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Tryp Habana Libre

Coordinates:23°08′21″N82°22′58″W/ 23.13917°N 82.38278°W/23.13917; -82.38278
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(Redirected fromHotel Tryp Habana Libre)
Hotel Tryp Habana Libre
Hotel Tryp Habana Libre.
Map
Hotel chainTryp Hotels
General information
LocationHavana,Cuba
AddressCalle L e/ 23 y 25, Vedado
Coordinates23°08′21″N82°22′58″W/ 23.13917°N 82.38278°W/23.13917; -82.38278
OpeningMarch 19, 1958
OwnerRevolutionary government (contested)[a][2][3]
ManagementMeliá Hotels International
Technical details
Floor count25
Design and construction
Architect(s)Welton Becket
Other information
Number of rooms572
Number of restaurants4

Hotel Tryp Habana Libreis one of the larger hotels inCuba,situated inVedado,Havana.The hotel has 572 rooms[4]in a 25-floor tower at Calle 23 ( "La Rampa" ) and Calle L. Opened in 1958 as theHabana Hilton,the hotel famously served as the residence ofFidel Castroand other revolutionaries throughout 1959, after their capture of Havana.

History

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Design and construction

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The Habana Hilton was constructed at a cost of $24 million, under the personal auspices of PresidentFulgencio Batista.It was built as an investment by the Caja de Retiro y Asistencia Social de los Trabajadores Gastronomicos,[5]the pension plan of the Cuban catering workers' union, with additional financing from the Banco de Fomento Agricola e Industrial de Cuba (BANFAIC). It was operated by the AmericanHilton Hotels Internationalgroup and was designed by the well-known Los Angeles architectWelton Becket,who had previously designed theBeverly Hiltonfor the chain. Becket designed the 27-story Habana Hilton in collaboration with Havana-based architects Lin Arroyo[6]and Gabriela Menéndez.[7]Arroyo was the Minister of Public Works under Batista.[8]The hotel was constructed by theFrederick Snare Corporation.[9]

The architectural historian Peter Moruzzi, author ofHavana Before Castro,notes what the Hilton meant to Batista:

“Batista considered the Habana Hilton among his proudest achievements, its huge blue-lit rooftop ‘Hilton’ name announcing to the world that the eminent Conrad Hilton had confidence in Cuba’s future – that the country was a safe place in which to invest – and that tourists could now find in Havana the modern comforts they expected in a top international resort.”[10]

Grand opening

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When it was completed, the Habana Hilton was Latin America's tallest and largest hotel. It boasted 630 guest rooms, including 42 suites; an elegant casino; six restaurants and bars, including aTrader Vic'sand a rooftop bar; a huge supper club; extensive convention facilities; a shopping arcade; an outdoor pool surrounded by cabanas; and two underground garages with a capacity of 500 cars. The hotel also featured artwork commissioned from some of the most important Cuban modern artists of the day, including an enormous mosaic mural byAmelia Peláezover the main entrance and a tiled wall mural byRené Portocarreroin the second-floor Antilles Bar overlooking the pool terrace.

The Habana Hilton opened with five days of festivities, from March 19-23, 1958,[11]withConrad Hiltonhimself in attendance, accompanied by actressAnn Miller,[12]who regularly traveled the world with him for the grand openings of his hotels.[13]Hilton was joined by 300 invited guests, including socialite Virginia Warren, daughter of Chief JusticeEarl Warren;[14]renowned Hollywood columnistHedda Hopper;actressTerry Moore;[15]actressDorothy Johnson;married radio hostsTex McCraryandJinx Falkenburg;actressLinda Cristal;dancerVera-Ellen;actorDon Murray;actressDolores Hart;ABC network PresidentLeonard Goldenson;and journalistLeonard Lyons.[12]A formal blessing ceremony was held in the hotel's lobby on March 22, 1958, attended by Cuba's First Lady,Marta Fernandez de Batista;Francisco Aguirre, head of the catering workers' union; José Suárez Rivas, Minister of Labor; and other dignitaries. The ceremony was followed by a luncheon, with speeches by Hilton and Aguirre, and a huge gala dinner and ball in the hotel's grand ballroom.[16]

