In Baracoa, the first city founded by the Spanish colonizers in Cuba there is a hotel facility whose name has a special meaning. Everybody knows it as La Rusa hotel, however, this was not the name given by its first owners when they came from Europe after a long pilgrimage caused by the triumph of the October Revolution.
The attractive three-story hotel had witnessed a story that has become a legend. The outstanding writer Alejo Carpentier reflected it in his work “Consagración de la Primavera”. Also, this story has survived in the oral tradition of the people of Baracoa.
It is about a beautiful European woman, Magadalena Menasses Rovenskava that emigrated to Cuba due to the czarist condition of her father. She showed talent as singer and vast general cultural, she was the wife of a diplomat. They decided to settle in Cuba after traveling throughout different places of the old continent.
Finally, they arrived to Baracoa to set the business they have been entrusted to carry out by a relative who has always lived that city.
Her artistic virtues and work allowed Magdalena to create an imaginary universe from this popular hotel that was her home and the home for all those young people that revealed against the regime of president Fulgencio Batista.
Thus, Magdalena exchanged with exceptional personalities of thelast Cuban independence war. There she met Fidel, Celia, Antonio Nu;ez Jimenez among others. Her hotel accommodated writers and artists that requested a place to amuse the prodigal soul of artists.
That spirit encouraged Alejo Carpentier to write his version of this illustration of Baracoa in his famous “Consagración de la Primavera”. The main character of this work escaped from the October Revolution and she has settled in a distant region of Cuba to forget those dramatic moments when suddenly she was overcame with another social shock in this island that likewise ended in a Revolution.
Nevertheless, Magdalena came to Cuba and never leave the country again. She traveled throughout the whole country until her death. It was obvious her loyalty for Cuba, she helped the poorest people and she was very attached to the triumphant cause of January 1st, 1959.
(Cubaheadlines)
It is about a beautiful European woman, Magadalena Menasses Rovenskava that emigrated to Cuba due to the czarist condition of her father. She showed talent as singer and vast general cultural, she was the wife of a diplomat. They decided to settle in Cuba after traveling throughout different places of the old continent.
Finally, they arrived to Baracoa to set the business they have been entrusted to carry out by a relative who has always lived that city.
Her artistic virtues and work allowed Magdalena to create an imaginary universe from this popular hotel that was her home and the home for all those young people that revealed against the regime of president Fulgencio Batista.
Thus, Magdalena exchanged with exceptional personalities of thelast Cuban independence war. There she met Fidel, Celia, Antonio Nu;ez Jimenez among others. Her hotel accommodated writers and artists that requested a place to amuse the prodigal soul of artists.
That spirit encouraged Alejo Carpentier to write his version of this illustration of Baracoa in his famous “Consagración de la Primavera”. The main character of this work escaped from the October Revolution and she has settled in a distant region of Cuba to forget those dramatic moments when suddenly she was overcame with another social shock in this island that likewise ended in a Revolution.
Nevertheless, Magdalena came to Cuba and never leave the country again. She traveled throughout the whole country until her death. It was obvious her loyalty for Cuba, she helped the poorest people and she was very attached to the triumphant cause of January 1st, 1959.
(Cubaheadlines)