El Vedado of Generals and Doctors

Llilian Llanes Godoy
Lead Designer & Art Direction

The Vedado of the Generals and Doctors
Llilian Llanes Godoy

First edition 2013
© Llilian Llanes Godoy
© Selvi Ediciones, 2013

Photography Pedro Abascal
Edition Deborah de la Paz
Printed at SELVI Artes Gráficas, Valencia, Spain

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"At the end of the 19th century, Havana was practically a city frozen in time.... So begins the text of this volume, dedicated to recalling events and images of the Cuban capital in the first decades of the Republic, especially of the Vedado neighborhood from its emergence to its inevitable decline as the preferred place for the upper classes to stay and leisure.

Many factors led to the change of this panorama announced in the first lines of the text, one of them being the accelerated growth of the population, especially "that of those more fortunate sectors that demanded new spaces where they could legitimize themselves". By 1918, Vedado was the most exclusive neighborhood in the capital. Dr. Llilian Llanes' text is a singular history lesson: of a country, of a city, of the different hierarchies and classes. It covers architectural typologies, maturation over the years, the intervention of master builders and illustrious architectural firms. It explores in depth the residences of the most prominent figures of the Republic: generals and doctors who, as in Carlos Loveira's novel, monopolize the limelight.

The reader will have the opportunity to access images recovered from archives and publications of the time such as El Figaro and Social, rarely reproduced later. These are not only photos of buildings, their facades and interiors, but also portraits, caricatures, advertisements, which focus the reader on the atmosphere and dynamics of an era.

And as a complement to this history, a contemporary vision... We discover other angles of the same Havana a century later, from the lens of Pedro Abascal.

Is this city still frozen in time?