
fortress preserved in America.
Renaissance style, made out
of coral stone just from the,
from the reef, just
from the shoreline.
Those were the natural
quarries then.
And a perfect squaring plan,
with a hole in the middle
which is the first Cuban courtyard.
And then, that determined
the character of the space.
This is the military
parade ground now,
trying to face the
attacks from the pirates.
Then, in 1555, Jacques de Sores,
the French pirate, had harassed
and burnt out Havana, so they say,
we need a whole defenses system.
But the Spaniards were lazy.
So, the Spanish crown brought
the Antonelli family here and,
I'm talking about the time
these maps were also down in,
in Italy by Gastaldi and
all these guys, Forlani,
that I'm going to show you.
And then they sent the
whole Antonelli family,
or the Spanish crown hired them
because they had met them in Naples.
At the time, Spain owned Naples
and all the south part of Italy,
thanks to the new pope that had been
appointed in 1492, Rodrigo Borja.
So, Havana was heavily fortified
and the Spaniards started the most
and the largest defenses system in
America, building all these forts
from 1589, the La Punta
and El Morro.
El Morro was finished by
1639 because of being bigger.
And there was -- this
old map shows you a lot.
It shows you how precious
Havana was,
and how they tried to defend it.
But you, at, I will show
you that it was not enough.
So, look at this chain here,
from La Punta to El Morro,
preventing enemy ships to come
into the, into the harbor.
And then look at how this old space
was evolving, having the fortress
and the primitive church
that was there.
So, this is another
map from the lat 16,
16th century showing how the
coast of Cuba was depicted.
And then, as I told you,
the fortresses themselves,
the fortresses alone,
there were not enough.
Cuba was so wanted, Cuba was
so pressured by these pirates,
but not Cuba, but the riches that
were stored there and the cities
that were just coming out from it.
So, they commissioned Cristobal de
Roda, who was a nephew of Antonelli,
to do what's considered the first
master plan of Havana, back in 1603.
That is documented at the
General Archives of Seville.
And then, this, this is only
the remains of the walls
where they were mapped,
showing old Havana.
Isn't this wonderful?
So, this is also another map from
1691, and you notice that I have
to jump in time, because I'm trying
to summarize five centuries
of history.
So, this map shows the
polycentric condition of Havana
and the many squares that, that
were having either churches
and convents and all that.
Then, this is Cuba Insula,
but one of the fathers
of modern cartography,
Mercator, the Dutch mapmaker.
So you see Cuba was in the map.
And then going back to Havana,
this is an illustration also of one
of the most famous Squares, the
so-called Old Plaza, or Plaza Vieja.
And you say, why vieja?
Why old? Because there was only,
always a new one in the making.
So this, at that time was
named Plaza Vieja, Old Plaza,
and this engraving shows the
commercial character of this plaza.
So, every plaza will have a
very, very precise character.
There would be the military
parade ground for the army.
There would be the commercial
plazas of St. Francis of Assisi
and the Plaza Vieja and
there would be, of course,
the cathedral square
for religious activity.
This is this is one of the things
that makes Havana different, also,
the porches which are
Havana's trademark.
Now, this is a Nolli Plan.
As you know, a Nolli Plan is
related to that famous plan
of Rome to show public space.
This is a technique that we
architects use to test public space
and this is a map of
this area from Havana
that tells you more
about the territory.
Here you find the oldest fortress,
and the square, and the palaces
that were built once this
territory was transformed,
which I'll show you in a minute.
But then, look at the
maps from these times.
It's a very particularly couple
maps that are very dear and famous
in Cuba, which are, which
were done by Coronelli.
Vincenzo Mario Antonelli, sorry,
Coronelli was a very famous mapmaker
who, you know, got this image
of Cuba which is more accurate
than the former ones
that I've shown to you.
So, a turning point in Cuban
history was, happened in 1762,
was the seize of Havana
by the British navy.
They had been studying Havana
carefully for centuries.
They wanted Havana.
And they wanted Havana
for one reason.
They were not thinking
about the riches, only.
That was the reason for
the pirates and buccaneers,
but not for the British Empire.
They had a different vision.
And the reason was
focused on United States.
So, 1762 they were here, and
they were trying to do something
that would give them some more
power in America, in the US.
So they seized Havana and they
stayed in Havana for 11 months,
which are still considered
the most affluent period ever
in economic times in Havana,
just because of the free trade.
Before that, the Spanish crown
had a strong monopoly on commerce,
so the British finished that and
Cuba benefitted from, from it.
