Sandra Delgado brings "La Havana Madrid" Back to the History Books

Nowhere in Sandra Delgado’s many titles does “historian” come into play. Talented actor, engaging writer, captivating singer, community leader—those are the go-tos when you’re discussing Delgado’s artistry and commitment to the cultural life she fosters behind the scenes.

But historian? Somehow, that gets left off the list. When you hear the story how Delgado created La Havana Madrid, you’ll understand why this is an oversight.

The lively play with Latin music is a lesson in a forgotten period in Chicago’s rich cultural history. It’s a serendipitous example of how art not only can reflect history, but bring it out of the shadows.

Delgado literally did that with La Havana Madrid, which runs July 15–Aug. 4 at the historic and beautiful Mission San Juan Capistrano. The play chronicles the legendary Chicago nightclub of the 1950s and 1960s that served as a community hub for Cuban, Puerto Rican and Colombian immigrants. Along the way, it welcomed many of the major Latin jazz and big-band artists of the era.

But decades after it closed, evidence of its vibrant existence barely existed until Delgado literally brought La Havana Madrid back into the public consciousness. And it started, innocently enough, with Delgado interviewing her parents about their early days in Chicago after they arrived from Medellin, Colombia in 1965. Delgado tells their story in LaHavana Madrid through the characters Henry and Maruja.

“He told me about La Havana Madrid and in that moment, I realized that is the play,” Delgado said. “Also, I had never heard of the club and I grew up not far from there. … In my memory, that was never a Latine neighborhood (West Lakeview). I was shocked to learn there was a nightclub there in the 1960s that they used to go to.”

Intrigued, Delgado started researching La Havana Madrid. There had to be volumes on such a culturally significant site. Especially in a city like Chicago that isn’t shy about chronicling its history.

There weren’t. A trip to the library revealed the book, Chicago Music History of the 1960s. Delgado went through all 250 pages—and couldn’t find one word about either La Havana Madrid or Latin artists.

“That’s when I knew this project had deeper meaning. That’s how this started,“ she said. “This is something that is super-entertaining, but for me, it’s also a way to pass on this history that is not well known and it should be well known. And this speaks to not only Chicago, but generally, it speaks to the Latine history of people in the United States, which has not been preserved. And the way we preserve it is through an oral history like this.”

Delgado went to Google. Nothing, despite having two of the biggest Latin artists of the day: Celia Cruz and Tito Puente, play there. Frustrated and beyond puzzled at the lack of information, Delgado threw out a Hail Mary on Facebook, asking if anyone who was around in the 1960s remembers La Havana Madrid. Slowly, people started chiming in, saying they knew this person or that person. But nothing first-hand.

The first real breakthrough came when Delgado was back at the library, going through microfiche of newspapers from the 1960s.

“I found this article about the first Puerto Rican Day parade and Myrna Salazar was in the story because she was crowned the first queen. Myrna was my first talent agent and we always maintained a friendship,” Delgado said. “I reached out to her and said ‘Hey, I’m working on this project and would you be willing to be interviewed… I’m working on this play called La Havana Madrid.

“She said ‘I used to go to La Havana Madrid. The owner is the godfather to one of my daughters and he and I used to sing in the club once in a while.’ I said ‘WHAT!’ Once Myrna got on board, the project started unfolding in a beautiful, organic way.”

Salazar wasted no time introducing Delgado to the aforementioned former owner, Tony Quintana. From there, the puzzle pieces—and eventual characters—multiplied. Delgado’s uncle had a band that used to play in the basement of her parents’ house. One day, the doorbell rings …

“My dad answers it and it’s Carpacho, who he knew in Colombia and hadn’t seen in five or six years,” Delgado said, talking about Roberto “Carpacho” Marin, the talented musician who would become not only a character, but the leader of the La Havana Madrid band. “Carpacho has always been a part of my life. He’s been around since before I was born. … I sat down and talked to him for hours. He has so many stories. I could write a whole other play about Carpacho.”

From there, Delgado dived deeper into the history. She contacted a Latine History and Cuban History professor at the University of Illinois, who told her about Maria Bechily, who would inspire the character of Maria. Bechily was a former Board of Trustees member at the Goodman Theatre, one of Delgado’s artistic homes. To Delgado’s delight, Bechily told her “I used to go to La Havana Madrid.”

And so it went—one piece leading to another. A Facebook contact reached out and told Delgado she needed to talk to Carlos Flores, who had documented Puerto Rican life through his camera lens in the city for 60 years. A back-and-forth ensued where Flores would send her photos and the stories about them.

“We’d have these conversations and he was always wonderful; if I had questions, he’d answer them, but we never met in person,” Delgado said. “It was like this old-fashioned romance/courtship/pen-palship, where we’d message each other. I got to know him over the course of a year and I was really inspired. I thought, ‘I really need to know this guy. He’s amazing.’

“Without telling him, I wrote a piece about him. Eventually, I did tell him, ‘Listen, I wrote a character inspired by you. Here’s a draft of it. If you’re not on board with it, it’s absolutely not going into the show. Let me know what you think.’ He gave it his blessing. And he was there opening night.”

One more Facebook contact bore fruit on La Havana’s creation and early history. After the Chicago Sun Times did a feature on the play, Carolina Aloma-Gibbs messaged Delgado. Her father, Luis Aloma, a star relief pitcher for the Chicago White Sox in the early 1950s, was La Havana Madrid’s original owner. He opened the club as a chapter of the Cuban American Society

“She really filled in a lot. She got specific with me about things that were there—what the stairs looked like and what the china was like,” Delgado said. “They served food there. I didn’t know they served food there. She told the story about how she and her brother would sleep in the coat-check room until five in the morning, then they’d have breakfast in the diner and go home.”

Delgado credits Aloma with turning La Havana Madrid from a gathering place for immigrants to a happening nightspot. And Delgado made a point to illustrate that La Havana Madrid was a place for all ages. Families brought the kids for a night out, mingling with couples and friends enjoying their night out.

“He was a visionary,” Delgado said about Aloma, who died in 1997. “He was into gathering spaces. He left Cuba to be a baseball player and I think he felt a responsibility to his community. He had achieved a big dream and he was a celebrity. Everyone knew who he was and a lot of the Cubans who came through Chicago in the 1950s came because of him. I think he felt this responsibility to create something for folks.”

Delgado felt that same responsibility through her two-year process writing La HavanaMadrid. What started out as laborious became a labor of love. And as it went along, Delgado fell in love with the people who became the characters in La Havana Madrid. The desire to tell the story of a long-gone nightclub that somehow flew under Chicago’s cultural radar became the desire to tell a bigger, more-important story.

“All the pieces fit together. What’s happened since then has been so beautiful,” she said.