Houses and Life in Cuba, 1907
From Cuba and the Cubans by Wilbur S. Tupper, 1907.
From: 1907 C.E. To: 1907 C.E.
Location: Havana, Cuba
Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.
From Cuba and the Cubans by Wilbur S. Tupper, 1907.
The Cuban House
The architecture is peculiarly Spanish adapted to tropical conditions. The houses are low, usually of one story only, and the roofs are covered with heavy red Spanish tiles. Of 18,000 houses in Havana, 17,000 are one story high. Of the remainder very few are more than two stories high, with perhaps not more than a dozen exceeding three stories. There are four or five elevators used in Havana buildings and none elsewhere in the Island.
In the houses of the rich the ceilings are very high and the floors covered with tiling or marble; in the poorer residences, the floors are brick. The houses are invariably flush with the street; the floors, as a rule, not being above the pavement, and sometimes being below it. Houses are usually constructed of stone or of a coarse cement.
Window glass is practically unknown. Windows on the ground floor are protected by heavy iron gratings, ofttimes wrought into pleasing patterns. This grating is sometimes built out in a sort of bay window effect. These iron bars give a forbidding aspect to the window. But to young Cuban couples it is the only sunshine in their whole heaven of courtship. Only with this railing between, may they see each other without the watchful and unnecessary chaperon. It is to them, therefore, the garden gate and front porch combined.
Inside of the grating are blinds of the ordinary kind, with shutters that may be turned up or down as occasion requires. In houses of the poorer people, solid window blinds serve both as protection against intruders by night and as a means of keeping out the sun. The windows in the second story have shutters only, and often lead out onto a small balcony, a popular feature of the Cuban house.
As a rule, houses are built around an open court or patio. The various rooms of the house open into this patio, which has cement or tile walks, with flowers and foliage in profusion. You will sometimes find a horse and carriage occupying a room near the general entrance of the house alongside the sleeping or living rooms occupied by members of the family.
The furnishings of houses are simple in the extreme, and puritanic in plainness. There are no carpets or upholstered furniture. Cane-seated chairs and rockers with a plain table or cane settee, comprise most of the furniture. They have a curious fashion of setting these chairs in rows facing each other in the middle of the room. If there be children, smaller chairs back of these, nearer the wall, indicate their places. A glance into a Cuban parlor gives the impression that arrangements have been made to hold a meeting.
Cuban beds are clean and sanitary, but not so luxurious as those in the States. A simple iron or wooden frame covered with springs, over which a blanket is placed, constitutes the bed. A long roll filled with cotton serves as a pillow, and a light covering is sufficient to protect from the cool nights. Hotels and public places are built on the general plan just given; but the patio is larger and more imposing. The ceilings are high, and rooms could easily be sliced horizontally, making two stories.
The poor man's house in the country is more primitive. The side-walls are made of the bark of the royal palm, fastened by fibrous bark and twigs. The roof is thatched with palm leaves, which are the standard Cuban shingles. The better houses have a board floor raised from the ground two or three feet, under which the pigs and chickens roam freely. The roof often projects, porch-like, beyond the inclosed rooms, and the open space underneath serves as kitchen, dining room and parlor.
The Cuban’s Daily Life
How does the Cuban live amid these strange tropical surroundings? The first meal in the morning is called "desajuno." It may be translated as early breakfast. This consists of fruit, coffee with milk, and rolls or bread. The Cubans do not use cream. Sometimes, but not generally with the native Cubans, butter is used. His next meal is called "almuerzo," and may be translated as regular breakfast. This corresponds with our ordinary luncheon. It consists of various vegetables, fish, eggs, meats broiled or roasted, salad, dessert and coffee.
Their next meal, taken between five and eight in the evening, is "comida," and corresponds with our dinner. This is much like the preceding meal, but, if anything, more elaborate, beginning with soup and extending through quite a number of courses. Unlike Mexican cooking, Cuban dishes are not full of pepper.
Now something about the cooking. The bread is delicious. It is more solid than our ordinary baker's bread and is baked in loaves two or three feet long, weighing five or six pounds. Its fine flavor is ascribed to the fact that banana stalks are used in fermenting the yeast. Butter, if found at all, is generally imported from Denmark or the United States, and is not much used by the natives. But a few Cubans and a number of Americans have gone into the dairying business recently with large profit to themselves. Butter is 50 cents a pound.
Rice is boiled with chicken, used in curries and introduced in a variety of ways into many dishes. It is one of the principal articles of diet with the poorer Cubans, and is never absent from their tables. Eggs are of most delicious flavor, and are prepared in a great number of inviting ways. The same is true of fish, never found better anywhere. The meats, as a rule, do not equal the best grades of meat in this country. Such fruits as oranges and grapefruit far excel such fruits in the United States. The grapefruit particularly is a revelation to the northerner. It has a delicious flavor, free from bitterness and extreme sourness. In Cuba it is generally eaten without sugar. The other native Cuban fruits are good or bad, according to varying tastes. It is difficult to describe them.
The Cuban does not lead a strenuous life. He is ready for business at 9:30 or 10 o'clock in the morning, and continues until the time of "almuerzo," let us say at 12 o'clock. After this, he takes a rest or siesta until 1:30 or 2 o'clock. Then he is ready for business again until 4 or 5 o'clock.
In the evening, he may attend the theatre. The Cubans are fond of the stage, and know what is good in drama and opera. The curious custom obtains in some theatres of buying tickets for a single act or "portandas." A consecutive performance, such as drama, is called "funcion sequida." But at a vaudeville entertainment, one may buy a ticket for, and attend, a certain act only; or one may have one seat for one act and another for another.
As to women, the European code prevails. A lady must not be seen alone on the street, but must have a male escort who, of course, must be a relative. The ladies go out to drive or to shop in the afternoon, and receive calls both in the afternoon and in the evening.
Sunday is a day of sport and merry making. Religious exercises in the morning are usually attended by the women only, in a sort of vicarious way for the whole population. While Sunday is enjoyed in the freest way possible, some of the saints' days are religiously observed, many shops and places of business being closed. There is an appalling number of saints' days shown in the Cuban calendar, but there is not much uniformity in the observance of them.
Tupper, Wilbur S. Cuba and the Cubans. The Stationary Manufacturing Company, 1907.
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