Cuba mourns the passing of Eusebio Leal Spengler

Cubans have learned with sadness of the passing Friday morning of Eusebio Leal Spengler, the Historian of Havana City, after a long battle with cancer.  He was 77.

The Cuban Presidency website said that details of his funeral will be announced shortly.

Immediate reactions to the news poured on Twitter from the island´s top officials, colleagues, and people from all walks of life.

Cuban President Miguel Diaz Canel wrote: “Don Eusebio of loving memory has died, the one who made us cry and laugh with the history of the nation that we are, giving it character and soul, giving it names and illuminating its darkness like someone who turns on lights in the middle of the night.  Our condolences to family and friends.”

And the Cuban president added: "Today we have lost the Cuban who saved Havana on behalf of Fidel and who took it with such passion that his name is no longer his, but synonymous with the City.”

Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez, for his part, wrote: “We are deeply saddened by the loss of Eusebio, an exceptional protagonist of our foreign policy. Few people have lived so passionately and imbued themselves in a country like he did.  Havana, Cuba, and the world will preserve the indelible mark of a man who is unrepeatable in history.”

“A hero of everything and of everybody,“ "a brilliant historian, a mover and shaker who got things done, widely respected and loved."  "Irreplaceable,” "Havana cries and Cuba is shaken by his loss” are some of the numerous reactions.