The descendants of the founding family of Cervecería La Tropical, established in 1888 in Havana, celebrated the relaunch of the iconic Crystal beer this Wednesday in Miami, after winning a legal battle against a U.S. company that allowed them to reclaim the original brand.
Manny Portuondo, a fifth-generation member of the brewery’s owners, which was expropriated in the 1960s by Fidel Castro’s regime, explained to EFE that this is a “victory” for preserving Cuban heritage.
“Our brand is returning home, and that means a lot of pride, not only for my family, the Blanco Herrera family, who founded the brewery, but I believe also for the Cuban community,” he stated.
The victory is part of a legal strategy he began in 1998 to recover all trademark registrations and rights in several countries to block “the Cuban government from legitimately using our brand, which was La Tropical and Crystal.”
Portuondo opened a new La Tropical brewery in Miami in 2021, seeking to revive its legacy, even including gardens that recreate those of the Havana location, but he was unable to launch the popular beer at that time due to the litigation to recover the rights to its trademark design.
That relaunch will take place this Wednesday with a version made from the original 1928 recipe, created, he explained, when consumers in Cuba were “migrating to lighter, more drinkable beers, more suited to tropical climates, with a little less alcohol.”
“So, why reinvent something that was already incredibly good?” Portuondo said about the beer’s flavor, which is now called Tropi Crystal to associate it with La Tropical.
The Miami-born businessman explained that “Crystal is a symbol that ‘yes, it can be done,’ that action can be taken, that what was lost can be recovered, and that a future beyond Cuba can be envisioned.”
He detailed that a Miami court ruled in their favor, allowing them to recover the “emblematic symbols” of this beverage, created on the island in 1928, such as the royal palm, Cuba’s national tree.
“We recovered the color combination, which is green, red, and white, something that Cuban consumers recognize anywhere in the world,” he said while showing one of the canned beers.
Portuondo, the son of a political prisoner who spent two years incarcerated on the island, downplayed the American brewery’s involvement in the lawsuit, saying he didn’t know who was behind it, but noted that, in general, all these battles waged by the Cuban exile community are against Castroism.
“I’ve always seen, since I started this project in ’98, that these efforts, no matter where they are, are always against Cuba, with the idea that they can force us out of Cuba, but they can never force Cuba out of our hearts. And always, no matter where we are, we will always be Cuban,” he emphasized.
“I believe that all Cuban generations have a duty, a duty to do what they can to maintain their heritage, their culture, and ensure it is never erased, and for me, Tropical is part of that effort,” he added.
Portuondo pointed out that the relaunch event, dubbed ‘Family Reunion,’ responds to the idea of reuniting families separated by “the communists and Cuba.”
“What I want to do with Crystal, and the reason why La Tropical exists, is the reunification of our identity, our heritage, our culture, and our family,” he added.
He stated that he shares with much of the Cuban community a mixture of uncertainty and hope regarding the possibility of political change on the island, although he hopes it will not follow the path of Venezuela, where power fell into the hands of a Chavista figure like Delcy Rodríguez.
“I personally hope it will be a legitimate change, a real change, and that it won’t be so similar to Venezuela,” he expressed.
Regarding the possibility of returning to a free Cuba and reopening the brewery on the island, he noted that “that would be a very nice way to end the final chapter of La Tropical, but who knows, it’s out of our control.”
(EFE)
