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Hospital birth-identification bracelet, 1973
Object/Artifact
A newborn's hospital identification band — a long, narrow translucent strip of repurposed nylon, now creased and limp, made to be wrapped around an infant and tied. The nylon was reused from another purpose, and traces of its earlier life remain visible as red printed lettering and a red line running along the band, alongside the birth record. A small paper insert held within the band carries the handwritten pencil inscription with the birth details. The piece is a single intact length with the data slip retained inside.
2025.1.53
Birth record of María A. Cabrera Arús. Preserved by María A. Arús Caraballo
The Cabrera Arús family collection
Childhood
María A. Arús Caraballo collection
2025.1
10/8/1973
1970s
MAKER: Not a commercial identification band but an improvised one made from repurposed nylon; no manufacturer of a purpose-made bracelet applies. The red printed lettering along the band is residual marking from the nylon's prior use, not a maker's mark for a birth band, and is partly legible and reversed in the images. The issuing hospital is Ramón González Coro, former Sagrado Corazón, in Vedado, Havana. DATE / PERIOD: October 8, 1973.
Note
Sexo F peso 6,1 hora 1:35 Maria Antonia Arus Caraballo
Spanish
Gender F weight 6.1 time 1:35 Maria Antonia Arus Caraballo
Pencil
Handwritten pencil inscription (Spanish): "Sexo F, peso 6,1, hora 1:35, María Antonia Arús Caraballo." Translation: "Sex F, weight 6.1, time 1:35, María Antonia Arús Caraballo." Residual red printed lettering and a red line along the band, surviving from the nylon's earlier use (not a birth-band maker's mark); partly legible, not transcribed.
MATERIALS: Repurposed nylon band (translucent, bearing residual red printed text and a red line from its earlier use) with a paper data insert; inscription in pencil. TECHNIQUES: An improvised band cut/formed from reused nylon, with a sealed or stitched edge and an internal pocket holding the paper slip; the birth data added by hand in pencil at the time of birth. The reuse of nylon for a hospital identification band reflects material scarcity and everyday improvisation.
Fair
María A. Arús Caraballo
María A. Cabrera Arús
Hospital Materno Infantil Ramón González Coro
Havana
Cuba
Caribbean
Central America
The data set is the standard newborn record: sex, birth weight (the "6,1" most plausibly 6 pounds 1 ounce, with the Spanish decimal comma), and time of birth (1:35). What makes the object especially telling is its material: rather than a manufactured hospital band, it is improvised from repurposed nylon, and the red printed text and red line are leftovers from that nylon's previous use rather than any product branding. This is a vivid instance of the same make-do, salvage-and-reuse economy seen elsewhere in this material — here applied even to a maternity-ward identification band — and it carries both precise documentary value (a securely dated, named birth record) and strong personal significance.