So the British were there.
There was a resistance,
people fought them, but still,
they took over and it's just that
they had a very particular strategy.
They knew that the port
was, was very well guarded.
So they could not enter that way.
They came the other way.
They came from the east,
so they, they took over.
And after that, they
exchanged Havana,
because they were not interested
in the rest of the country,
this is why I also insist on Havana.
They exchanged Havana, according
to the Paris Treaty, for Florida
and the rest of the southern
territories that were owned
by Spain, New Orleans included.
Why? Because the southernmost
part that they had was Virginia.
And so, they needed this
[inaudible] zone to be protected
and had it more geopolitical
domain of the US,
so that's the historical
explanation.
So, after the English left, Havana
had proven to be vulnerable,
so they started a second
defenses system,
according to the latest
in technology.
For that, they commissioned French,
Silvestre Abarca and Agustin Crame,
and they provided this plan
for fortifying Havana exactly
at the place where the
English had come from.
So this is the biggest fortress
in America named La Cabana.
And it was so big, that when the
king of Spain got the invoice,
he went to the window
and, you know, there's,
there's no way you can you
can see the sea from Madrid.
Madrid is just in the middle.
So, after five minutes starting
outside the window, people who were
in the room asked, His Majesty,
what are you staring at?
And he said, well, if this has cost
so much and you say it's so big,
it should be seen from here.
So they, they built these and
they build also other fortresses
like the Prince Castle,
an [inaudible] fortress.
But the most important
transformation
of Havana was not a military
one, but a civic one,
which proves how important
is to be civilized
and how important it is being urban.
So, the former military
parade ground now was turned
into this first civic
center, with the construction
of these wonderful palaces
that are shown here.
They set the paradigm for the rest
of the public buildings to be built
around the main squares in Havana.
Look at them.
Look at their wonderful
architecture,
their monumental scale,
it's still not overwhelming,
it's still in the scale
of a Caribbean island.
So, Havana was turning monumental
and it would be also this wonderful
marine city that everybody admired,
that everybody wanted to
come to, wanted to travel
to just like it is today.
It's not because it's
the forbidden fruit.
So this is a map that I brought
from our national library,
also showing not only Havana,
but also the whole Caribbean,
showing Florida here and showing all
the relationship that was happening
at this very time in
the 18th century
at the time something
bigger was going to happen
and that was Humboldt's
trip to Cuba.
You know, Humboldt visited America
in the 1800s, and he visited Cuba,
and he was the one who clarified
that America was South, Central,
and North America, and that
it was not Amerigo Vespucci
who discovered America,
but Columbus.
And this is also important
because this is the first modern
atlas showing biodiversity,
which at that time was not
very well understood by people.
Who would care about
biodiversity in the, in 1800.
Okay. But it's so important, so the
next growth of Havana would happen
after the first plan of
expansion of any city
in the whole America regions.
And it happened between 1817 and
1819, by Antonio Maria de la Torre.
This is also important for
Cuba because this is the way
that the Spanish engineer,
on purpose or not,
created this wonderful realm
of the porches in Havana.
You only find this in Bologna
in Italy, I mean, you can,
you can walk underneath here
under, under the porches for miles.
Why? Because they became commercial
arteries, so they needed protection.
Can you imagine living in our
weather with such a harsh sun,
sunlight, and the [inaudible]
rain, you need protection.
Porches are perfect for that
and that was part of Havana
and they became part
of the ordinances
that were imposed by 1861.
But before that, we had
this governor in Havana
who was responsible for
a very ambitious plan.
And this is particularly
significant just
because his brother was a
consul here in Washington, DC.
So, he knew about Washington
just because of that.
He was a very illustrated
person, he was a despot of course,
and he was a megalomaniac who would
name every building and everything
that he would do after
him, just after him.
So he would build these
fantastic buildings, you know,
are named the Tacon theatre,
that is still seen in Havana.
You go to Havana tomorrow and you
will see this building from 1840.
It was finished by 1840, it's
still within a wonderful theatre,
the great theatre of Havana.
But if you look at this
map, it shows the expansion
of the wars happening all
around this neighborhood here,
before the walls were demolished.
At this time, they
understood that the,
that the walls were
completely obsolete.
And that nobody else ever
attacked Havana again,
so it means that the Spaniards spent
a lot of money building something
that were at some point
considered useless.
So, Tacon, and Tacon's ideas
are considered the birth
of monumental Havana,
but he had the goal
of bringing the troops eventually
through here from this part
of the city to the new, the
newly constructed Prince Castle.
