We offer our sincere condolences to his family, friends, and the people of Cuba whom he loved dearly.
The New York Times, July 31, 2020
Eusebio Leal, Who Oversaw Renewal of Old Havana, Dies at 77
by Associated Press
HAVANA — Eusebio Leal Spengler, who oversaw the transformation of crumbling Old Havana to an immaculately restored colonial tourist attraction, becoming the de-facto mayor of the historic city center and one of the nation’s most prominent public intellectuals, has died. He was 77.
He had been fighting cancer.
Leal and his restoration efforts became so famous along the crowded streets of Havana that it often felt like he was holding court when he appeared in public, usually in his trademark, simple gray dress shirts and slacks.
Elderly women would tell Leal that the water that had stopped working in their apartment was back on thanks to him. Others would lodge complaints about their living situation or praise him for reviving Old Havana.
“To call it reconstruction of something that seemed dead and buried may draw dirty looks and dismissals that ours is a romantic crusade,” Leal wrote in a city bulletin in 2010. “But if that were the case, we wouldn’t feel embarrassed to be seen as romantics in times that are so apocalyptic.”
Born in Havana on Sept. 11, 1942, Leal earned a doctorate in historical sciences from the University of Havana, honing his skills as an intellectual entrepreneur who recognized that the resurrection of the city’s historic district could be a moneymaker. That became especially important when communist Cuba embraced foreign tourism en masse after the disbanding of the Soviet Union and the loss of its billions of dollars in annual subsidies to the island brought the economy to the brink of total collapse.
After a series of nationwide economic reforms and the December 2014 declaration of detente with the U.S., Leal’s government-driven restoration of Old Havana gained momentum with the opening of hundreds of private businesses from elegant restaurant to art galleries that filled with tourists as visits to the country soared.
The boom raised worries about gentrification as expatriate Cubans or those with ties to foreign capital bought out longtime residents and turned their homes into businesses.
Leal spoke little about the new phenomenon, but consistently argued for respecting Old Havana’s past without being trapped by it.
“I’ve always spoken out against the mummification of the city,” he said in 2016. “It wouldn’t be wise to show off the past under glass.”