Casino

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The casino in the hotel was leased for $1 million a year to a group consisting of Roberto "Chiri" Mendoza, his brother Mario Mendoza,Clifford "Big Juice" Jones,Kenneth F. Johnson, and Sidney Orseck. Roberto Mendoza was a wealthy Cuban contractor and sugar planter who was a business associate ofPresident Batista;Mario Mendoza was a lawyer; Orseck was an attorney from New York; Johnson was a senator in theNevadastate legislature and Jones was a former lieutenant governor of Nevada who had ownership interests in a number ofLas Vegascasinos. Hilton officials said that 13 groups tried to lease the casino and 12 were "turned down because they either had underworld connections or had refused to subject themselves to rigid investigation." Speculation surfaced that the murder ofGambino crime familybossAlbert Anastasiain October 1957 was tied to his interest in securing an ownership stake in the Hilton's casino. Roberto Mendoza andSanto Trafficante Jr.,who had substantial gambling interests in Cuba, were both in New York at the time of Anastasia's murder. The police investigation of the murder focused on this theory for a while but later looked at other theories. The murder was never solved.[17][18][19]

Revolution

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As a result of growing political unrest in Cuba in the hotel's opening year, Hilton's annual report stated that the previously profitable Hilton Hotels International division "made no contribution to 1958 earnings" due directly to significant financial losses the Habana Hilton experienced.[20]

FollowingFidel Castro's entry into Havana on January 8, 1959, the hotel became his headquarters,[21]with Castro residing for three months in the hotel's Continental Suite, room 2324.[22]The casinos throughout the city were briefly closed, but protests by Havana casino workers led to their reopening in February. Castro gave his first press conference in the hotel's ballroom on January 19, 1959[23]and soon took to giving regular interviews to international journalists in the hotel, famously declaring in the lobby that "If the Americans don’t like what is happening in Cuba, they can land the Marines, and then there will be 200,000 gringos dead."[22]

On June 21, 1959,[24]the revolutionary government temporarily released mob bossSanto Trafficante Jr.from the Triscornia prison camp, under guard, so he could attend the wedding of his daughter Mary Jo in the ballroom of the Habana Hilton.[25]

In October 1959, the Habana Hilton hosted the week-longAmerican Society of Travel Agentsannual international convention,[26]which had been scheduled before the Revolution. Castro and other officials attempted to present an image of Cuba as a continued tropical paradise for American tourists, as the country desperately needed the revenue, but growing anti-American political rhetoric was already having an impact on bookings at the increasingly empty hotel.[26]

On New Year's Eve 1959/1960, Castro hosted an elaborate party in the Pavilion ballroom atop the hotel, designed to promote Cuba to Americans. The party was attended by numerous American journalists[27]and celebrities, including boxerJoe Louis,who had been hired by a PR firm to encourage black Americans to visit the island.[28]The efforts proved unsuccessful, and the Hilton's American operators struggled to keep the hotel open. Hilton Hotels International was forbidden under Cuban labor laws from firing any of the hotel's 670 employees, though the Hilton seldom had more than 100 guests. The Revolutionary government was eventually compelled to guarantee a bank loan of 2 million pesos to Hoteles Hilton de Cuba, S.A., the Cuban subsidiary of Hilton Hotels International that operated the hotel,[29]to cover the Habana Hilton's operating expenses, and keep its employees working.[30]

In January 1960, Castro is reported to have survived a dramatic assassination attempt at the hotel. Castro's American mistress,Marita Lorenz,had lived with him in the hotel for much of 1959, before returning to the United States, allegedly after an abortion. In the US, she claims she was approached by agents linked to the US Mafia and the CIA,[31]who gave herBotulinum toxinpills. She smuggled the pills back into Cuba, intending to drop them into Castro's drink, killing him within thirty seconds. Lorenz said she had a change of heart on returning to the hotel, only to then discover that the plan was a failure, as the pills had dissolved in the container of cold cream she had hidden them in. She said that Castro then revealed he knew she was there to kill him, but that he also knew she couldn't go through with it. Afterwards, she claims they made love in his suite in the hotel, before she returned to the US.[32]

Hotel Habana Libre

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The hotel remained in operation as a Hilton while relations between theUS and Cubaworsened, until June 11, 1960, when the Cuban government nationalized the property. On June 15, 1960, Castro announced in a speech to the Restaurant and Hotel Workers Federation that he was renaming the hotel theHotel Habana Libre(Hotel Free Havana).[33]That year, Hilton Hotels International, Inc. wrote off $1,854,575 that had been invested in the Cuban subsidiary that operated the hotel.[34]The firstSoviet embassy in Havanawas soon temporarily established on two floors of the hotel.[22]

In March 1963, Castro is reputed to have survived another assassination attempt at the hotel, by the US Mafia and the CIA.[35]Cuban intelligence chief Fabian Escalante claimed that a poison pill was to have been slipped into one of the chocolate milkshakes Castro regularly ordered in the hotel's cafeteria, and that Castro was saved only because the pill became stuck to the hotel's kitchen freezer that it was hidden in, and that the pill broke open as the would-be assassin tried to remove it from the ice.[36]Escalante called it "the closest the CIA got to assassinating Fidel."[37]

