As residents of a UNESCO World Heritage Site, trinitarios were able to remain in their homes rather than face forced relocation to settlements on the edge of the city as thousands of residents of Old Havana endured in the 1990s. They did so thanks to the heroic efforts of Roberto López Bastida (better known as “Macholo”) and architectural engineer José Luis Hurtado who rejected the profit-generating, tourist-centered model of their Havana counterparts. Conservator and Vice Conservator of the City of Trinidad, respectively, Macholo and José Luis worked hard to convince residents that they needed to restore their homes according to the techniques and materials of the century in which their homes were built. For many, that meant tearing down extra rooms, barrocoas [lofts], and other structures they had often built with few resources when the government refused aid and no outside help was involved. Two-hundred-year-old Cuban mahogany doors like this one needed their doorknobs and locks changed, along with a fresh coat of colonial-era-authenticated colored paint. The door knocker, dating from the mid-1700s, speaks to the historic beauty that everyone knew was worth saving. Trinidad de Cuba, July 2001.
