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Hotel Habana Riviera (Havana) advertising drink stirrer / swizzle stick
Object/Artifact
Single amber/orange translucent-plastic drink stirrer. A flat circular paddle at the top is embossed (molded in relief) with the hotel's logo — hotel above Habana Riviera in cursive script, over CUBA, within concentric ring borders. The shaft is round in section and terminates in a small ball foot. The logo is integrally molded, not printed.
2025.25.8
María Teresa Cornide Hernández collection
2025.25
Cuba
Caribbean
Central America
Maker: Hotel Habana Riviera, Havana (advertising barware); stirrer manufacturer not marked. Date: No earlier than the hotel's opening on 10 December 1957. Most plausibly state-era (1959–1980s).
Embossed on paddle: hotel / Habana Riviera / CUBA (script logo) within concentric rings.
Plastic
Materials: Molded plastic (polystyrene/acrylic), translucent amber/orange. Technique: Injection-molded stirrer with integrally embossed logo; ball-foot terminal.
Good
Havana
Cuba
Caribbean
Central America
use
The Hotel Habana Riviera, built by mobster Meyer Lansky and opened 10 December 1957 on Paseo/Malecón in Vedado, was the largest casino-hotel outside Las Vegas at the time. The Cuban government seized it on 23 November 1959; the casino closed soon after, and the hotel ran for decades as a state property (Gran Caribe; Iberostar from 2017). Its mid-century-modern interiors remain largely original. Because the hotel opened only in late 1957 and operated far longer under the state, this stirrer most likely dates to the post-1959 state-tourism era (in range), though a short pre-revolution origin is possible. The Spanish "Habana … CUBA" branding (versus the Hotel Plaza paddle's English "HAVANA") fits either but leans less specifically pre-revolutionary — a useful contrast with the Plaza stirrer.