In 1964, Soviet female cosmonautValentina Tereshkova,the first woman in space, gave a press conference at the hotel.[38]From January 3-12, 1966, the Habana Libre hosted the firstTricontinental Conference[39]of Asian, African and Latin-American peoples.[23]Fidel Castro stayed in the hotel's Castellana Suite, room 2224, during the conference, and made the suite his home thereafter for all major diplomatic events. The suite is now kept as a museum, with all the original furniture and artwork from 1958. From October 23 to November 20, 1966, the Habana Libre hosted the17th Chess Olympiad,with guests includingBobby FischerandBoris Spassky.[40]In 1967, the hotel hosted Marxist Chilean politicianSalvador Allende.[41]

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Cuban government focused on rebuilding the tourism industry. In 1993, they brought in the Spanish Guitart Hotels chain to manage the property as theHotel Habana Libre Guitart.[42]Then, in 1996 the SpanishSol Meliáchain assumed management of the hotel from Guitart. It was placed in their Tryp division of urban hotels and renamedHotel Tryp Habana Libre.The hotel was extensively renovated between 1996 and 1997. Much of the interior was gutted and modernized. The guest rooms were remodeled, with the balconies all glassed in, except those of the historic Castellana Suite. The supper club on the second floor was converted to a buffet restaurant. Among the highlights of the work was the restoration of the huge Peláez mural on the exterior, which had spent decades hidden from public view. The hotel reopened on December 22, 1997,[23]with a speech byEusebio Leal,who spearheaded the restoration and conservation of the historic district of Old Havana.

In January 1998, the hotel served as the international media headquarters for the Papal visit to Cuba byPope John Paul II.[43]Journalists includingPeter Jennings,Dan Rather,Ted Koppel,Tom BrokawandChristiane Amanpourreported from and were housed at the hotel.[44]CNN'sTed Turnerand his wife, actressJane Fonda,also visited the hotel at the time.[45]

On February 4, 2013, French daredevilAlain Robert,known asThe French Spider-Man,climbed the hotel without ropes or a safety net, as is his custom, watched by hundreds of onlookers.[46]

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Notes

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  1. ^This seizure of private property led the U.S. into severing diplomatic relations in 1961 and installing the trade embargo and various sanctions against Cuba.[1]

