The Most Beautiful Girl in Cuba - Chanel Cleeton Page 0,130

those names with real-life figures. Additionally, so much of Evangelina’s life was sensationalized and shaped to suit the aims of others, that it was challenging to separate between the real Evangelina, the woman who was given the moniker of “the Most Beautiful Girl in Cuba” by the American newspapers, and the woman who was vilified by the Spanish. Even her “autobiography” was written and shaped by others to fit the narrative that had been created in the American press. At times, it is difficult to grasp who the real Evangelina was.

There are also some gaps and inconsistencies in Evangelina’s story. Where I could, I relied upon the words of those involved in her escape from Recogidas—Karl Decker, George Musgrave, and others—to fill in those gaps as well as looking at as many supporting documents as possible to better shape her story. The events of the night Berriz attacked her on the Isle of Pines have been contested since it occurred. At the time, Spanish officials claimed that she lured Berriz to her room so that her friends could capture him. Evangelina vehemently denied this and, reportedly, was given chances at freedom if she recanted her story, which she never did. That said, there are reports that later in life she told a friend—Fitzhugh Lee—that she had Berriz come to her room so that he could be captured by the revolutionaries. However, since this information is secondhand, there is conflicting information from Lee, and this is her story, I wrote the events of that evening as Evangelina described them. Regardless of why Berriz went to her room that night, he was the senior ranking Spanish officer of the Isle of Pines and held the welfare and lives of her and her family in his hands.

Evangelina could be a difficult character to understand. The bold woman who hatched her own plan for how to break herself out of prison and who was prepared to join her father in fighting for Cuba’s future, could often come across as demure and meek in the story written about her life. Since some of the descriptions of her are more consistent with the published articles in the Journal rather than her actions, it seems likely that here, too, the narrative was shaped to garner public opinion and support.

As Grace expresses in the novel, out of necessity Evangelina maintained a facade of playing a caricature of herself for much of her public persona. Her life was largely co-opted by the New York press and shaped for their own purposes, including the moniker of “the Most Beautiful Girl in Cuba,” which I think she really took to be a subversive name that she used to suit her own purposes (especially considering her dislike of them referring to her as a “girl”), playing the role they thrust upon her in order to gain her freedom during a dangerous time in Cuba’s history. In the subsequent years, Evangelina faded from public view, so there aren’t many details available about her life after her brush with fame, other than the fact that she married one of her rescuers in a whirlwind romance—Carlos Carbonell—and that they eventually returned to Cuba after the war and had a daughter together. Carlos Carbonell reportedly sought privacy for himself and Evangelina after their marriage in May 1898, which may partly contribute to the lack of available information about her life after her initial bout of celebrity.

Carlos Carbonell died in 1916 and Evangelina later remarried and had children with her next husband. In her later years, Evangelina reportedly expressed surprise at all of the fuss that was made about her life at the time. Despite her close relationship with her family and obvious love for them, she spoke little about them in her autobiography, and so at times, I had to extrapolate what her feelings would have been. There’s little known about her life—and that of her family—after her period of infamy. Evangelina died in May 1970 in Cuba and was given full military honors.

The Casa de Recogidas was the main women’s correctional facility in Havana until the end of 1898. When Spanish rule ended and construction on a new prison was completed, the Presidio de Mujeres in Guanabacoa replaced it. Located on Compostela Street in Havana, the Casa de Recogidas is now the site of the National Archives of Cuba.

When I began researching The Most Beautiful Girl in Cuba, I knew little about the circulation battle between Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst, but I immediately