CubaPLUS Magazine

Worldwide, there are approximately 50 wax museums showcasing figures of famous personalities. Despite being a relatively small island, Cuba proudly boasts its own gallery featuring figures crafted by skilled hands, using beeswax to depict renowned figures in national and even international arts.

Inaugurated on July 14, 2004, as a small gallery in the eastern city of Bayamo, it officially became known as the Wax Museum on December 29, 2007.

To the pride of the residents of this historic and legendary city, cradle of the Cuban National Anthem (1868), the artistic and original Bayamo Wax Museum has earned national recognition and continues to be the first and only museum of its kind in Cuba.

A deeply rooted tradition within a family from the rural town of Guisa, near Bayamo but nestled at the foothills of the Sierra Maestra mountain range, played a significant role in fostering this art form. This tradition, cultivated by this rural clan with all the attributes of the telluric and ancestral, heavily influenced the museum's creation.

It can be said that the Barrios family, a group in which some members displayed an early, passionate, and self-taught affection for shaping wax with dedication, was the progenitor of this beautiful institution, which is visited by every tourist who comes to Bayamo.

Located on the central General García street in Bayamo, this center houses a notable collection of wax figures, including reproductions of Cuban birds and reptiles, as well as popular characters from the city. Among them is the unforgettable Rita La Caimana, a lady who in former times wandered the streets of Bayamo, full of grace, mischief, and naiveté, capturing the imagination of her compatriots, although she was not always well understood or treated. Her wax statue is both a tribute and a redress.

The exquisite attention to detail of these folk artists, the wax modelers, has led them to create their pieces in life-size, full color, a skill mastered by the young brothers Rafael and Leander Barrios Milán, alongside their father and mentor, Rafael Barrios Madrigal.

Outstanding works include representations of the "Barbarian of Rhythm," Benny Moré; Bola de Nieve, the immortal son of Guanabacoa; Compay Segundo; the natural Guajiro Polo Montañés; Sindo Garay; and Carlos Puebla, virtuoso guitarists and singers of popular and lyrical brilliance.

A deeply moving and sensitive moment awaits those who contemplate the figure of young Italian Fabio Di Celmo, a victim of a terrorist attack at the Hotel Copacabana in Havana in the 1990s.

The Bayamo Wax Museum, while an unusual site in Cuba, is very much in line with the life and tradition of its people.

We invite you to tour the museum, where you can learn about the history of numerous personalities that are sure to be of great interest.