Cuba - Lonely Planet [329]
Rounding the next corner north of this viewpoint, Desiderio Mesnier descends to Parque Alameda (Map), a dockside promenade that opened in 1840 and was redesigned in 1893. Opposite the old clock tower (Map) and aduana (customs house) at the north end of Parque Alameda is the Fábrica de Tabacos César Escalante (Map; 62-23-66; Av Jesús Menéndez No 703; admission CUC$5; 9-11am & 1-3pm), a cigar factory sometimes open for visits. The factory shop sells the finished product.
North of Casco Histórico
North of the historic center, Santiago de Cuba turns residential. Tracking up Calle Felix Peña, you can orientate yourself by the baroque bell tower of Iglesia de Santo Tomás (Map; Félix Peña No 308), one in a trio of notable, if dilapidated, 18th-century churches in this neighborhood.
Two long blocks northwest of the church is the important but little visited Museo–Casa Natal de Antonio Maceo (Map; 62-37-50; Los Maceos No 207; admission CUC$1; 9am-5pm Mon-Sat) where the mulato general and hero of both Wars of Independence was born on June 14, 1845. Known as the Bronze Titan in Cuba for his bravery in battle, Maceo was the definitive ‘man of action’ to Martí’s ‘man of ideas.’ In his 1878 Protest of Baraguá, he rejected any compromise with the colonial authorities and went into exile rather than sell out to the Spanish. Landing at Playa Duaba in 1895, he marched his army as far west as Pinar del Río before being killed in action near Havana in 1896. This simple museum exhibits highlights of Maceo’s life with photos, letters and a tattered flag that was flown in battle.
Another home-turned-museum is the Casa Museo de Frank y Josué País (Map; General Banderas No 226; admission CUC$1; 9am-5pm Mon-Sat), about five blocks southeast. Integral to the success of the Revolution, the young País brothers organized the underground section of the M-26-7 in Santiago de Cuba until Frank’s murder by the police on July 30, 1957. The exhibits tell the story.
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BACARDÍ – RUM GOINGS-ON IN CUBA
Today the world-famous Bacardí brand retains its headquarters in the Bahamas and runs the largest rum factory in the world in San Juan, Puerto Rico. But, with brutal irony, the company’s roots were sown more auspiciously several hundred kilometers to the west, in Cuba, a country with which Bacardí has been at loggerheads for the last 50 years.
Founded in 1862 in the city of Santiago de Cuba, the world’s largest rum dynasty was the brainchild of Don Facundo Bacardí, an immigrant from Catalonia, Spain, who had arrived on the island in 1830 at the tender age of 16. Recognizing the unusual qualities of the sugarcane in Cuba’s verdant east, Facundo began experimenting with distillation techniques using molasses until he was able to produce the world’s first ‘clear’ rum, a liquid that was filtered through charcoal and subsequently aged in oak barrels.
The new refined drink quickly caught on among Cuba’s burgeoning middle class and, in time, the wealthy Facundo was able to pass his profitable business down to his sons Emilio and Facundo Jnr.
Facundo Jnr gallantly steered the company through a difficult period of conflict during the Spanish-Cuban-American War, while the more feisty Emilio went on to become a well-known Cuban patriot who was exiled by Spanish authorities for his ‘revolutionary activities.’ Emilio returned to Cuba a hero in 1898 and was promptly named Santiago’s first mayor by American general Leonard Wood. It was during this tempestuous new era that Bacardí concocted its two famous rum cocktails, the daiquirí (named after a Cuban beach) and the Cuba Libre (literally ‘free Cuba’), both mixed with their signature clear rum.
After the repeal of the US prohibition laws in 1932, Bacardí began expanding its operation overseas, opening up a bottling plant in Mexico and establishing the Cataño distillery in Puerto Rico, a move that