• Submitted by: admin
• Caribbean
• culture an traditions
• Destinations
• Education
• history
• national
• personalities
• Society
• 01 / 10 / 2009

---

The Jose Marti National Library granted on Thursday a Commemorative Medal of its foundation to Havana Historian Eusebio Leal for a lifetime work.

The ceremony was attended by renowned Cuban personalities and intellectuals such as Zoila Lapique, Roberto Fernandez Retamar, Eduardo Torres Cueva and Felix Julio Alfonso, who praised Leal tireless efforts in defense of the values of Cuban culture.

For several years, Eusebio Leal has been leading restoration works in Old Havana, declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1982.

He has received many national and foreign awards, including the National Award of Community Culture in 1999.

Upon receiving the award on Thursday, Leal, who is also a member of honour of the Union of Historians of the National Library, said that all the people should work together in the reconstruction of the Cuban capital.

The gala included an exhibition of pictures dedicated to the life and work of Eusebio Leal as well as the performance of the Ars Longa musical group and the screening of the documentary Leal, el del museo (Leal, the one from the museum) by Rene Arencibia.

(Juventud Rebelde)