1949-1960s Manuscript Guestbook from an Art Exhibition Organized by the Asociación de Repórters de La Habana (Círculo Nacional de Periodistas) for Cuban Artist “Marko,” Pioneer of Three-Dimensional Tobacco Art

On offer is a manuscript guestbook documenting a unique intersection of pre-Revolutionary Cuban journalism and vernacular art. The volume was used for visitors’ signatures and remarks during an exhibition devoted to the work of Cuban artist Marco A. Llaneras de Sierra (“Marko”), organized by the Asociación de Repórters de La Habana (Círculo Nacional de Periodistas).

The exhibition opened on October 3, 1949 and presented “personal caricatures, landscapes, portraits, and decorative paintings made with cigarettes, tobacco, matches, cut tobacco, and paper, in their natural color or polychrome and three-dimensional—this being the first time this type of work has been done.” Marko was celebrated as “creator of a new artistic genre” that fused Cuba’s tobacco culture with modern visual art.

This manuscript is special as it contains a collection of writings by Cuban news reporters, those involved with the Association of Reporters, leaders in the burgeoning field of Cuban journalistic education, and contemporary Cuban artists.

The first pages record about 63 visitor signatures, followed by additional sign-in lists and roughly 72 handwritten comments, to and about Marko, dated between October 3–11, 1949. There ae also some later entries that are related to Marko but not to the 1949 exhibition, with one entry from 1950 and several longer texts written in 1967–68.

A list of some of the signatories and well-wishers who identify themselves as members of the Cuban press community follows

• Odilio Melo Fernandez, Vice-President, Asociación de Corresponsales de la Prov. de Habana
• Mario Misquial Arrieta, Sec. Coms. Asistencia Social, Asociación de Reporters de la Habana
• Eligio Pazos San Martín (“Chinelo”), member of A.M.P. Mexico and the Press Club USA
• Menard Fenes (?), Presidente de la Comisión de Asistencia Social, Asociación de Reporters de la Habana
• Alfonso Server Rolón (?), delegate of the Colegio de Periodistas de Camagüey
• Lauron Hymerich (?), journalist, República; member, Asociación de Reporters (Círculo Nacional de Periodistas
•  David Aizcorbe, Cuban journalist later director of the Manuel Márquez Sterling School of Journalism

 Artists and educators also appear among the signers, including:

• René H. Benavides, sculptor and painter, graduate of the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes “San Alejandro”
•  Otto Zimmermann, Professor of Drawing and Painting

One English-language note stands among the Spanish entries:

“Marko, You are a fine artist. Cuba can be very proud of you as America will be when they can see your work.” - Capt. R. E. Brooks, U.S. Marine Service, Miami, Fla.

Translated excerpts from some Spanish guestbook entries convey the tone of admiration that surrounded the exhibition, the artist, and hint at a vision for Cuba held by these journalists and artists:

“A very Cuban artistic modality is presented by our valuable fighter "Marko!" Cuba, so lacking in vernacular expression in painting, has found, in this modality…not only a magnificent form of sympathetic and attractive…procedure to offer very interesting notes, possible for acquisition, to the tourist who visits us. The artistic system of "Marko, - colored tobaccos, cigars and cut tobacco - should be taught in our educational centers…to be carried out by our people” - David Aizcorbe, Havana, October 5, 1949.

“Cigarettes, matches, and tobacco. Once you've smoked them, you throw them away. Marko has turned these things into something useful… He’s given us works of art, a product of his originality.” - A. Villatta

“…The exhibition…constitutes not only for its creator but also for all art lovers a satisfaction that prides itself on demonstrating the quality of cultured and civilized beings. To create a new modality in the life of a society is to satisfy a desire in the restless desire of men”. - Mario Misquial Arrieta, Sec. Coms Asistencia Social Ass. de reporter de la Habana

“The smoke doesn't matter if it's lost in space, if the artist masterfully retains the cigars and tobaccos to create beautiful works of art.” - E. Peias, July 1950

“After contemplating the paintings of my good friend Marko, it is a true pleasure to express my admiration… He demonstrates true talent in all fields.” - Otto Zimmermann, Havana, May 1967

 
The later entries from the 1960s include a lengthy letter from Margarita Perrez, written in 1968, which reads as a biographical tribute. She describes Marko as a baritone singer, painter, sculptor, poet, and author active in theatre and film, then working in education while continuing his art.

This manuscript guestbook captures a singular moment when Havana’s press corps celebrated an artist who turned the island’s most iconic product—tobacco—into a new visual medium. With its blend of journalistic, artistic, and educational voices, it offers rare documentary evidence of pre-Revolutionary Cuban cultural life and of the early recognition of a genuinely vernacular artistic innovation.

CONTEXT & BIO NOTES

The Asociación de Repórters de La Habana, founded in the early 1900s by journalists led by José Camilo Pérez of La Discusión, sought to promote unity and welfare among Cuban reporters. In 1941 it became the Círculo Nacional de Periodistas, which organized the First National Congress of Journalists that same year, attended by more than forty press associations. The congress codified ethical and professional standards and paved the way for the Colegio Nacional de Periodistas and Cuba’s first journalism schools.

By 1959, these professional organizations were dissolved or absorbed in the revolutionary restructuring of the press, leading to the creation in 1963 of UPEC (Unión de Periodistas de Cuba), the national journalists’ union that still exists today. The guestbook thus preserves firsthand testimony from the final decade of Cuba’s First Republic, when journalism and the arts still flourished within an independent civic framework.

Research suggests that “Marko” was Marco Antonio Llaneras de Sierra (b. 1909), son of Marco Antonio Llaneras (1883– ?) and Hermenia Llaneras. He worked as a draftsman, baritone singer, and inventor, residing part-time in Florida. U.S. patent no. 2558828, granted 1951, lists Marco A. Llaneras de Sierra as inventor of a cylindrical drawing pen. Archival traces also indicate authorship of a religious pamphlet. The signature of Hermenia Llaneras appears among the exhibition attendees, further supporting the identification.

Hard-backed lined journal, approximately 9 × 7 in., 54 pages of ink inscriptions in Spanish and English. The cover is chipped and the spine is detached but pages secure. Several blank leaves removed from the rear, likely unused. A printed exhibition pamphlet, listing the titles of Marko’s works, is tipped in at the front. Overall Fair condition.