The Varadero Xanadu

• Golf course and small hotel • Former mansion of Irenee Du Pont
BY MIREYA CASTAÑEDA —Granma International staff writer—
• PERHAPS it would be a contradiction to say that there is a mansion called Xanadu in the resort of Varadero. However, if we follow — precisely— the myth of the summer capital of Kubla Khan, the splendor of which Marco Polo spoke, Varadero really is a Xanadu given the wealth of its nature, its beaches, its sky and its gardens.
The word Xanadu does not bring to mind Olivia Newton John or U.S. millionaire Irenee Du Pont, but the British poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) and his Kubla Khan (1797), who gave eternal life to Xanadu. The first stanza of the poem has been cited many times: In Xanadu did Kubla Khan /A stately pleasure-dome decree: /Where Alph, the sacred river, ran /Through caverns measureless to man /Down to a sunless sea.
Although “to the sunless sea” doesn’t fit with Varadero, other verses, other metaphors, other expressions in the poem totally describe the blue waters of Varadero and especially the area acquired by Du Pont at a ridiculous price. For example when it speaks of Enfolding sunny spots of greenery, or The shadow of the dome of pleasure, or Where was heard the mingled measure/ From the fountain and the caves, It was a miracle of rare device.
THE ARRIVAL OF DU PONT
The Xanadu Mansion, as the magnate named it, although it was later known as Du Pont, is located in the rocky outcrops of San Bernardino and was designed by architects Covarrocas and Govantes in 1927, the year the U.S. millionaire reached 49 years old and decided to retire from the presidency of the family empire (in the book Trading with the Enemy: 1933-1949, historian Charles Higham, after describing him as being the most amazing and powerful member of the clan, added that he was obsessed with Hitler.)
It is said that he began to search for a retirement haven, and, like many U.S. citizens, he found it in Cuba. He then bought 180 hectares on the Hicacos peninsula for 90,000 pesos (an absurd price of 4 cents per square meter.) The property included eight kilometers of virgin beach, but he chose the rocky hills of San Bernardino to build the house (at a cost of $1,300,000), a veritable mansion on four floors, with 11 bathrooms, three large terraces, seven balconies, and a private boat dock.
Precious woods were used for the ceilings, stairs and columns while the floors and bathrooms were of marble from Cuba, Italy and Spain.
Du Pont resided in Xanadu for a few months every year starting January (Varadero oral history says only a few days and not every year). In 1931 he ordered the construction of an 18-hole golf course (redesigned to only nine in 1933 after the first course was destroyed by a hurricane.)
It was in March 1957 when Du Pont visited Xanadu for the last time, corroborating that he did not come to Cuba every year given that he stopped his trips two years before the triumph of the Revolution. He died December 12, 1963, the same day on which Xanadu opened as the restaurant Las Americas, with the first women cosmonaut in the world, the Soviet Valentina Tereshkova, as guest of honor.
VARADERO GOLF CLUB
Over the last few years Xanadu and its surroundings have undergone many transformations finally becoming, in 1999, the Varadero Golf Club.


José Tovar, its general director, assured that its “course of 18 holes par 72 is in line with universal regulations.”
Golf —he said— is a magnificent tourism option, given that this sport is growing by around 15 % annually and more than 80 million people are members of golf associations.”
Tourist arrivals in Varadero are particularly significant between November and April, as the Club’s main clients are from Canada, Spain, France, and the UK.
“The Xanadu Mansion has been remodeled into a clubhouse with six hotel rooms. The first floor restaurant offers a menu and banquet service, and has a wine cellar in the basement (formerly a bar).”
The current Varadero Golf Club —explained Tovar—, with its 39.7 ha., (not including surrounding greens, lagoons, and parks totaling 61.0 ha.), was the first 18-hole course on the island designed by architect Les Furber, president of the Canadian Golf Design Services Company Ltd. It extends along a narrow strip in the vicinity of a number of hotels such as Breezes SuperClubs, Tuxpan, Bella Costa, Meliá Las Américas, and Meliá Varadero.
According to Tovar, the shape of the golf course separates two areas each with their defined characteristics. The first section up to the ninth hole is considered a bit easier; holes 10-18 stand out for their individual complexities. “Both allow golfers to combine the technical elements of the game with the beauty and tranquility of the environment.”
For its qualities, the Club has been twice selected as the venue of the European Challenge Tour Grand Final (1999 and 2000.)
The Varadero Golf Club or Xanadu Mansion is, without any doubt, a magical place in the finest tradition of the myth of Kubla Khan.