References

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  1. ^"HEARING BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE of the COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ONE HUNDRED FOURTEENTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION".Retrieved2020-02-25.
  2. ^"Trump Administration Authorizes Lawsuits Against Companies That Deal in Property Confiscated by the Cuban Government and Tightens Other Sanctions Against Cuba".Retrieved2022-05-12.
  3. ^"US Allows Lawsuits Relating to" Trafficking "in Confiscated Property in Cuba".Retrieved2022-05-12.
  4. ^Tryp Habana LibreRetrieved December 21, 2018.
  5. ^Caja de Retiro y Asistencia Social de los Trabajadores Gastronomicos[usurped]Emporis. Retrieved 21 December 2018.
  6. ^"Havana architect Lin Arroyo dead at 90".Havana Journal.Cuban Architecture. 7 October 2008. Archived fromthe originalon 19 April 2016.Retrieved21 December2018.
  7. ^"Untitled Document".Archived fromthe originalon December 27, 2013.RetrievedSeptember 12,2013.
  8. ^Patrick McGrew (7 August 2012)."A California Architect Visits Cuba".Retrieved21 December2018.
  9. ^Hotel Habana Libre, Architecture & BuildersRetrieved 21 December 2018.
  10. ^"The Habana Libre hotel, pawn in Castro's battle against the US - a history of cities in 50 buildings, day 34".TheGuardian.com.12 May 2015.Retrieved2019-09-23.
  11. ^Passport for opening festivities, Habana Hilton Hotel, Havana, Cuba, March 20, 21, 22, 1958Archived2018-09-26 at theWayback MachineRetrieved 21 December 2018.
  12. ^ab"Memento for Junketeers".The Billboard.31 March 1958. p. 1 – viaGoogle Books.
  13. ^https://bid.juliensauctions.com/lot-details/index/catalog/66/lot/24427/CONRAD-HILTON-BOOKS-INSCRIBED-TO-ANN-MILLER
  14. ^Patricia Sullivan (4 March 2009)."Socialite Virginia Warren Daly, 80, Dies".The Washington Post.Retrieved21 December2018.
  15. ^Rosalie Schwartz (1999) [1997].Pleasure Island: Tourism and Temptation in Cuba.University of Nebraska Press.p.153.ISBN0-8032-4257-3– via Internet Archive.
  16. ^Passport for opening festivities, Habana Hilton Hotel, Havana, Cuba, March 20, 21, 22, 1958Archived2018-09-26 at theWayback MachineRetrieved 21 December 2018.
  17. ^"Gambling In Cuba Tied To U.S. Gangs: Hotel Executives Queried by Hogan in Investigation of Anastasia Murder".The New York Times.9 January 1958.
  18. ^Rosalie Schwartz (1999) [1997].Pleasure Island: Tourism and Temptation in Cuba.University of Nebraska Press. p.18.ISBN0-8032-4257-3– via Internet Archive.
  19. ^Jack Colhoun (2013).Gangsterismo: The United States, Cuba and the Mafia, 1933 to 1966.OR Books.p. 51.ISBN978-1935928898.
  20. ^"Hilton Hotels, 1958 Annual Report".digitalcollections.lib.uh.edu.
  21. ^"Hotel Habana Libre ****, Vedado, La Habana, Cuba"(in Spanish). Archived fromthe originalon 21 December 2018.Retrieved21 December2018.
  22. ^abcSrinath Perur (12 May 2015)."The Habana Libre hotel, pawn in Castro's battle against the US".The Guardian.Retrieved21 December2018.
  23. ^abcHotel Habana Libre, Time LineRetrieved 21 December 2018.
  24. ^Trafficante Paniello WeddingRetrieved 20 April 2021.
  25. ^Eduardo Sáenz Rovner (2009) [2009].The Cuban Connection: Drug Trafficking, Smuggling, and Gambling in Cuba from the 1920s to the Revolution.University of North Carolina Press.p. [139].ISBN978-0-8078-3175-5– via Google Books.
  26. ^abHorace Sutton (9 November 1959),"How to lose tourists",Sports Illustrated,retrieved21 December2018
  27. ^Simons Chase (28 November 2016)."Here's Why Fidel Castro Was the First" Media "Revolutionary".Cuba Journal.
  28. ^Jeremy King."From the archives: Ringing in the New Year with Fidel Castro (January, 1960)".Tampa Bay Times.Retrieved21 December2018.
  29. ^"Hilton Hotels, 1959 Annual Report".digitalcollections.lib.uh.edu.
  30. ^HistoryRetrieved 21 December 2018.
  31. ^Nathalia Ortiz (12 March 2018),"The Spy Who Loved Fidel Castro",Vanity Fair,retrieved20 April2021
  32. ^Ann Louise Bardach (November 1993),"The Story of Marita Lorenz: Mistress, Mother, C.I.A. Informant, and Center of Swirling Conspiracy Theories",Vanity Fair,retrieved20 April2021
  33. ^Castro Speech DatabaseRetrieved 21 December 2018.
  34. ^"Hilton Hotels, 1960 Annual Report".digitalcollections.lib.uh.edu.
  35. ^"The CIA against Fidel Castro: The case of the poisoned milkshake and other failed murders".AL DÍA.19 April 2021.Retrieved20 April2021.
  36. ^"Fidel Castro survived 600 assassination attempts, officials say".CNN.26 November 2016.Retrieved20 April2021.
  37. ^"Closest CIA bid to kill Castro was poisoned drink".Reuters.5 June 2007.Retrieved20 April2021.
  38. ^"Tryp Habana Libre - Cuba"(in Spanish).Facebook.Retrieved21 December2018.
  39. ^Marelys Valencia (25 January 2001)."Tricontinental Solidarity Conference".Granma International.Latin American Studies.Retrieved21 December2018.
  40. ^"Havana 1966: chess pieces,board and table".Spraggett on Chess. 2 November 2009.Retrieved21 December2018.
  41. ^Famous Guests at Hotel Habana LibreRetrieved 21 December 2018.
  42. ^Joseph L. Scarpaci; Roberto Segre; Mario Coyula (2002) [1997].Havana: Two Faces of the Antillean Metropolis(Revised ed.).University of North Carolina Press.p. 121.ISBN0-8078-2700-2– via Google Books.
  43. ^"The 60 Years of Tryp Habana Libre Hotel".Cuba Debate. 19 March 2018.Retrieved21 December2018.
  44. ^Larry Rohter (21 January 1998)."With Pope Due, the Cubans Wrest Dollars From Heaven".The New York Times.
  45. ^"What it's like living here: Stanley Fogel's Cuba".Numéro Cinq.18 May 2011.
  46. ^"Daredevil Alain Robert climbs Cuba's former Havana Hilton".The Mercury News.Associated Press.5 February 2013.Retrieved21 December2018.
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