Havana

HOME	GLOBAL	DISTRICTS	CLUBS	MISSING HISTORIES	PAUL HARRIS	PEACE
PRESIDENTS	CONVENTIONS	LIBRARY	WOMEN	THE ROTARY FOUNDATION	COMMENTS	PHILOSOPHY
SEARCH	RGHF FORUM	FACEBOOK	JOIN RGHF	COMMITTEE	RGHF	RECENT POSTS
RGHF is not responsible for Google translation errors				Become an RGHF Subscribing Member and receive our newsletters "I don't mind my inbox being flooded by e-mails from RGHF. They are so informative and it makes me appreciate more the wonderful world of Rotary." Anonymous

ROTARY GLOBAL HISTORY	SECTION HOME		First Rotary Clubs of Central, South America, and Caribbean			HISTORY OUTLINE	RI ARCHIVES
HISTORY CALENDAR	buenos aires		havana	lima	mexico city	montevideo
panama city	rio		san juan	sao paulo	valparaiso	FRIENDSHIP TREES
LATIN SECTION CHAIR, JOSE MESA (ZHEMA)		ROTH		SPANISH SITE	HISTORY	FIRST IN EACH REGION

Brief histories of the "RotarioLatinAmerica" Clubs

Rotario Club of Havana, First Club of Latin America

1 June 1916

Rotario International Distrito

Rotary International Convention Host Club 1940

Part of our Rotary Global History in Central American/Caribbean Section

Also see the Rotary Club of Matanzas, Cuba's #3

For the Havana Club, the first in which English was not the local language, Rotary headquarters were concerned that it might become merely an American club in a foreign country. This was the tendency in some Asian countries where the membership was largely made up of ex-pats. Secretary Chesley Perry perceived the potential problem and wrote to Alexander Kent, a lawyer and representative in Havana of the Red Feather Cinematograph Company giving him authority to form a club in Havana, but with the proviso that "You are also advised and directed to make up the Rotary Club of Havana with not more than 25 percent of American and not less than 75 percent of Cubans or Spanish-Cubans. What we want to do is to spread Rotary among the native people of other countries more than among our American brethren who happen to be in other countries."

El Club Rotário de la Habana was started in Cuba by two members of the Tampa club, Angel Cuesta and John Turner. (Reference pg 239, My Road to Rotary, Rotary Begins to Spread).	Rotary Headquarters hotel From the collection Dr. Wolfgang Ziegler
Paul Harris visited Cuba in 1927, seen here in this May 1927 photo from The Rotarian. Courtesy of Dr. Wolfgang Ziegler, RGHF Senior Historian	Our complete history of Rotary in Cuba Courtesy of Dr. Wolfgang Ziegler, RGHF Senior Historian 31 May 2006