A house on Paula street

On Paula street, in the historic center of Havana, there is a house that all Cubans know. In it, exactly 170 years ago, someone who for many is the most universal of those who have been born on the island came into the world: Jose Marti.

Popularly baptized as “La Casita de Martí”, it was built at the beginning of the 19th century, several decades before the eminent politician and writer, martyr of independence and national hero of Cuba was born in it on January 28, 1853.

José Martí Birthplace Museum. Photo: Otmaro Rodriguez.

The house was built near the wall that defended the city, and, in addition to its two floors, it contains typical elements of popular houses of the time, such as the tiled roof and the mortar walls.

The child Martí lived in it for about three years, because in 1856 the family moved to another place. Since then, the house had various owners, until in 1900 the Association of Ladies and Gentlemen for Martí bought it and handed it over to Doña Leonor Pérez, the mother of the Apostle, who lived in it again for five years.

Oil portrait of José Martí, painted by the Swedish artist Herman Norman in 1891, which is exhibited at the José Martí Birthplace Museum. Photo: Otmaro Rodriguez.

A year earlier, in 1899, Cuban emigrants in the United States unveiled a plaque in honor of Martí on the building’s façade.

A house on Paula street — Cuban émigrés from Key West placed a plaque on the house where José Martí was born. On the balconies, Doña Leonor, his sister Amelia, his wife Carmen Zayas Bazán, and his son. Photo: taken from the Granma newspaper.

And in 1925, the house became a museum, the first that the Cuban capital had. For this, the work of a group of people, led by the journalist Arturo de Carricarte, who was in charge of ordering, collecting and preserving the documents and objects that would be exhibited in the museum, was essential.

Since then, the house located on Paula street —an artery known as Leonor Pérez— has functioned as such and has undergone several restorations, expansions of its collection, and changes in its museographic assembly.

Elementary school children visit the José Martí Birthplace Museum. Photo: Otmaro Rodriguez.

In 1949 the building was declared a National Monument and, after suffering serious damage as a result of the attack on the French steamer La Coubre in 1960, it reopened its doors three years later, after an arduous process of restoration and rehabilitation. He did so on January 28, 1863, on the 110th anniversary of the patriot’s birth.

It was from that moment that it took as its official name the Museo Casa Natal de José Martí and its administration and management remained in the hands of the State. Already in the 90s of the last century, the institution would be integrated into the Office of the Historian of Havana for its historical and patrimonial values.

Cockade that belonged to Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, given to Martí by Fernando Figueredo. Photo: Otmaro Rodriguez.

With its characteristic yellow façade and its blue doors and windows, “La Casita de Martí” treasures valuable belongings of the Cuban hero and other objects related to him, while, through its different rooms, it offers visitors a tour chronologically for his personal life and revolutionary career.

In the context of the 170th anniversary of the birth of the Cuban national hero, our photojournalist Otmaro Rodríguez visited the building and offers us a graphic approach to a site of indisputable significance for the history of Cuba.