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Newborn Identification Bracelet (Manilla de Identificación de Recién Nacido)
Object/Artifact
Manufactured plastic-and-paper hospital newborn ID bracelet issued in a Havana maternity hospital on September 1, 1974, bearing the mother's name and clinical history number in handwritten ink under a clear cover, with original plastic buckle closure. The form is what María A. Cabrera Arús describes in her Cuba Material blog as a "manilla original," manufactured specifically for the purpose, distinguishing it from the improvised, nylon-strip bracelets she documents from the preceding year. The inscription identifies the mother of the newborn (standard Cuban maternity-hospital practice of the period), not the infant directly.
2025.1.6
ID beloged to María R. Cabrera Arús
The Cabrera Arús family collection
María A. Arús Caraballo collection
2025.1
9/1/1974
1970s
Havana
Cuba
Caribbean
Central America
Name
English
Ink
The printed form fields are in English while the handwritten content is in Spanish.
Note
One side
Maria Antonia - Aruz Caraballo - 35510
Spanish
Patients name and number
Pencil
Note
Another side
Peso 7,3 lbs. Hora 1:55 pm femenino
Spanish
Weight 7.3 lbs. Time 1:55 pm Female
Pencil
Plastic
Very Good
María R. Cabrera Arús
María A. Arús Caraballo
Hospital Materno Infantil Ramón González Coro
MINSAP
producer
Havana
Cuba
Caribbean
Central America
María A. Cabrera Arús's Cuba Material blog post "Brazaletes de identidad para recién nacidos" (August 4, 2024, cubamaterial.com) discusses this and another bracelet from her family together with additional examples from 1980. Her analysis observes that: - Her own 1973 bracelet was "improvised" — made from nylon repurposed from another medical implement and secured with a knot - Her sister's 1974 bracelet — the present object — is a "manilla original", i.e., a purpose-manufactured product, much shorter than the improvised version - The transition between 1973 and 1974 thus appears to mark a turn from improvisation to standardized hospital supply within Cuban obstetric practice The 1974 bracelet is therefore positioned at an important inflection point in Cuban maternal-infant healthcare material culture.
Newborn identification practices in Latin American maternity hospitals in this period typically recorded the mother's identifying information (name, clinical history number, sometimes date/time and weight of birth) rather than naming the infant directly — because the legal name of the newborn would often not be registered with the civil registry until days or weeks later. The bracelet's job is to ensure the baby cannot be confused with another mother's child during the hospital stay. The inscription here — mother's name + clinical history number "355-10" — fits this standard practice exactly. Comparable Spanish-American hospital practices are documented in studies like Lomuto et al., "Identificación del recién nacido y medidas de prevención…" (Hospital Sardá, Buenos Aires), which describes the same maternal-identifier convention.