So, he, he also had this vision, if
we ever need to displace the troops,
we can do it through my
avenue, Tacon's avenue.
Okay, so, the, the, the very
birth of modern planning happened
in Havana, with laying out of these
beautiful neighborhoods, El Vedado,
based on a grid, and
The Walls District.
They are both considered the most
important urban initiatives ever
in Havana and these are the examples
that we can still learn from today.
Just briefly, the grid of El
Vedado shows a lot of wisdom,
just because you can notice that it
was rotated 45 degrees to the north.
Why? That's the best way to catch
the breeze and avoid the sun.
And then also, the way
green was introduced,
you can take a look here,
this is garden setback here,
defining also the border between the
public and the private land, very,
very wise concepts at that time.
Then, jumping in time, this is 1897.
This is the best detailed map of
Cuba I've ever seen and it was done
by the US military and
it was done in 1897.
And, as you know, in 1898,
the US troops were here
in Santiago de Cuba
fighting the Spaniards.
And, fortunately, ending a 30 years
war that Cuba held against Spain.
This is the threshold
of the 20th century,
so I'm bringing a summary
here of the growth of Havana.
Just for you to have an idea, this
is a wonderful map showing all the,
the grids, the different
grids colliding and,
and the territories
that had not been built.
So all this was built between --
the rest was built between 1902
and 1958, but also, at the
beginning of the 20th century,
two US engineers were
responsible for laying
out this wonderful seaside
promenade, the Malecon of Havana,
very much according to this
diagram here, to this old postcard.
Initially, it had trees
and lighting features,
but the American pragmatism took
them away and they were never there.
Also, the US influence in Havana
and in Cuba was particularly
great along the 20th century
and the former order brought
by the grid was replaced by,
by the influence of the so-called
City Beautiful Movement [inaudible]
and all that.
So the suburbs were born
in Havana, in contrast,
with this more order
neighborhood which is Miramar,
laid out by Cuban Leonardo Morales
and William O' Malley, US architect.
So, it's a combination of both.
You can see a lot of
influence from Manhattan.
Remember at El Vedado we had
a grid that was a square,
now we have a rectangular grid
here, which is very much related
to Manhattan in New York.
And then, the 1920's were
particularly important for,
for Cuba and for Havana.
Cuba was affluent because Cuba
benefitted from the first world war,
because of the peak of the, of
sugar in the international market
and there was a very
ambitious public works plan
that brought together the wisdom
of Carlos Miguel de Cespedes
and the entrepreneurship of
both Americans and Cubans.
This is a time when the
Capitolio was being built,
following the example
and the inspiration
of the US Capitol here
in Washington.
This is a time when Forestier,
the French landscape architect,
was invited to Cuba to produce this
plan of embellishment of Havana
with all these, sort of Parisian
boulevards that, fortunately,
were not built, otherwise Havana
would have been sort of distorted
and the Colonial grid, especially
would have been affected.
So, we had people from all over
the world working in Havana
at this time when, when the city
was acquiring this very monumental
appearance with this,
the construction
of the presidential palace,
hotels, and open air cafes,
especially The Paseo del Prado, one
of the most important urban spaces
in Havana, but one of the, also
one of the best in the world.
Designed by Forestier and
Cuban architect Raul Ortero,
based on the concept, on the Spanish
concept of the elevated plaza,
separating the traffic,
the pedestrians
from the vehicular traffic.
This is an old postcard showing the
condition of The Paseo del Prado
and the tallest building
that you can imagine was done
by [inaudible] Americans.
And then, the Havana
electric railways.
Good news for you, the Hershey
train in Havana is still working.
Yes, Hershey's chocolate,
American Havana.
This tells you a lot about the
relationship of both countries.
We had a wonderful tram system
that is unfortunately gone.
It was killed by the cars.
But our inspiration is to, at some
point in the future, take it back.
So, this is also a tourist
map of Havana, 1951,
showing how all the free areas
that I showed you before,
now they are built.
They were urbanized, so Havana
was booming, also benefitting
from the second world war.
So there was a boom in construction,
there was a boom in architecture,
there was a boom in design, and
yes, the mobsters were there too,
so there was a lot of
influx in, in Havana.
There was a lot of
money poured in Havana.
And then, 1956, the National Board
of Planning commissioned
Town Planning Associates
for doing, pilot plan of Havana.
Town Planning Associates was led
by Catalonian architect Josep Lluis
Serp, then the dean at Harvard.
