Cuba - Cigar Factory Tour, Hotel Nacional, Talk on Economics

If you haven’t read my Cuba pre-travel tips, check them out here.

Other posts from this trip can be found using the label Cuba2018.

Cuba Day 5 – Havana: Cigar Factory, Hotel Nacional, Talk on Economics 

Partagas Cigar Factory

Bright and early we boarded a bus to the Partagas Cigar Factory. We could take photos in the lobby, but weren’t allowed to bring cameras in any further. It was incredible to see each job (done by hand) and learn about the amount of detail that goes into each cigar.



Next, we visited a gift shop in an old rum distillery. This gift shop was selected for us because it had a good selection of both rum and cigars. Our group purchased a lot of cigars, but I purchased some Havana Club 7-year rum. 



The gift shop had a small cafe off the main room, and several people ordered a Cuban coffee with rum and sugar. It was quite a show!


 

Elder Home Visit

Not far from the gift shop was an elder home run by the local Catholic church. A retired nun gave us a tour of the grounds and their incredible chapel and beautiful gardens.


 
 

Mal Paso Dance Group

We had the opportunity to sit in on a practice session for the Mal Paso Dance Group, followed by Q&A. It was clear that these individuals were excellent at what they do. You can learn more about the group at their website: www.MalPasoDance.com.



Practice was held at a local Jewish center, which had a holocaust museum of sorts in the lobby. There was a lot of information to take in.

Lunch at Hotel Nacional!

After an action-packed morning, we got to enjoy lunch at the iconic Hotel Nacional! This hotel has played such an important role in Cuban history, and has a beautiful view of the sea.


 
 

After lunch cocktails 

A mini Hotel Nacional

View of a fortress

University of Havana

After lunch we visited the University of Havana, and attended a lecture in a recently restored building. Afterwards we walked over to the stairs overlooking the neighborhood for a group photo. 


 

One of the recently restored buildings 

View from atop the steps

The statue named “Alma Mater”

Sloppy Joe’s

For our afternoon break, boyfriend and I walked around the neighborhoods near our hotel. We decided to have a drink at Sloppy Joe’s, yet another famous and popular bar that was used in a Hollywood movie before the US and Cuba stopped being friends. 

Economic Lecture and Dinner

One of my favorite things about this trip was all of the lectures we got to attend. #NerdAlert 

But really, there was a lot of good information!! For example:

• Last year (2017) there were over 500 new paladares (private restaurants) in Havana alone, and over 20,000 new B&Bs 
• After President Obama eased travel restrictions: 
• The Havana airport went from 500,000 passengers to 1,000,000 in one week 
• Havana went from 66,000 visitors per year to 158,000 almost overnight 
• Havana used to have 12 cruise ships dock per year, but this drastically increased. 1 cruise ship is equal to seven (7) 747-airplanes landing at once. That’s a LOT of people 
• The US embargo on Cuba is composed of over 3000 restrictions. It practically can’t/won’t be removed in one action, so the goal is to weaken it by allowing specific loopholes.  
• Cuba has to change, with or without the US. The US could do more to make it a little easier to adapt.

By US regulation, our trip to Cuba had minimal downtime. Everything was planned, and we did everything as a group (approximately 20 people). It was nice to finally have one night for dinner on our own. We were given a list of recommended restaurants and activities, but we were allowed to venture out on our own. We ended up picking the same restaurant as another person from our group, so we made a reservation for 3. The restaurant was called Ivan Chef Justo; a paladar run by a renowned chef. The restaurant was the 2nd and 3rd floor in a building, and was really eclectic. Our table was actually on a tiny terrace with a view of Old Havana’s rooftops.


 Inside the restaurant  
The view
 

FINALLY, some fish on this Caribbean island!

After dinner we were all stuffed and decided to wander around Habana Vieja. Why not try the “microbrewery” in Plaza Vieja?!

Well, it turns out it was less of a brewery and more of an “all in one” brewing machine. More like a beer-like substance than actual beer. The beer wasn’t good, but the company was great.
And with that, there are 3 more Cuba blog posts coming… I’m determined to finish them soon!

