The monument in honor of the mambí baseball player Emilio Sabourin del Villar, who fought and died for the independence of Cuba, was unveiled this Tuesday in the park where the streets of Línea and G join, in the Havana neighborhood of Vedado.
The tribute coincided with the commemoration of the 148th anniversary of the first game of baseball in Cubaheld at the Palmar de Junco stadium, in Matanzas, on December 27, 1874, and on the eve of the day dedicated to this sport in the country, on December 29, according to a note published on the official website Cubadebate.
Sports, culture and heritage protection authorities in Cuba presided today in Havana the reopening of the monument to the Cuban patriot and baseball player Emilio Sabourín, a leading figure of the 19th century.https://t.co/UaA9EAqkSo#Cuba #CubanSport #baseball pic.twitter.com/JfnHsE6PNv
— JIT Cuban Sport (@jit_digital) December 27, 2022
Germán Mesa and Antonio Scull, both from the capital and baseball glories in Cuba, unveiled the work, which is being seen for the first time in an open public space, since it was previously placed within the perimeter of the América Arias maternity hospital, very close to the new location.
“It is a happy day for those of us who love Cuban baseball, because we are inaugurating this important work in a city where there are not many monuments to baseball players. This, perhaps, is the most relevant of all those that are exposed to public light,” said the dean of the San Gerónimo de La Habana University College, Félix Julio Alfonso, quoted by the outlet.
The historian also specified that for a long time the monument was kept inside the hospital fence, where the Club Habana baseball field used to be. “Logically, it was very difficult for people to get close to him, pay tribute to the figure of Sabourín, one of the greatest Cuban baseball players of the 19th century,” he added.
The monument consists of a stone pedestal, with a bronze disc in relief that reproduces the face of the hero, the work of the sculptor Teodoro Ramos Blanco. Below is a plaque with the emblem of the municipality of Havana and the date of September 2, 1953, indicative that it was placed on the centenary of the birth of the Havanan, who organized the first official baseball championship in Cuba.
Alfonso recalled that the monument was inaugurated in 1953 by the first historian of Havana, Emilio Roig de Leuchsenring.
He also commented that the relocation of the work is part of the activities held in the country since baseball was declared the nation’s cultural heritage. “We restored the plaques of the mambis players from the Latinoamericano stadium and the Hall of Fame. In addition, we are working on the declaration of the Latino as a national monument”, he specified.
On the occasion of the placement of the monument to Sabourín, the park was reconditioned, incorporating a marker that evokes the American origin of Cuban baseball. This is alluded to, Alfonso explained, “to the presence in a Jesuit school in Alabama of the pioneers Nemesio and Ernesto Guilló, founders of Club Habana,” adding that it is a genuine expression of the twinning between the cities of Mobile and Havana.
The restitution in the new space was given thanks to the support of the Historian’s Office of the City, an institution that was also in charge of the transfer to the maternity hospital of the monument to the French scientist Luis Pasteur, to be placed in a square dedicated to the famous scientist, but “without any element that would identify him.”
