About us
Our story of how we started our journey
About us?
We are a couple of professionals who, seeing themselves without financial solvency, decided to hang their university degrees on the wall and dedicate themselves to the private sector, better known in our country as self-employed workers.
When I left the Pre-University of Exact Sciences in 2001, I never imagined that life would take me down this path. We always try to make our actions and steps foresee a possible future for us. Mine was to be a lawyer. I later studied at the Universidad Central de las Villas, graduating with honors in the degree in Law. There I met my husband, who was pursuing a master’s degree after having graduated from the same University but as an Electrical Engineer.
We were both born in the beautiful city of Trinidad, I was born in this house that has been in my family for four generations, built in 1858 and which unfortunately today is a quarter of the original building, currently having 280 square meters per floor.
Six decades ago, my family unfortunately fell into financial ruin after their small businesses were confiscated. They found a way to survive by selling part of their assets, some valuable goods and parts of the property that was our home. My parents decided to emigrate to the city of Cienfuegos and never returned. Today, they have their small family business there, a nice restaurant called Aché. My story was different. Despite the economic needs, my childhood in my hometown was wonderful, so I did not hesitate to return 20 years later, this time as Director of Housing, a high-level public servant in the municipality. My husband worked at the Electric Company as a Specialist. A lot of social recognition, zero money in his pocket, and we decided that something more than the love of our profession was needed to bring decent food to the table.
After getting into debt with the Thousand Virgins, we began to restore the house where I was born and the passage of time had not forgiven its charms, stone and mud walls, wooden roofs and Creole tiles, and that magnificent garden with the mango tree planted by my Catalan great-grandmother. We began a titanic task, but it is true that love and determination can achieve almost everything. My husband knew how to restore and save some walls, some clay slabs, or the doors that survived the debacle caused by the termites. The final result is a two-story house, with five independent rooms, with their beautiful terraces to escape the heat of the afternoons characteristic of the area, each with its private and remodeled bathroom. The patio survived the dismantling and today looks adorned with bougainvillea and flamboyant flowers, and what can we say about the mangoes that our clients pick directly from the tree.
At first it was a necessity but we soon began to love what we do. We have made available to our guests not only my grandmother’s English tableware on which we serve our dinners, but also her wrought iron beds, her museum-worthy display cases, combining it all with white sheets and pillowcases hand-woven by artisans from the city. So today we see those times of scarcity and anguish far behind us. Today the house shines with its own light and its renewed spirit like an old maiden who does not let herself fall despite the passage of time.
My family is happier today. With our thirteen-year-old daughter, we spend time with our clients and learn their customs and languages. We show them our reality, our pride and even our obsessions. We have a cup of coffee in the afternoon even when the sun is beating down in the sky. We have always laughed in the living room at a friend’s joke. At our table, we have talked with people from four different countries, in a row with English. I don’t practice law today, but in my free time I managed to become a notary. I still surprise my husband by making plans for a future imaginary generator set. We are a couple who live in a beautiful but complex country, where imagination and intelligence are often needed to reinvent our reality. However, we decided to be part of its history and we are here waiting for everyone to teach it and share it. We are Yasleny and Franli.
