Havana artisan makes guayaberas for the famous

Posted on Monday, 06.20.11

Havana artisan makes guayaberas for the famous
By PETER ORSI
Associated Press

HAVANA -- Under fluorescent lights and a whirling ceiling fan that is no
match for the Havana summer morning heat, Emiliano Nelson Guerra traced
a pattern onto a bolt of pink cotton cloth and carefully scissored the
edges.

Intermittently pulling on a fat cigar, he explained the significance of
the "guayabera," the roomy, collared, four-pocketed dress shirts that
Cubans wear to look spiffy on this tropical island where neckties are
practically extinct.

"The guayabera is nothing less than the typical Cuban garment," Guerra
said. "It's our image, so you always have to try to make it look its best."

Guerra, a 49-year-old with closely cropped hair and a receding hairline,
is Cuba's shirtmaker to the stars. Known as Nelson to his friends, he
has spent the last two decades establishing himself as Cuba's leading
designer of the guayabera, which the government last year decreed the
official formal attire for state functions.

He has hand-crafted shirts for international luminaries from American
singer Harry Belafonte and British pop star Sting to Hugo Chavez,
president of Venezuela, and Prince Albert of Monaco. E'Nelson Collection
designs have exhibited in shows and fairs and been worn by
world-renowned Cuban musicians like Chucho Valdes and the late Compay
Segundo, of Buena Vista Social Club fame, and they're also in demand by
wealthy foreigners and well-heeled Cubans up to the highest levels of
government.

"One time I even made a guayabera for 'el comandante,'" Guerra said,
referring to former President Fidel Castro, known more for his affinity
for military attire.

Guerra recalled the first time he met American actor Danny Glover, who
has cultivated close ties to Cuba, about a decade ago at a film festival
in Havana. He asked the "Lethal Weapon" star about the shirt he was
wearing, which turned out to be an artesanal African garment. The
shirtmaker soon found himself hurriedly assembling a bone-white,
embroidered masterpiece that he gave to Glover the last night of the
festival.

"He tried it out immediately," Guerra said. "He took off the shirt he
was wearing, put mine on and said, 'Excellent.'"

A year later the actor was back in town without the guayabera.

"He wasn't wearing it. Instead he told me, 'I want another one!'" Guerra
said, breaking into laughter at the memory. He said he has made three
shirts so far for Glover.

Working under a Cuban law that lets artists and craftspeople operate
independently, Guerra and his three assistants churn out 80 to 100
guayaberas a month.

In a country where official monthly wages average around $20, they sell
in hotels and tourist shops for $49 for a casual short-sleeve, and $100
for a formal linen long-sleeve. He's also taken custom orders up to $229.

Guerra's most recent project for a high-profile client was making enough
shirts to clothe an entire orchestra: 150 short-sleeved white guayaberas
discounted at $40 a pop for the New York Philharmonic.

"He showed us a number of designs that were very creative and beautiful
and took the idea of a traditional guayabera and brought them into a
more contemporary context," said Eric Latzky, a Philharmonic spokesman
who met with Guerra in Havana several months ago.

The group's plans to perform in Cuba in 2011 were called off for
logistical reasons, but Guerra says there's enough demand for his shirts
that he should be able to unload the 90 he's already made in a month or two.

Still, like any artist, he's disappointed he won't get to see the
finished product up on stage.

"It's important to see your work at the end, in the place where it was
going to be used," Guerra said. "To see the whole orchestra dressed up
... and even one man from the orchestra who apparently wears a size
XXXXXL. I've never seen the man, but he must be gigantic."

Guerra's currently crafting guayaberas for Miami-based salsa musician
Isaac Delgado, who's been wearing E'Nelson Collection since the 1990s,
for his new album cover and upcoming European tour. Guerra proudly held
up a demo: white-fronted with the entire back a red, white and blue
Cuban flag.

"He's a tremendous designer with very good taste," said Massiel Delgado,
the singer's wife and assistant.

Guerra founded his home workshop in historic Old Havana the mid-1990s
with 10 initial designs that have today swelled to more than 100.

Cardboard patterns and photos of him with Glover, Sting and Segundo
adorn the walls of the cutting table room. In an adjacent space, a
painting of a Madonna gazing down at three people at sea in a rowboat
hangs over early-1900s Singer sewing machines.

Guerra said Cuban guayabera making fell into decline after the
revolution in 1959, as some cuts of fine cloth were in shorter supply
and tastes changed. An invasion of Mexican Yucatan-style guayaberas,
along with mass-production of shirts he called "barbarous," meant that
handmade Cuban shirts all but disappeared.

"There was a time when there wasn't much talk about the guayabera. In
fact, young people - and many of them still have this idea - thought the
guayabera was for old, overweight men."

Guerra's on a mission to change that, appearing on radio and TV to
promote the shirts as a symbol of the national identity and even writing
a tune in the Cuban musical tradition known as "son": "The guayabera is
our national garb," goes the refrain.

"I've seen a lot of work that really leaves a lot to be desired," Guerra
said. "I understand that everyone has to make money, but isn't it better
to make money trying to create something good?"

Associated Press writer Gisela Salomon in Miami contributed to this report.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/06/20/v-fullstory/2275590/havana-artisan-makes-guayaberas.html