Had this been built, this
financial district in Old Havana,
Havana would have never been listed
as a UNESCO World Heritage site.
So fortunately, it was not built.
And it was not only the
financial district here,
it was also this artificial
island for casinos
and hotels, across [inaudible].
Yes, it would have been Las
Vegas, instead of Havana.
Fortunately, it never happened.
So, this is a summary of the second
half of the 20th century as several,
now, plans for the city of Havana.
Not a lot to say about them
except for there were a couple
of new campuses built in Havana,
one for the schools of art,
one for the technological careers,
and then also another one showing
how Havana survived the collapse
of the Soviet bloc in 1989.
So, we're moving to the
future because we do believe
that Havana is ready for a change.
But not any change, but a sensitive
one based on sustainable principles.
And this is what led me to,
in a way, conceive of a plan
for the future of Havana while I
was [inaudible] at Harvard 2001,
2002 that I kept on
developing along the next years.
This is a plan that
can remap Havana,
meaning that can bring Havana
to the future, which I will go
through briefly because
you must be hungry.
So, this is the main
concepts and strategies
that the plan is based upon.
It's a very comprehensive plan.
It's an independent plan.
This plan follows the city needs
and not the government's dictations.
So, it was not commissioned
by the government.
Nobody paid a penny for it.
It's a work of love that I
did for the city of Havana.
So, these are the concepts
that the plan is based upon.
The reinforcement of the polycentric
city that you heard me speaking of,
the redevelopment of the waterfront,
but above all, for the first time,
Havana enjoys a comprehensive
plan and not only a partial plan
or one done by military,
or by government.
It's been done by a team
of individuals that I led,
I was honored to lead this group,
and it's exactly for the future.
Some other lectures that I do,
I start saying that I'm here
to speak about the future.
But here today, I've been here
to speak about the past and also
about the present and the future.
And this is how the
future may look for Havana,
especially at the harbor area,
which was always the
economic engine for the city.
For the first time in history, the
city has a plan for this harbor
for it to become a contemporary
commercial sport harbor instead
of an industrial harbor.
So we want to leave the derelict
harbor behind and move on.
So you see how much
opportunities are here
for development, for
new development.
But not, you know, not
high-rises but the scale of Havana.
Let me clarify that this is an
existing high-rise from 1959.
So our new proposals are
based on the scale of the city
and we do believe that we don't
need to go to build high-rises
to achieve the right density and,
most important, the right intensity.
Urban intensity is achieved
not through high rises
but sensitive building
that establish a dialogue
with the people and
with the streets.
So, this is also another new map,
another new plan for the very core
of Havana, the most dilapidated part
in fact, which is central Havana,
where there's very
little public space.
And this is why you can
appreciate here the difference
between the existing
condition and our proposal.
This is also another sector
of Havana, we have a plan
for the whole city and for
the, for all the neighborhoods
for the first time in history.
We, we've gone beyond that,
because we do believe in democracy.
And for the first time in
history, there's a plan,
this plan that has been
consulted with the people,
and not only the people of Havana,
but people who've come to Havana
from all over the world to share
their ideas and their concepts,
and because they do believe in
the value of the master plan
for the future of Havana.
I'm proud to say that are
several of them in this room,
for which I'm very
honored and happy.
And I also hope that most of
you, all of you, visit Havana
and be part of this effort.
We've tested the ideas of the master
plan through public charrettes,
public workshops, week-long
charrettes,
where we submit these
ideas to the people.
We consult with them, people
participate and they are part of it.
I can't remember, I'm saying
that I am totally sure
that this had never
been done in Cuba.
So, there's a combination
here of things that I learned
across the years through my
trips, especially to Scandinavia,
because we do believe that
cities are for the people.
Cities are the true repositories
of history, but this is the,
probably the highest achievement of
our civilization, living in cities.
And so, this is a map of Cuba.
As you know, the magic has gone.
It has a lot of information,
but there's no beauty.
There's no, this ancient beauty that
we found in ancient maps is gone.
So I know that this
cannot be taken back just
because of the digital age.
And I know that now instead of using
one of these maps that I still use,
whenever I come to a city I ask for
the map of the hotel I'm staying at,
now we use, you know, in our
phones, either in our phones
or our computer, we
use digital maps.
We use Google Earth and all
that, which is very useful.
I also use it for when I drive.
But, the magic is gone, we
have to acknowledge that.
And the art of the
ancient maps is gone.
