Eugenio Angulo Tavío

Eugenio Angulo Tavío (1893-1986)

Eugenio Emilio de la Trinidad Angulo Tavío was born in the Villa of Güines on May 28, 1893. His childhood as told by himself, was not easy at all because he became an orphan when his father died when he was 4 years old, leaving his mother as the only household supporter, by giving private lessons at home. He learned to read and write besides her and received from her the moral principles that were very valuable to him later in life.

He started to work when he was 9 years old in Francisco Hevia’s Grocery Market, picking up bottles in the streets and learned agriculture working in the sugar cane plantations of Alfonso Gómez Mena. Little by little he started to make progress, and in 1924 he bought, together with Mariano Domínguez Vela, the Villa’s best restaurant and hotel at that time named Esquina de Tejas (Corner of Tiles).

His natural intelligence and talent inclined him towards the agricultural business, inexhaustible source of wealth in the rich region irrigated by the Mayabeque River. He was an important sugar cane plantation owner in Güines and, in his lands, 90% of the crops were dedicated to sugar cane; the remainder 10% to the cultivation of rice and garden-variety vegetables. His leased farms were La Quinta (The Country House), 8½ caballerías (equivalent to 114.07 hectares); Palenque (Palisade), 5 caballerías (equivalent to 67.1 hectares) and Bocalandro, 23 caballerías (equivalent to 308.66 hectares). He was the owner of Unión de Reyes (Kings’ Unión) farm, 2 caballerías (equivalent to 26.84 hectares), and Los Cocos (The Coconuts) farm, 1¾ caballerías (equivalent to 23.48 hectares), the latter two located in the San Julián Borough of Melena del Sur and leased to different farmers.

The initial successful cultivation of the lands he owned made him to naturally lean towards the preserves industry, very profitable at that time, specially in the export of products to the United States. So, at the end of the decade of the 30’s and beginning of the 40’s, he was the owner of Conservas Angulo, S.A. (Angulo Preserves, Inc.), a factory located in the corner of Valdés and General Asbert (formerly Concha) Streets, where tomato juice, puree, ketchup and natural tomato, were manufactured and preserved.

Needless to say that his farms and industries offered honest work to hundreds and hundreds of Güineros who were able to support their families in a decent manner.

This man with great vision, constant work and a clear natural intelligence, kept progressing and in the 50’s this same factory started to manufacture chemical fertilizers, whose commercial enterprise was General Chemical Continental, Inc. and the trademark of its products Liborio.

Besides his farms and industries, Eugenio Angulo wisely invested in Güines acquiring real estate, consisting of houses and apartment buildings. Edificio Angulo (Angulo Building) was one of the more beautiful and functional apartment buildings in the Villa, located in the corner of Gras (formerly Cuatro Palmas [Four Palms]) and Soparda Streets. When it was suggested to him to construct the building in Havana, where it would yield much more income, he answered: “Güines gave it to me and I will give it back to Güines”, showing his love for the Villa where he was born, grew and created a beautiful family, earning the respect and consideration of his fellow citizens.

When the Communist debacle arrived in Cuba, all the wealth that this great Güinero had accumulated, based on sacrifice and honest work, was confiscated like thousands of other Cubans and Güineros. He lost his lands when the Agrarian Reform was enacted; he lost his industries and real estate when the Urban Reform was forced upon all and he had to leave with his family to a long and painful exile, coming to reside in the State of California, in the City of Long Beach. He died in Miami, at the age of 93 on August 25, 1986.

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