Armenians in Cuba

As in other Armenian diaspora communities, the shoemaker’s trade was predominant. Men active in that work included Bedros Arakelian, Sarkis Azaryan, Vartan Haboian of Kharpert – who would migrate to Chicago in 1949, and Hagop Kupelian, who arrived in Havana on June 26, 1927, having set out from Saint Nazaire, France. Kupelian would spend his entire life making shoes in Havana.

Others worked in diverse fields. For example, Alicia Boyadjian, today a resident of Las Tunas, told me that her maternal grandfather, Haigaz Mamasian, began as a stevedore on the docks, later worked as a door-to-door clothing salesman, and finally established a store. In the 1930s, he bought a house in Arroyo Naranjo, in the “Reparto Cuervo” area of Havana.

She also said that her father, Stepan Boyadjian, settled in Las Tunas where he ran a store named El Sol de Oriente, travelling frequently to Havana where an organized Armenian community held collective activities. On one of those trips he met Ana Agavni Mamasian and they decided to marry in Las Tunas in 1936, where their daughters, Siran, Isabel, and Alicia, were born.

Another man who moved to Las Tunas was Kevork Khachadurian, working first as a street peddler, then as a barber. Upon the death of Khosrob Chantikian, he acquired a textile store called La Nueva Armenia. He would later migrate to the US, selling the store to Hagop Haladjian, whose children remain in Las Tunas.

Institutions

Although the Armenian community in Cuba never managed to build enduring institutions, like churches, members of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Tashnaksutiun) did establish two Committees (Gomidehs), one in Havana called Ishkhan (founded on June 17, 1925), the other in Las Tunas named Shant (founded around 1926). Those two Committees were in constant communication with the Central Committee in Boston to report the quotas sent and activities carried out and to request seals, books, and diverse articles that they required to function correctly.

In one of their letters, we learn that Hagop Kevorkian and Dikran Moskenderian were requesting the Committee’s authorization to move from Havana to Las Tunas. The chairman of the Ishkhan Committee in Havana in 1927 was Sahag K. Nigolian, who decided to move to Las Tunas in the 1930s, where he set up a store called Casa Nigolian that sold hardware and watches and remained in operation into the 1960s. I have also learned that in 1928, a resident of Mexico named Nerses Odabachian, who was very active in the Tashnaksutiun in Mexico City, spent a few months in Havana directing the Ishkhan Committee, before returning home. In the 1940s, he too succeeded in moving to the US, settling in Fresno, California.

The Armenian Red Cross had an affiliate in Havana that, in 1930, had some 50 members, including the executive officers Azniv Joukjoukian, Arshalooys Aslanian, Zabel Jerahian, Makrouhi Zakarian, and Noyemzar Kimatian.

Around 1934, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation founded a school called Armenia. A magnificent photo, property of the Rafaelian family of Rhode Island, shows 49 children there with their teacher, Nouritza Tavlian, and the Committee’s Board of Directors: Manuk Nahabedian, Aram Mikaelian, Zabel Basmadjian, Markar Khimatian, and Arshag Topalian.

The members of the Armenian Democratic Liberal Party (ADL, or Ramgavar) also created an affiliate in Havana. Around 1929, it had its own locale where over 70 people would gather, as a photo conserved by the Kasparian family in Havana, the Partamian family in Havana, and the ADL Archives in Watertown, Massachusetts, indicates. The image includes members of the Pilibosian family.

Associations of compatriots from the same village, city or region (compatriotic unions) were another key element in maintaining the Armenian identity and in preserving links with relatives or countrymen in other parts of the world. One of the first associations created in Havana was that of Armenians of Baghin (Palu; see History of the House of Baghin (in Armenian), published by the Baghin Reconstruction and Educational Union, Hairenik Press, Boston, 1966, pp. 125-128).

On Sunday, April 3, 1927, the home of M. Nahabedian was the site of a meeting of the Council of Natives of Baghin where the decision was taken to create a chapter of the Union for the Reconstruction and Education Lovers of the People of Baghin, which would have close ties to the Baghintun group in Providence, Rhode Island. At that meeting, Mkrtich Khboyan was elected president and Khimatian as secretary. Members included Sarkis and Vartan Azarian, Hovhannes, Manuk and Grigor Nahabedian, Hrach and Grigor Zorabedian, and Hovagim Khotoian. The chapter was dissolved on July 3, 1930, but re-established in 1934, enduring until its final dissolution in March, 1943, after almost all members had migrated to Providence.

The chapter ran a small school and helped Armenians of Baghin who were sick or in need. Always short on funds, it received support from the seat in Providence. Another member of that compatriot group was Shahin Khodigian, who had arrived in Havana at the tender age of 10. At first, he supported himself and his mother by dying shoes. On September 6, 1937, he married Marie Sadjonian and, a few years later their daughters, Diana and María, were born in Havana. The family migrated to the US around 1961.

The Dikranagerd compatriotic group (Dikranagerd Hay Mioutiun Havanayi Masnajiugh) was founded in Havana around 1930. Members included Boghos Kebabjan, Levon Sudjian, Ashod Yaghlegian, Mgrdich Shaljian, Garabed Chilinguirian, and several men from the Bardakian and Soojian families. It is important to note that this group included some Assyrians and some mixed Assyrian-Armenian families.

Those were the strongest compatriotic organizations in Havana, and the ones with the largest membership, but there was also a group called the Educational Union of Charsanjak (Kharpert), which began to function around 1928. One of its members included Levon Kassabian. We can assume that other compatriot groups were formed in those years.

Though there was no Armenian church established, there were some pastoral visits, including the 4-week stay by Fr. Mesrob Semerjian (at age 30) from the US, financed by the Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU) (see Christopher Hagop Zakian, ed., Fr. Arten Ashjian contributor, The Torch was Passed: The Centennial History of the Armenian Church of America, St. Vartan Press, 1998, p. 40).

Clearly, the Armenian community in Cuba created numerous groups and organizations of various kinds. The number of surnames and individuals registered in their files allows us to estimate that the population may have exceeded 2,000 people. I am currently compiling a census and documenting the Armenian presence in Cuba with the intention of authoring a book on this topic.

Dear reader, if you have information, documents, or photos on Armenians who may have lived in Cuba, please contact me at the following e-mail address: cantaramian@gmail.com.