The Bayamesa. The first Cuban Song and its fate

The Bayamesa. The first Cuban Song and its fate
By José Galiño When Luz Vázquez (20 years old, a tall black-eyed brunette, very cultured and with a resolute character) learned the probable gallivanting of her husband Francisco del Castillo, she took the decision to break the marriage bonds, and then...

Pub.: 12/3/05, 09:00:18 PM
Serenata for Luz

In the city of Bayamo in mid 19th century it was a tradition to serenade the ladies, and that was what Francisco decided to do for mending relations with his adored wife. But an original song, clearly from Bayamo, was needed for that special occasion, so he went looking for help to his nephew and partner in his law office, Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, who would write the lyrics together with the outstanding poet José Fornaris. Céspedes, who was also a good pianist, would compose the music together with the grieving husband.

Late into the night of March 27, 1851, Luz was drawn to her window on hearing an unknown melody that carried words that she felt were meant for her. With Luz and the authors of the song as audience, tenor Carlos Pérez Tamayo sang and played his guitar.

Thus, because of an apparently trivial event, a song was born. Even if musicologists do not consider it part of the genre of Cuban song, the one that troubadours would give to the music of the island twenty years later, La bayamesa opens up that path, for its melody frees itself of European patterns that influenced the music of the island at the time.

But its greatest significance is not of being a forerunner –although in fact it should be considered the first Cuban song–, but for the fate of the song itself and of its protagonists.

A Women in the War

When the Cuban independent army took the city of Bayamo on October 18, 1868, Luz Vázquez, who had been a widow for a year welcomed in her house the band that played what later would become the National Anthem, written by Perucho Figueredo, who was married to Luz’s twin sister.

Three months later, when the citizens of Bayamo decided to set fire to their town, she herself burned down her home. With six of her children she fled to the Sierra Maestra mountains, until she was forced to return to Bayamo in 1870 when one of her daughters was found to have tuberculosis. It is told that when one of her daughters passed away, and believing the other one was dead, Luz died embracing the former.

After initiating the war for independence on October 10, 1868, Céspedes was abandoned by the Government in Arms and died at the hands of Spanish troops in 1874.

But after the war the song became popular, sung with lyrics referring to the struggle, until it became a symbol that identified patriots.

Whether fate put it on the road to fame because of the story of its protagonists or because the people have found in the sad narrative and in the sorrow of its beautiful melody the lamentations of a country, The bayamesa has become a symbol of patriotic feelings. And Luz Vázquez, who inspired the transcendental composition more than 150 years ago, keeps conquering feelings to become a legend.

The Bayamesa. The first Cuban Song and its fate
por José Galiño Pictures Eduardo Cabrera


The Song

Don’t you remember, maid from Bayamo,
That you were a shining sun,
And that on your languid forehead
I smilingly stamped a kiss?

Don’t you remember that in happy times
I was ecstatic with your pure beauty,
And on your bosom I reclined my head
Dying from joy and love?

Come, show yourself at your window;
Come, and listen to my singing;
Come, do not sleep, and answer my weeping;
Soothe my dark pain.

Remembering past glories
Let us, my love, dissipate sadness;
And lowering our heads
Let us die of joy and love.

The world fits into a Bonsai

Can you imagine giant trees reduced to a few centimeters for humans to "raise?"



Kyuzo Murata, one of the fathers of the modern Bonsai, would enjoy visiting the Gallery of Art in the city of Ciego de Avila, 420 kilometers from Havana, where the most eminent Cuban Bonsai sculptors participated in the 3rd 2005 CubaBonsai Convention.

