Cuban Mortar Tiles - infogram.co.uk > Home

Cuban Mortar Tiles
Havana: Economic context
For the city of Havana the fi rst decades of the Republic were years of fevered
building boom. Population within old municipal boundary more than doubled in
twenty years to over half a million, due largely to a huge post-colonial Spanish
immigration. New territories were developed particularly to the west of Havana.
Development and urban expansion were funded by an exponential rise in sugar
prices (years of “vacas gordas” or “fat cows”) following the First World War.
This fever of construction continued even through the subsequent fall in sugar
prices (years of “vacas fl acas” yes “thin cows”) with the rich seeking to invest in
the safer bet of property.
Architecture of the Mould
This sugar-fuelled expansion was made possible through the new concrete
technologies which arrived in Cuba around the turn of the century. Along with
the beam-and-block structural systems which fostered rapid construction, the
new technologies permitted an extraordinary fl ourishing of cast decoration with
which to ornament the new buildings. The architecture which resulted from this
period has been called “The Architecture of the Mould” 8 . Facades and interiors
were adorned with these new elements, allowing “infi nite possibilities, repeatable,
combinable”. 8 Thanks to cement and its mouldable qualities, this new
ornamented architecture “could be used and assimilated by the mass of
society”. 8
That this architecture should take root and fl ourish to such an extent in Cuba,
Felicia Chateloin attributes to the Cuban taste for decoration. “It’s in our blood”
she says. Its success was also propelled by diversity and quality of the original
sculptures or templates from which moulds were cast – the work of carpenters
who formed an “army of able artisans”. 9 As industrial products made of cast cement,
but with a hand-made aspect, mosaicos hidráulicos were a twodimensional
part of this feast of moulded decoration. Indeed many factories in
Cuba which produced artifi cial stone products using presses and moulds also
produced mosaicos. 3
8.Felicia Chateloin Santiesteban “De la arquitectura del molde o la identidad de la ciudad cubana”
9. Alonso, A.G, Contreras P, Faginoli M Havana Deco
10. Also the case in Spain noted by Jaume Rosell
Chapter 2: History of tiles: From European roots to their arrival in Havana
Production of Mosaicos Hidráulicos
According to Juan de Las Cuevas, Cuba was the second country in Latin
America to start making their own mosaicos hidraulicos, following Mexico. The
technology for mosaicos arrived from Spain with Quirico Gallostra
opening the fi rst factory in Cuba in La Habana Vieja in 1886. It appears that
neither this plant nor a later factory opened by Bielsa was able to compete
against the Spanish imports. It is not clear where the diffi culties lay. It may have
diffi cult or expensive to import raw materials (cements, sands and pigments
from France and Italy), and/or maybe the fi rst Cuban tile-makers did not have
the expertise to compare with the Catalan craftsmen who had by this time been
producing tiles for 30 years.
Juan de Las Cuevas’ list of mosaico hidráulico factories in Appendix A shows
companies which nevertheless emerged in Havana and other Cuban cities. The
‘La Balear’ factory was founded 1894, clearly managed to stay afl oat, and by
1909 was churning out tiles at the rate of between 1000-40000 tiles per month
(depending on complexity) and won a prize that year at Cuba’s own Exposicion
Palatino. Other mosaico companies too had started up in Havana around the
turn of the century as Cuba began to produce its own cement. A Cuban magazine
of 1898 showed the ‘Cuba’ cement factory was producing losetas hidráulicas,
as was the large ‘El Almendares’ cement factory in 1901. Probably the
most successful of all the Havana mosaico factories, ‘La Cubana’ was founded
in 1903 and then put itself in lead position with the sourcing of a salt-free silicate
sand which did not affect the tile colours. With the latest equipment and using
only the fi nest French cement and German pigments, plus employees who had
previously worked for top Catalan companies such as ‘Escofet’, ‘Orsola Sola
and Butsems’, ‘La Cubana’s business expanded to half a million mosaicos per
month of a quality they then exported all over Cuba. It has been said that ‘La
Cubana’ tiles were allowed to cure for an extraordinary minimum of fi ve years
before being laid. 11 This may have been part of their insistence on
quality, although one wonders that business was so successful. ‘La Cubana’
factory produced losetas hidráulicas up until as recently as 1990. 12
11.Armando Lopez, interview July 2009 advised La Cubana tiles were imported to Baracoa, and
also provided the fi ve-year curing period information.
12. Nuria Macia Vargas, conversation August 7 2009.