An exhibition titled Martín Domínguez Exile otherinaugurated at the Taller Gorría Gallery in Old Havana on December 5 (coincidentally, the Day of the Builder in Cuba), did justice to the Spanish architect Martín Domínguez Esteban (1897-1970) who was behind such important works as the building Focsa, Radiocentro (today the Yara cinema and headquarters of the Cuban Institute of Radio and Television), the current Ministry of Communications, the Marianao City Hall and numerous houses.
We say that he “was behind” because his name did not appear as a signing architect but as “treasurer” or “decorator” and this was because Domínguez never managed to have his professional title revalidated in Cuba.
He escaped from Francoist Spain where he had been “purged for life” for his role in building the military defenses of the Republican side of Madrid in 1936. He arrived in Havana, by the way, in January 1937 and stayed in this city for more than a quarter of a century.
Despite the burden of not being able to show a recognized title, many disputed his services, including former president Ramón Grau San Martín, who entrusted him with his summer residence in Varadero.
At the beginning of the Revolution, he participated in the construction of popular houses promoted by the National Institute of Savings and Housing. His reputation led him to the office of Commander Ernesto Guevara, who openly asked him for a political definition. His son tells that Domínguez replied that he felt conservative in regards to the private family and liberal in politics. “We’re going badly, Galician,” said the Argentine, and that same day he decided to leave Cuba.
He collected what he could carry in his car and put it on the ferry that still offered trips between Havana and Miami. He was in that city for a very short time because he decided to settle in New York.
Still in Miami, his son, a clever boy with the same name and who has also completed a career as an architect, was probing him to find out how that adventure would end. And this was the unforgettable response he received: “We are never going to return to Cuba. We are not going to have the crick in the neck of exiles, like the Spaniards who said ‘in two months we will be back in Madrid’. We are not going back to Cuba, we must look ahead and rebuild.”
And he didn’t come back. He died in New York in September 1970 at the age of 72 knowing that wherever he went he left a lasting and useful mark. His work is studied today in the subject of Modern Cuban Architecture. This exhibition, which will be open to the public until December 12, pays tribute to him and fills an unacceptable gap in the memory of Cubans.
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