Havana [antikvár]

FOREWORD uliet Barclay has visited Havana on numerous occasions, and she has always shown a discerning interest in the city, motivated essentially by the beauty of its architecmre and also by her discovery of its unique history. She has taken careftil note of both and has given voice to her research in several public forums in the United Kingdom. There are already numerous specialists, artists and restorers in Great Britain who are interested in the work of conservation and restoration of the historical core of the capital of Cuba, and this is due in great measure to the articles written by Juliet Barclay, especially the one published in The Architect's Joumd'm December 1990 under the title 'Havana Renaissance', which was illustrated with beautiful photographs taken by Martin Charles. She now offers us a complete book, Havana- Portrait of a City, which will be included in its own right among the works of other famous women who travelled to the Caribbean, such as Ameha Murray, Maria Nugent, Fanny Erskine, Mathilde Houston and the Countess of Merlin, whose testimonies have been collated in one volume by the Cuban essayist and writer Nara Araujo. 1 should also state that Juliet Barclay, like her predecessors, from necessity includes many personal impressions in her writing, but these, far from reducing the vaUdity of her work, succeed in striking a candid note from which I would not wish to detract by inserting a single correction into the text. I have heard the echo of other voices among her lines. She has read the classic Cuban writers and historians of Havana -José Martin Pérez de Arrate,José María de la Torre and Irene Wright - and taking these and many others by the hand, she has arrived in our own times. May the worth of this book be duly acknowledged by the reader; may it become usefiil to both the English and the Spanish-speaking worlds as a new profile of our city; and may the author receive the well-deserved affection of the people of Havana. Eusebio Leal Spengler Historian of the City of Havana