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Bar of "Jovel" bath soap (green)
Object/Artifact
A rectangular bar of toilet/bath soap, originally green, embossed "Jovel" across one face (the brand reads in lowercase script, now only partly legible). The bar is heavily aged and degraded: most of the surface is obscured by a thick whitish-to-tan bloom/efflorescence and apparent mold growth, with brown discoloration, surface pitting/erosion, and fine cracking; the rounded-rectangular form survives but the original color shows only in patches. The standard rationed-market Cuban toilet soap "Jovel."
2025.1.166
Kept in a box, in the Arús Caraballo household, stored in a barbacoa for decades with other soaps.
The Cabrera Arús family collection
2025.1
Suchel-Jovel
Jovellanos
Matanzas
Cuba
Caribbean
Central America
Jovel
Maker: Suchel-Jovel, a base enterprise unit (UEB) of the Cuban state Grupo Suchel (soap/perfumery), located at Jovellanos, Matanzas. "Jovel" is its long-standing rationed-market soap/detergent brand (the name derives from Jovellanos). Date: circa 1960s–1980s (tentative). Jovel was a staple ration-market soap over many years; no date or batch mark on the bar, so the specific year is undetermined.
Inscription
Jovel
Spanish
2.5 cm
9.5 cm
6 cm
Materials: Toilet/bath soap (saponified fats/oils), green pigment; extensive surface bloom/efflorescence and apparent mold from aging. Technique: Molded/stamped soap bar with embossed brand name.
Fair
Gertrudis Caraballo Gálvez
owner
MINIL
producer
Havana
Cuba
Caribbean
Central America
acquisition, ownership
Jovellanos
Matanzas
Cuba
Caribbean
Central America
production