Indochina

Logotype in the portal on San Rafael Street (Oct-10^th, 2011)

Versión en Español

Today’s post will make us return to one of those corners of Havana that’s always been noisy and crowded and even in these times hasn’t lost its mood. If you were born in Havana then by seeing the photo you already know which place it is, since it was very famous and last year was linked to the activities related to the 500^th anniversary of the Cuban capital. Today I invite you to discover the history of Indochina starting from its logotype.

From all the designs, inscriptions and logotypes that were present in San Rafael’s boulevard —many of them already gone— this one always kept my attention, even when my mother and grandmother used to walk through the commercial street, looking for what we use to call “women’s stuff”, carrying with them the child whose interests were completely opposed from theirs. The noticeable Asian style of the letters on both sides of the access portal, inserted in that red terrazzo floor, unique in its type all over the boulevard, made me awe since then and surely they will live in Havana’s collective memory for much longer.

The logo was made letter by letter using cooper metallic bands that later were filled with the cream colored material, taking extremely care with the typography. And that’s the most noticeable in this terrazzo job: its care and quality, yet more since it wasn’t the only design inserted in the portal; a third one was printed at the beginning of the little stair located at the access door on Águila Street. This logotype is also present in its billboard and can be enjoyed again after the restoration of some of these boards made by Havana Neon Lights + Signs project, under Kadir López’s leadership in the former Rex-Duplex cinema located in the same boulevard.

Portal of the store showing the name on floors, walls and windows (Oct-10^th, 2019)

Indochina is localted in the Spaish Plateresque style building on San Rafael #252 corner to Águila. This intersection was shared in the past by the famous Cuervo y Sobrinos’ Jewlery and the equally famous Fin de Siglo Store. Besides, only a few meters away there was El Encanto building, so the store was in a spot with some serious competitors, which had lots of years of experience when its owners decided to settle on that corner. But the history of Indochina didn’t begin there; it came overseas, getting to Havana via Camagüey.

Just as it happened with the Sin Rival Cutlery’s history, once again I’ve had the chance to access to part of the history of this commercial firm, thanks to a descendant of its original owners. At the end of last year I saw some photos of Indochina’s opening day that Mr Rogelio Madan had posted on his Facebook page due to they were part of his family’s legacy. I didn’t waist a minute, I got in touch with him and thanks to his generosity, today we can enjoy almost at first hand, the details that turned the place into one of the reference stores in Havana’s commercial life.

The owners of Indochina (seated in center) on the opening day.

On top some advertisements of the store.

Photos courtesy of Rogelio Madan.

Indochina’s original owners were Rogelio’s great-grandparents: Mr. Max Nissim Lichy and his wife Rebeca Negrín Lichy. Both were Jewish immigrants; he was from France and she was from England. According to the family’s history, told by his grandparents, both run away form their families and got married. During their honeymoon they planned to travel to Latin-America, but the lady got sick and, after spending the little money they possessed, they had to stay in Cuba at some point during the year 1919 and start a new life. It seems they finally settle in Camagüey where they began a dressmaking business. He got out every day to take measures while she sewed the dresses. Later they opened a clothes’ store named La Marsellesa at #57 (old) Avellaneda Street. This was the first incursion of the family in this type of business in our country.

As the store was getting popular and larger they wanted to expand it, so they decide to move to Havana in the 1940s, where they opened a new store at #54 San Rafael Street, focused on silk goods and ironmongery, owned by Max N. Lichy y Co under the name The Indian Store, maybe as a prelude to what later would become Indochina. This first store, which name already showed its link with the Asian continent, had associates in that part of the world, buying merchandises to be sent to Cuba.

Photos of Indochina’s opening day (thanks to Rogelio Madan)

Indochina’s opening occurred on September 16th, 1949, under the ownership of Max N. Lichy e Hijos, with the presence of part of the family. In the beginning the store occupied only the first level of the building that, according to what Rogelio was told, was one of the locations of the Singer Company —seller of sewing machines— though after some years, the store occupied two more levels in it. The store takes its name from the South-Asian peninsula that lodges several countries such as Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore, where most of the goods came from; so the typography chosen for its logotype, which also was used in all the store’s papers and advertisements, was more than justified.

As you can imagine the supplies from Asia where the most predominant ones, but you could also find in its various departments craftsmanship objects made out of Murano glass, Quartz and Jade, European perfumes and watches, fine handmade tablecloths, jewelry, China dinner sets, artistic manufactures in porcelain and ivory, among other curious. In Indochina you could buy some of the most well known brands, such as the famous Patek Philippe, Vacheron et Constantin and Jaeger le Coultre watches, and the firm was an almost exclusive distributor of the Nina Ricci’s perfumes, among them the popular  “L’ Air du Temps”.

Papers showing the evolution of the family business (thanks to Rogelio Madan)

It seems that, if we take as reference the photo of the letter envelope, Indochina coexisted for some time with its precedent, The Indian Store, but in the end remained as the main family store. You can also notice that they had a building in Hong Kong where the store suppliers’ headquarters were set under the name Kewalran Jhmatmal y Lichy. In 1958 Indochina inserts itself in another popular zone of Havana when a branch of the main store in the corner of 23^rd Street and N Street, in the Vedado area, opened in the street level floor of the recently constructed Medical Association Building.

The family enterprise was one of the many nationalized in 1962, and in that same year Max and Rebeca left Cuba traveling to Miami where their children lived since 1957. Once there, they rebuilt the company and opened a new store, but they didn’t enjoyed it much, since they both died no long after. The store was inherited by their children, including Rogelio’s grandma. The place doesn’t exist in Miami anymore for it was closed at the end of the 1970s, but there are some images of it as part of the family legacy, and if you look closer, you can see the same letter design and the “International” surname that showed the branch of the store in the Vedado area in 1958.

Calendar and postcard of the store in Miami (thanks to Rogelio Madan)

The person that’s writing this text knew both stores in Havana, though not in their best times. The small one in Vedado, after being a trinket’s store, was transformed into a Photoservice, until somebody decided take the place to set the reception of the Cuban Health Ministry (MINSAP) that has its offices in the building. On the other hand, the store in San Rafael Street was part in the 1980s of a series of stores known as the “Parallel Market” only to languish in the crisis of the 1990s and be transformed into an Industrial and Art Market during the first decade of the 21^st Century.

But its luck changed when the renovations came to San Rafael’s boulevard in order to celebrate Havana’s half millennia, and the government decided to rescue part of the store to turn it into the “Habana 500” Store where you can buy products designed to remember the date and, surely, the celebrations that will continue to come. The curious thing is that all the iconography with the original name —billboard included— has been preserved and combined with the design for the 500^th anniversary of Havana.

Indochina’s building in Havana (March 31^st, 2020)

In my opinion, the name Indochina is so inserted in the Cuban mind, specially for those born in Havana, that even if somebody wants to remove it from history, it will remain with us, as unscathed as its logotype in the portal of San Rafael Street.