Club Atenas Explained

Club Atenas
Opened Date:	1917
Location:	Havana, La Habana Province,
Architect:	Luís Delfín Valdés

Club Atenas was the best-known and most elite Afro-Cuban social club in Havana, Cuba.

Early history

Club Atenas was established in 1917 in Havana, Cuba.^[1] The club was built by Luís Delfín Valdés, a Cuban architect.^[2]

It was established by Havana's Black elites, with 68 lawyers, engineers, civil officers, and teachers among its founding members. Pantaleón Julian Valdés was the first elected president.

Apart from organizing dances and cultural events, it also planned travels both domestically and internationally. One such trip took place in 1954, when former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt was given a bust of Cuban patriot Antonio Maceo.^[3] Black Americans Langston Hughes, W.E.B. Du Bois, and Mary Bethune were among the guests received by the club.^[4]

Following the Cuban Revolution, the Castro government seized Club Atenas in 1961 and converted the building into a daycare center.

Notes and References

1. Guridy, F. A. (2010). Forging diaspora : Afro-Cubans and African Americans in a world of empire and Jim Crow. University of North Carolina Press. http://site.ebrary.com/id/10460913
2. Web site: How Black Latinos found a future in an Alabama HBCU after slavery. usatoday.com. 2024-05-18.
3. Web site: Race-based Clubs Revived in Cuba - Newspapers.com™. newspapers.com. 2024-05-18.
4. Gronbeck-Tedesco JA. Introduction. In: Cuba, the United States, and Cultures of the Transnational Left, 1930–1975. Cambridge University Press; 2015:1-20.