Interpreting History of Rusyn Villages based on Church Schematismus Data

Have I mentioned how much I love Archive.org lately? It's so good! There's so much incredible information for those willing to sift through it. I don't remember how, but I found a number of Schematismus books for the Diocese of Munkacs, Hungary. The Diocese of Munkacs is now known as the Greek Catholic Eparchy of Mukachevo, and is in today's Ukraine. It used to include parts of eastern Slovakia, but today only includes Zakarpattia Oblast, Ukraine. These books detail information on each of the Greek Catholic churches, the village, etc.

Research Subjects

Both of my Rusyn ancestors attended churches in that diocese, in the late 1800s and early 1900s. I thought it would be interesting to see what I could learn about their villages from these church records.The villages are 50km apart (approximately 30 miles):

• Kalna Roztoka, Slovakia - Current population: 615 ^[1]
• Lyuta, Ukraine - Current population: 2412 ^[2]

Data Collection

In total, I found 32 books on Archive.org, ranging from 1814 to 1915. On average, there were 3 years between each book. I set up a spreadsheet to collect data for each village, including the following:

• Year
• Link
• Village Name
• Page #
• Priest's Name
• Administrator's Name
• Cantor's Name
• Church Name
• # of People 
• # of People in Other Branches
• Total # of People
• Church Name (Other Branch)
• # of School Children
• Other Notes
• District

This is the majority of what can be found in the books. A comprehensive look would want to translate the descriptions and capture additional data, such as whether the village had a train station or post office. Amenities like these were identified with a symbol.

Results

I found it interesting to learn the names of the priests in each village. The priest in Kalna Roztoka in 1915 was Basilius Lyachovics. I have a 1933 letter from him to my great-grandmother, providing the birth and death dates for my great-great-grandparents, and asking her to send money to help care for her sister. In a separate post, I might look into the average length of time priests stayed at these two villages.

One of the most interesting, quantifiable changes over this 100 year period is the population of each village. This chart highlights the largest changes. The image below has the population colorized on a scale of red-yellow-green, where red is lowest and green is highest.

This raises the question: what happened circa 1856, that Kalna Roztoka lost 50% of their village population, and Lyuta lost 17%, in the prior 9 years. Or in 1836 when Kalna Roztoka lost 28% of their village population, and Lyuta lost 25%, in just 1 year.

Here's another view of the population changes:

Data on European Epidemics, Famines, and Weather

I'm writing this blog post while under a Stay At Home order for the COVID-19 pandemic, but I started work on this post in Fall 2019, before the virus was on anyone's radar. At that time I found it interesting how much information there is on historical climate-related disasters, pandemics, and famines. Now I have a different perspective, as we are living through a modern-day pandemic. The situation is eerie.

While I was unable to find any documentation of specific disasters, famines, or epidemics in either Kalna Roztoka or Lyuta, I did find some related information.

Lyuta is on the other side of the mountain crest from Austrian Galicia. It seems logical that a famine in Galicia could indicate difficult times on the other side of the mountains as well. The Wikipedia article on Famines in Austrian Galicia ^{[3, 4]} notes famines in 1832, 1853-1855.

The Wikipedia List of Epidemics ^[5] shows a global epidemic from 1855-1860: the 3rd (Bubonic) plague pandemic.

I looked into potential climate-related disasters, but had a hard time finding specific data. This website has some interesting climate observations: https://www.tambora.org/index.php/grouping/event/list?g%5Bqt%5D=&t%5Byb%5D=1800&t%5Bye%5D=1954&s%5Bcn%5D=9934&sort=t.begin&mode=search&page=14 If anyone has climate data for the 1800s, let me know!

Sources

1. Kalna Roztoka Wikipedia Article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaln%C3%A1_Roztoka
2. Lyuta Wikipedia Article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liuta
3. Famines in Austrian Galicia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Famines_in_Austrian_Galicia#Chronological_occurrences
4. Excerpt from "Oil Empire" by Alison Fleig Frank mentioning Galician famines: https://books.google.com/books?id=jNaFc1OdN-QC&pg=PA45#v=onepage&q&f=false
5. List of epidemics: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_epidemics