Fulgencio Batista: The Making of a Dictator

Chapter 3: Sergeant Stenographer

Havana was a bustling metropolis of more than three hundred fifty thousand people when Fulgencio Batista arrived in the spring of . By far the largest city in Cuba, about  percent of the island’s population lived in the capital and its suburbs.1 The city, located on Cuba’s northwestern coastline , expanded enormously both westward and southward in the decades preceding the Wars of Independence. It originally developed around the entrance to Havana Harbor, with each side defended by a fortification. The famous El Morro stood on the eastern side of the harbor, while the Castillo de la Punta protected the west. Cannons were thus placed on both sides of the harbor, making for a formidable defense. At  p.m. every evening a shot was fired from El Morro announcing the closing of the harbor for the night, a custom still followed today. As with most Spanish colonial municipalities, the heart of the city consisted of a main plaza (Plaza de Armas), a Roman Catholic cathedral, the city hall (Ayuntamiento), a military barracks, and a governor’s mansion. But Havana had long outgrown the old Spanish center, known as Habana Vieja, and expanded in the nineteenth century to the west and south.As the city grew, the wealthy moved to the new neighborhoods on the outskirts of the old city, to places like Centro Habana, Víbora, Regla, and Cerro, where they built their mansions. By the time Batista arrived, those neighborhoods were no longer fashionable, and the wealthy had moved yet again, further west to Vedado. Over the next two decades, the wealthy would continue to relocate west and south—to Miramar and Marianao, the latter a suburb of Havana. The mansions of the older neighborhoods were then divided into multifamily          8 sergeant stenographer 03Chap3.qxd 2/26/2006 7:21 AM Page 23 dwellings, and it was in these working-class neighborhoods that Batista would live for most of the period from  through , periodically moving from one apartment to another. Havana would continue its steady growth throughout the s. At the time of Batista’s arrival, the famous sea wall, the Malecón, had been under construction for more than twenty years. It would eventually reach eight miles in length and connect Habana Vieja to the new neighborhoods and suburbs to the west that would become playgrounds for wealthy Cubans and North Americans. A new European-style boulevard, Quinta Avenida (Fifth Avenue) was built in the late s from western Havana to the suburbs to make it easier to travel from the center city to the racetrack, casino, and Havana Yacht Club. The contrast between old city and new would become more dramatic with time. The old city was dominated by houses standing wall-to-wall with private, inner courtyards. The new suburbs resembled wealthy North American suburbs with lush, tree-lined boulevards and houses at a considerable distance from each other. Havana was at the center of Cuba’s nascent tourism industry and by the end of the decade would be receiving up to eighty thousand visitors a year. The tourism industry and legalized gambling fueled organized crime and government corruption, activities in which Batista would play a major role.2 The twenty-year-old Batista must have been awestruck by the sheer movement on the streets of Havana. The capital was crisscrossed by trolley lines; with their seats of wicker and canvas awnings to block out the intense sun, they connected one far-flung end of the city to another. The sights and smells were jolting to the country boy from Banes. Street vendors were everywhere , selling everything from brooms to coal to croquetas (croquettes, frequently made of flour, ground ham, and pork). Their cries echoed through the streets. Women often set up small food concessions on the sidewalks in front of their homes to sell to those walking by. Musicians played in the parks dotting Havana and lived on whatever passing patrons wished to contribute . Actors performed impromptu skits, occasionally poking fun at the Afro-Cuban population or recent Spanish immigrants from Galicia or Asturias. The city was alive with theaters—from those catering to the very poor, in which food was frequently hurled from the upper levels, to more refined establishments catering to the wealthy and urbane. Silent movie theaters were commonplace as well, some showing patriotic movies produced by Cuban filmmakers.3 Batista became quite the theatergoer in Havana, attending classical music concerts and expanding his taste beyond “creole rhythms.”4...