Emilio Roig de Leuchsenring and the Minutes of the Havana City Council

2023-08-23 22:42:59

As is traditional every August 23, the Office of the City Historian (OHCH) brought together workers and collaborators to honor its founder, Emilio Roig de Leuchsenring, on the 134th anniversary of his birth, which, on this occasion, joined the rejoicing at the declaration, in recent May, of the Minutes of the Havana City Council of the colonial period as a World Heritage Site, in the UNESCO Memory of the World Program.

With regard to both events, in the Lombillo Palace, Plaza de la Catedral, the exhibition “Acts of the City of Havana (1550-1898) Memory of the world” was opened to the public, which vindicates the tireless work to save and preserve such documents Made by Roig de Leuchsenring (1889-1964) and continued by Eusebio Leal Spengler (1942-2020).

The exhibition, which will be open for a year, values ​​archival work, covers centuries of history with texts and images that emphasize a theme or personality; combines a didactic infographic and some copies of chapter books and other related texts, as explained to those present by Natacha Moreira and Ana Lourdes Insua, specialists from the Historical Archive of the Documentary Heritage Subdirectorate, OHCH, sponsor of the exhibition.

According to the experts, we must thank Roig de Leuchsenring for his vision and determination to save the Chapter Acts from neglect, the cornerstone for creating the Historical Archive that, together with the Cuban and American Historical Library and the Publications Department, would make up the OHCH in its first stage. Since 1967, Leal Spengler ensured the continuity of the work of his predecessor and updated it without losing its essence.

In this way, the Historian of Havana until his death in 2020, managed spaces with better conditions, more suitable furniture for documents; he sought international cooperation in order to restore some of its specimens, and spoke in dissimilar settings in favor of its rescue and its importance for the historical memory of Cuba and the world. For this reason, it was he who first dreamed of this declaration.

In his words, both meant that the Acts of the Havana City Council (1550-1898) -whose dossier presented to obtain the Memory of the World Title includes 273 books-, have reached our days, thanks to the tenacity of many people who during 85 years have been involved in the work of the Office, both the leading historians and the members of the work teams, characterized by a high sense of belonging and perseverance.