Thirty representatives from nearly all the country’s provinces discussed this living art that penetrates to the depths of one’s soul and captivates those who cultivate it.

LIFE IN MINIATURE

It could be said that the world fits into a Bonsai; and those who agree are not without reason. These diminutive lives, by definition, are semi-perennial living plants, placed in a pot, atop a rock or slab."

"Each plant not only represents the beauty of nature, but its aspect brings to mind something more: a forest scene, a majestic solitary tree, a marine landscape, a lake, river, a pond..."

The Bonsai simulates the abundance of nature and expresses its eternity of slow changes. It is the result of centuries of development and continual evolution.

It is a convergence point for diverse disciplines such as art, botany, and philosophy, which all share a drive toward perfection.

I say that the world fits into a Bonsai and I think of the Maquette of the City of Havana, a large metropolis reduced to only 22 meters in length and 10 in width; or the Monólogo del Bonsái (Bonsai Monologue), interpreted by Carlos Luis de la Tejera, who with subtle political humor compares Latin America to a small garden in which the International Monetary Fund is the gardener.

The tale of the origin of these miniature trees comes from a Chinese legend claiming that during the Han dynasty (206 b.c.-220 A.D.) an emperor ordered the construction on his patio of a landscape representing the mountains, rivers, valleys and lakes of the empire. Afterwards, he stood ecstatically gazing through the windows of the palace, as if he had the world at his feet.

More recently, in 1971, the oldest testimonies of the plant were discovered in the tomb of Zhang Huai, of the Tang dynasty.

These writings describe that in the year 552 A.D. Buddhism arrived in Japan and with it, the tiny trees. Thus, Japan Islands assimilated the culture of China, including its architecture, literature, calligraphy, ceremonies, etc.

Even the theatrical piece Hachi-no-ki (The Model Trees), one of the world’s most relevant works treating this theme, appeared on stage. The piece is based on a much loved Chinese folk story.

BADLY-RAISED CHILDREN IN CU BA

Hijos malcriados (badly-raised children) is a very Cuban saying and an apt one in the case of these little living beings. "We have to provide all their needs if we want them to grow and develop, from food to adequate education", commented several cultivators questioned by Granma International during the Convention.

Raciel Méndez Gómez, with 16 years experience in this art, explains that as far as she knows, the first trees appeared in the house of a couple who lived in the town of La Fe, on Cuba’s Isle of Youth.

She claimed that in the early 70’s her friend Enrique Cuenca had seen the plants, which disappeared a short while after the couple died. "It’s not known what happened to them."

Raciel also said that in Santiago de las Vegas, Havana province, many books on the subject appeared in an abandoned house. The books were passed on though many people, some of whom may have begun cultivating the tree.

The history of the Bonsai, like life itself, is full of mystery and conjecture. So much so that there are 300 known cultivators in Cuba, a figure that is growing as others, still anonymous, are incorporated.

For Dimitri Gómez González, president of the Convention organizing committee and who has given life to the project in recent years, the cultivation of this living art could be another pathway to integration among nations in the year of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas. He notes: "The president of the Latin American Bonsai Federation is in Venezuela."

THEIR OWN HISTORY

Alejandro Moya Valdés, a beginner, acquired his first specimen after spending four hours with a chisel and hammer extracting it from the coast. Perhaps this is the reason for his belief that the fundamental element of cultivating and educating the plant is discipline.

The participants of the conference each summed up their definition of the art in one word: "spirit," said Lorenzo González Casuso; "addiction," Leonel Monzón García; "harmony," Asley Hernández Sánchez; "peace," Jovany Borrego Mejías; "emotion," Raciel Méndez Gómez; "tranquility," Nancy Gutiérrez Gárciga; "spirituality," Jorge Guerra; "thought or passion," Leonardo Rodríguez Triana.

Without thinking about monks, empires, civilizations, nomads and dynasties, the Cuban cultivators have their own history, which with the passage of time will be told by others keeping this 1,000-year-old art alive.