I want to say something to
finish the lecture that I wrote
for the book I'm currently
working on and it goes like,
There's cartography
of the world for sure,
but will there ever
be a whole cartography
of our ever-expanding universe?
There's cartography of place
and there's cartography of time.
Cartography of the human being
and cartography of the cosmos.
When the mapping of time and
place converge, then the awareness
of arriving at a sense of
transcendental understanding of life
and the world is achieved.
A balance between the known and
the unknown, yet ultimately,
a self-contemplation
of mankind's soul.
Ultimately, when all
cartographies merge into one,
a great deal of the mystery
of life will be revealed.
A single point and yet an all
encompassing spell stemming
from the wonder of human
life on planet Earth.
Thank you very much.
[ Applause ]
I would welcome any questions.
Please Mark.
>> Could you go back to your
first slide for a minute?
>> Julio Cesar Perez
Hernandez: First slide?
>> Yeah, the very first one.
With the map of the world.
>> Julio Cesar Perez
Hernandez: Oh, the Waldseemuller.
>> Yes.
>> Julio Cesar Perez Hernandez:
You want the Waldseemuller?
Waldseemuller was, by the
way, this sort of crazy monk,
living in France, and putting
together a group of scholars,
and trying to figure out
what do we publish next?
And this is how Vespucci's letters
and statements were
published for the first time.
And this is how America, the
name, was branded, in a way.
Any questions, please?
Naomi please.
>> How will the plan that you
and your other group have
developed be advanced in Cuba?
>> Julio Cesar Perez Hernandez:
Well, good news, Naomi.
When I was back in Cuba recently,
I saw that some of the ideas
of the master plan are
already being implemented.
So, it means that it
seems to be happening
in our lifetime, which is good news.
Not many people are
so lucky and then,
you can ask me why, how is that?
Well, as I said, we do
a charrette every year.
And we deliver a publication
of our charrette to the office
of the historian of the city.
And then some people who know these
are my ideas, they write an email
to me and they say, oh, I saw this
and I know they didn't
give you any credit.
And I say, you know
what, I don't care,
because while Havana is benefitting
from this, I wouldn't care
that they give me credit.
It's not about ego,
it's about the city.
Please, this other lady over there.
Please.
>> You talked about urban density
and that it's not composed
of high-rises.
So we hear what it's
not composed of.
Would you talk a little bit more
about what it is composed of?
>> Julio Cesar Perez Hernandez:
That's another lecture, my dear.
But anyway, I, I am not
saying I can't reply to that.
There is an expanded mistake
that urban density can only be
achieved by building high-rises.
I'm fortunate to be
here in Washington, DC,
a city that is a good
example of that.
I can also mention Madrid,
London, Rome, Paris, you know,
you've got seven, nine story, and
the urban density is incredible.
But when you build
high-rises, the problem is
that you start losing the
quality of the adjacent spaces.
And then, yeah, you live on the
29th floor and there are two cities
in America, in the US sorry, that
are probably the exception for that.
I would say Chicago and
New York, cities I love.
Their urban condition is different
and their synergy is different,
their energy is different,
and the idiosyncracies
of both cities are different.
And they are different
and unique, which,
which means that you
should not imitate them,
because if you imitate them, then
you've got Hong Kong and you've got,
you know, these Chinese
crazy cities.
You know, yeah, they're crazy
and they are polluting
the world, we know.
And we should not allow
that to happen.
So, in a good way you have to
blame the high-rises for this.
You have to blame the skyscrapers,
which are not efficient buildings
as we know, which are not a good
example of design in most cases.
Take a look at the
beauty of Washington, DC.
Take a look at the beauty of
the neoclassical buildings.
Take a look at the other buildings
that have been built in Washington,
DC, especially in the mall area.
They are fantastic.
You know, this is something
we admire.
Why is Washington so special?
Why is it so appealing?
Because of it's European
character, L'Enfant.
Let's face it.
The American cities are not
so nice, the rest of them,
I love Boston, I love San Francisco.
I don't like Miami.
I don't like it, because
it's anti-urban.
Miami is the, is the
kingdom of suburbs.
You cannot walk, you cannot
rub shoulders, you cannot talk
to people, and it's a complete,
completely disconnected city.
[Inaudible Question] Well, and then,
well you've got the
wonderful northeast cities
which Washington is
the southernmost part.
Recently, I had a conversation
with my oldest son,
who is in delivering business,
he's a software developer,
but he loves architecture
for a reason.
