Havana, Aug 2 (RHC) Havana is paying spontaneous tribute to the city's historian, Eusebio Leal, whose death on Friday deeply touched Cubans and personalities from all over Latin America.
Since his passing, Cuba has not ceased to receive messages of condolence from many countries.
Governors, academics, historians, artists, intellectuals, and leaders of different guilds have mourned the physical loss of the Doctor of Historical Sciences and Master of Archaeological Sciences, who was awarded honors in several nations.
"We belonged to a rare species, the same as Cintio Vitier and Eliseo Diego: revolutionary Christians. May God receive Eusebio in His infinite love and may we be loyal to his example of life," wrote the Brazilian theologian Frei Betto.
As Cubans turned to social networks to highlight the historian's legacy, the people of the capital city, which many identify him as "his eternal bride," began hanging white sheets on the balconies in his tribute. Sabanas Blancas, White Sheets is the name of a song by Cuban composer Gerardo Alfonso, that served for many years as theme for Leal's TV program, Andar La Habana, Touring Havana.
According to the poet Miguel Barnet, Leal was a passionate man who had absolute faith in the destiny of Cuba and rescued the memory of the country and its intangible values, he gave everything, he was like a King Midas who went around the city and turned everything into gold.
"In recent years, very few Cuban intellectuals have done so much to make the country's history visible, the symbols of the Cuban nation, to rescue figures like Carlos Manuel de Céspedes or Antonio Maceo himself," said Casa de las Americas' president Abel Prieto on Twitter.
Also on social media, Deputy Prime Minister Roberto Morales Ojeda portrayed the researcher as a person of genuine cubanness and perennial memory.
"He is a gentleman from Havana, of admirable humility, humbleness, and loyalty. With white sheets on the balconies we honor the work of this illustrious son of the country,'' Morales said.
Until this Sunday, Old Havana, the municipality that encompasses the oldest part of this capital and where the Office of the City Historian is located, a book of condolences is open.
Meanwhile, some columns and statues from Old Havana are displaying posters with the inscription 'Siempre Leal". "Always Loyal"', written by hand, another spontaneous homage of the people that offers an idea of how much admiration he was professed.
Cuba held an official day of mourning ton Saturday, by decree of the country's president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, who praised the life and work of the academic who, in the opinion of poet Fina García Marruz, when men forget him, the stones will still remember him.
