Modelo Brewery, designed by the Cuban

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

Enrique Luis Varela, was built in 1948 for Compañia Ron Bacardi S.A.Eduardo Luis Rodriguez. ''The Havana Guide - Modern Architecture 1925-1965.'' Princeton Architectural Press, New York, 2000. Its address is the corner of 52 and Carretera Central, Cotorro, Havana,

Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

. In 1952,

Ernest Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway ( ; July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer and journalist. Known for an economical, understated style that influenced later 20th-century writers, he has been romanticized fo ...

featured

Hatuey Hatuey (), also Hatüey (; died 2 February 1512), was a Taíno ''Cacique'' (chief) of the Hispaniolan cacicazgo of Guanaba (in present-day La Gonave, Haiti). He lived from the late 15th until the early 16th century. Chief Hatuey and many of h ...

beer in his book ''

The Old Man and the Sea ''The Old Man and the Sea'' is a 1952 novella by the American author Ernest Hemingway. Written between December 1950 and February 1951, it was the last major fictional work Hemingway published during his lifetime. It tells the story of Santiag ...

''. When he was awarded the

Nobel Prize for Literature The Nobel Prize in Literature, here meaning ''for'' Literature (), is a Swedish literature prize that is awarded annually, since 1901, to an author from any country who has, in the words of the will of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, "in t ...

, the company threw him a party at the Modelo Brewery. Hemingway was a frequent patron of the brewery since it was located near to his home in Havana at Finca Vigía.

History

The brewery was built in 1946 to meet the increasing domestic demand for the

beer. The brewery produced 3.5 million liters of beer on its first 19 months of operations.

Architecture

This building has a modern aesthetic and proportions typical of Varela's works ( Revolution Square in Havana), The corner is a cylinder hinge between two facades. One side is dotted with small windows, the other almost blank and marked by horizontal bands reminiscent of the

Streamline Moderne Streamline Moderne is an international style of Art Deco architecture and design that emerged in the 1930s. Inspired by Aerodynamics, aerodynamic design, it emphasized curving forms, long horizontal lines, and sometimes nautical elements. In indu ...

architecture style. The building was to service Cuba's growing demand for

beer. This brewery was constructed ten miles from Havana in a site named El Cotorro in 1948. Being true to its name, it was a state-of-the-art facility, a model brewery. In Modelo's first nineteen months of production, 3.5 million liters of beer were produced. and in 1959, 10 million cases were produced and Hatuey Beer controlled 50% of Cuba's beer market.

Confiscation

On 14 October 1960, after 34 years of uninterrupted growth, Compañía Ron Bacardi S.A.’s Cuban assets, including the three Hatuey Breweries, were confiscated by the revolutionary government, and Hatuey lost its market. During this period, sales of Hatuey Beer were 12,000,000 cases per year. Beginning in 2011, the Bacardi family again began making beers in the United States to market under the Hatuey label.Klein, Lee.
''Hatuey Beer Returns as a Microbrew.''
Miami New Times, Dec. 6, 2011.

References

{{Havana landmarks 1984 establishments in Cuba Buildings and structures in Havana Beer in Cuba 20th-century architecture in Cuba

History

Architecture

Confiscation

See also

References