And he said, you know what, I
think that the best city in the US,
in the north, we talk
about the Northeast,
we talk about the Northwest, we talk
about the Midwest, which is lovely,
because it has not been
spoiled by skyscrapers,
and we talked about Washington
and he was reflecting about that
and he said, you know father,
I think that Washington is the,
the most beautiful
southern city in the US.
And I said, well, but what
about Charleston and Savannah?
And he said, stop there.
Let's leave it for now
Washington, DC, okay.
So, please.
>> Did you allow for
pedestrian areas?
You didn't point them
out, but I would assume
that in Europe they're
very prominent.
>> Julio Cesar Perez Hernandez:
You're right, you're right.
We inherited that tradition.
Havana, for example.
>> [Inaudible] that Cuba
will inherit from the rest
of the Caribbean is
the cruise ships.
>> Julio Cesar Perez Hernandez: My
darling, I have bad news for you.
I have bad news for you.
There are cruise ships in
Havana weekly, twice a week.
And they are these humongous
city-like, like block size ships,
not the scale of the port of Havana.
So we advocate for sailing ships.
I don't know if you are familiar
with [inaudible] ship, are you?
Good. Well, that's the size of
vessels we would welcome in Havana,
if I were the mayor, which
is not going to happen.
I don't want that.
So any other question please?
No more questions?
>> Actually, I do have one.
>> Okay.
>> How would you say currently
the Cuban architecture
and the construction of Havana
influenced the later construction
of the cities in South America?
If you can find any
relationship at all.
>> Julio Cesar Perez Hernandez:
There is certainly a relationship,
but still there are
many differences,
in the same way there are
difference between the Cuban cities
and their European precedents.
I mean, if you go to Seville, if
you go to Cadiz, you'll find a lot
of similarities between
those cities and Havana.
You immediately recognize, if
you go there you say, well,
this is where I'm coming from.
This is the very origins, but, but
still there are so many difference
and there's a reason for that.
You know, number one, the
labor that was taken to Havana,
they had this DNA, so
this is what they knew.
They, they were very pragmatic.
They had only their experience to
build towns and cities in Cuba.
And they had to use
different materials.
They had to use local materials.
So, the carving you
find in cities in Spain
or certain sophistication is not the
one that you will find in Havana.
When it comes to older
Latin American cities,
let's say Cartegena Indies,
well, you find their buildings,
courtyard buildings for
example, that could be one
of the main similarities.
At the urban level,
you'll find there's a grid.
And the grids of those Latin
American cities are more perfected
than the ones you find here,
except for the grid of the city
of Cienfuegos in Cuba, which
is a neoclassical city,
a 19th century, founded in 1819.
It's a perfect grid, like
the ones you find in any
of the Latin American countries.
Please. [Inaudible Question]
A little bit louder, please?
>> So what can you say about the
challenges that Havana is going
to face going forward with,
say as it starts experiencing.
>> Julio Cesar Perez Hernandez: The
main challenge is the stubbornness
of the, of the governing
bureaucracy.
Yeah, I speak my mind.
People who are in this
room, they know me.
>> [Inaudible] for tourists.
>> Julio Cesar Perez
Hernandez: Yeah, infrastructure,
upgrading infrastructure is
one of the concepts in my plan.
There was a time when
Havana was a world example
of modern infrastructure,
very much thanks to the US.
The US built in Cuba the most
advanced sewage system in the world.
They, they made an
experiment and it worked.
And that is still the one that
Havana enjoys, but you know,
it's a century old, my dear,
so you need to renew it,
same for the streets.
You know, one of the things that
the US intervention government did
in between 1899 and
1902 was the repavement
of the, of the stress of Havana.
They used a very, then,
advanced system of macadam.
Are you familiar with the system?
It's very, very good.
So, you'll find some
streets in Havana
that still paved with
the macadam system.
And then there were
other improvements that,
that were introduced by the
US government in all fields.
For example, in education
they brought teachers
to study at Harvard and Cornell.
And they introduced a lot
of urban improvements.
Yeah, probably last question, right?
>> You mentioned the US government
and you had a slide up there where,
I guess it was an army map,
of the late 19th century
where it was covered up there.
What, could you just
describe what was underneath?
>> Julio Cesar Perez Hernandez:
[Laughter] Underneath
was a map of Cuba.
Underneath the concept,
you can guess.
Remember that this was 1897 and
the US was there in the next year.
Teddy Roosevelt Riders.
Okay.
>> Thank you.
>> Julio Cesar Perez
Hernandez: Thank you.
[ Applause ]
>> This has been a presentation
of the Library of Congress.
Visit us at loc.gov.