Perla Rosales, who replaced Eusebio Leal, is the daughter of one of Fidel Castro’s generals
14ymedio, Juan Izquierdo, Havana, July 21, 2024 — “When the Russians called us, Eusebio Leal used to say, ’Don’t even ask for my permission. Just go ahead.’” Perla Rosales, deputy-director of Havana’s Office of the Historian, leaves little doubt about Moscow’s role in the financial survival of her organization. “We work very well with the Russians,” she says in an interview with Russia Today (RT). “We have Russians in our blood.”
During the interview, which took place in Leal’s old office, Rosales made it clear that the post will not be filled anytime soon. “People wonder when there will be a new historian. No, no, no! Eusebio is still here,” she said. All its operations are now being handled by what she describes as “a very loyal team” over which she presides.
The daughter of one of Fidel Castro’s generals and acting-director of the organization since Leal’s death in 2020, Rosales was full of praise for Moscow, whose financing was decisive in 2016 when the agency’s parent company, Habaguanex, was taken over by GAESA, a business conglomerate controlled by the Cuban armed forces. GAESA was directed by Luis Alberto Rodríguez López-Calleja, former son-in-law of Raúl Castro, until his death in July 2022.
The daughter of one of Fidel Castro’s generals and acting-director of the organization since Leal’s death in 2020, Rosales was full of praise for Moscow
Rosales notes, with some satisfaction, that Habanaguanex “had a budget of 120 million dollars.” It restored and operated twenty-one hotels, which were always “at 90% occupancy.” At that time, Leal gave an interview to the Associated Press in which he alluded very discreetly to GAESA’s guardianship. Without mentioning anything about the reasons for the takeover, he said tersely, “I am handing over everything that I currently believe to be in optimal condition.”
“Leal decided that it was time for the business side to be run by a company under the auspices of a large holding company like GAESA so that he could focus his energies on the community and social welfare projects,” she said. GAESA pays the agency a portion of Habaguanex’ profits, which it reinvests in its own restoration projects.
Rosales says more than seven million “in hard currency” now goes to social welfare projects. They restore a hundred homes a year — down from 120 — with money contributed by “many partner countries.”
Russia came to the rescue at a difficult time for Leal, who was suffering from cancer. Fidel Castro, the person who had granted him — as Rosales puts it — “full authority,” had also died that same year. The project that gave the Office of the Historian new prestige was the restoration of Cuba’s National Capitol. “We have to mention that because we are a Russian channel,” said the RT interviewer.
The building was restored with help from the Kremlin in 2018. Leal claimed, according to Rosales, that only the Russians had what it took to gild the Capitol’s cupola. “The Italians submitted a bid and everyone else made us their best offer.” Then Leal made a decision: “That’s it. We’re going with the Russians. We work well together.” She says Russian specialists labored “day and night,” to finish the project, which was completed in 2019.
Gilding the Statue of the Republic, a work by the Italian sculptor Angelo Zanelli that sits in the main hall under the cupola, was not part of the plan but rather “a special request to the Russian girls.” Rosales reports Leal jokingly asking them, “Won’t you have a little gold left over?” It was left to her to work out the financial details with the Russian delegation. She claims Leal did not like the final result because he felt the gold leaf chosen by Cuban restorers was too garish.
The interviewer noted that Office of the Historian has been been “taken over by its women” and Rosales agreed
The interviewer noted that Office of the Historian has been been “taken over by its women” and Rosales agreed. “We, the team,” she clarified. She does not see herself as a replacement but as the leader of Leal’s successors, people who have worked there on different fronts. A close ally is the journalist Magda Resik, who is in charge of the communications. “Breaking down doors,” she says, is this army’s way of doing things and she believes that, even in Leal’s absence, the government respects the agency.
“Every day we ask ourselves, ’How would Eusebio do it?’” she says. To those who question whether Leal would have approved the conversion of its previous historic restorations into state-owned businesses like the one operating in Quinta de los Molinos, her answer is, “Yes, of course. We are sure that he would.” Her job, as she sees it, is to assist the government and the president. In fact, Leal’s final act, while in “unbearable pain,” was to dictate a letter to Raúl Castro.
Rosales also talked about studying architecture in the Soviet Union and her return to Cuba in the 1990s. “When I came back, I was a young woman who had just graduated,” she says. She rose rapidly through the ranks until Leal appointed her the office’s investment director following the resignation of her predecessor. With Raúl Castro’s approval and in anticipation of Leal’s death, she became deputy-director in 2013.
It is she who must now “shoulder the heavy weight.” However, Rosales’ tone when describing her “inheritance” is not one of grief. “He has not stopped working with us,” she says, pointing to Leal’s empty desk. “He is still here. We work with him here every day.”
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