Cuba Material collection · Colección Cuba Material
Powered by CatalogIt · Gestionada con CatalogIt
Catalog
Drinks coaster, La Bodeguita del Medio (Havana)
Object/Artifact
Round coaster in a mottled cream/tan material that appears to be paper-pulp pressed). The face is printed in black with the venue's emblem within a double-ruled circle: a colonial fanlight (medio punto / luceta) device above the lettering "LA B. DEL M" (for La Bodeguita del Medio), "La Habana Vieja," and "CUBA." The surface is heavily aged and soiled, with parts of the print rubbed and faint.
2025.1.292
Used in the Arús Caraballo household.
A branded/souvenir coaster from La Bodeguita del Medio, the iconic bar-restaurant on Calle Empedrado in Old Havana. Founded in 1942 by Ángel Martínez (out of a small grocery, "La Complaciente"), it grew into a haunt of intellectuals and artists, became internationally famous as a "temple of the mojito," and is wrapped in Hemingway lore — the much-displayed line "Mi mojito en La Bodeguita, mi daiquirí en El Floridita," now generally considered apocryphal by historians. Nationalized after the Revolution and today run by the state tourism company Palmares, it shifted over the later 20th century toward an overwhelmingly tourist clientele. The coaster — using the fanlight, a quintessential Havana colonial architectural motif, as a logo — is a piece of the venue's branding and of Cuban hospitality/tourism material culture.
The Cabrera Arús family collection
Leopoldo Arús Gálvez collection
2025.1
La Bodeguita del Medio
Havana
Cuba
Caribbean
Central America
Date: undetermined and not closely datable. The "La B. del M." fanlight emblem was used over a long span; the coaster carries no date. It may fall outside the collection's nominal upper bound — i.e., it could be a later, tourist-era piece postdating 1990 — so the date should be treated as open pending evidence.
La B del M, La Habana Vieja, Cuba
Spanish
Printed black emblem: fanlight (medio punto) device within a double circle; "LA B. DEL M"; "La Habana Vieja"; "CUBA."
9.5 cm
1
Cardboard
Poor
Leopoldo Arús Gálvez
owner
La Bodeguita del Medio
Havana
Cuba
Caribbean
Central America