For the last several years the Guayabera, or more commonly referred to as the Cuban Guayabera Shirt, has become a fashion trend in the United States. The shirts unique style design of front pockets, pleats and embroidered patterns has been the preferred attire for businessmen throughout Latin America. With the embargos placed on Cuba, Mexico has been the top producer of the Guayabera for the last half century.
Mexico was once the “go to” country for cheap labor, but today Mexican manufacturers are fighting exporters from Asian countries, where wages are much lower. In recent years quite a number of Guayabera factories have closed. Merida, Mexico in the Yucatan Penninsula, the capital of the guayabera industry, has been hit hard by Asian competitors, who have copied and sold the shirts to U.S. markets at cut rate prices.
Clothing exports from Mexico to the United States have been declining for the past ten years.
The sales of the Mexican Wedding Shirt, another name for the Guayabera, have fallen about 20 percent. Lourdes Rodriguez, head of the clothing business chamber in Yucatan has said that “the arrival of guayaberas from Asian countries has lowered our production.” Raul maglioni, a guayabera manufacturer said “We don’t have access to popular markets like Wal-Mart or Kmart. They demand prices we can’t afford. If they ask for five or six dollars, we can’t do it.”
The difficulty that Mexican Guayabera manufacturers have been experiencing is only a small reflection of Mexico’s dire export problem. In the last few years China has overtaken Mexico as the top exporter to the United States. The increased demand for the Cuban Guayabera Shirt by world markets and the increase in designer specialty shirts has only worsened this mexican industry.
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Today the country of Cuba is divided into fourteen provinces, but just after the Spanish American War in 1905 there were only six. Almost in the island’s center was the province of Las Villas. Today that province has been divided into three. One of these three provinces is named Sancti Spiritus, named after the town by the same name. Sancti Spiritus is near the Yayabo River, where the legend of the Guayabera Shirt was born.
To this day, the origin of the Guayabera is a matter of debate, but Cuban legend has the shirt originating in this area. To set this legend to rest, the Cuban government established a cultural program called “La Guayabera” at the Ruben Martinez Villena Library in Sancti Spiritus. This program consists of a collection of Guayabera shirts and photograhs donated by many Cuban personalities.
Among these personalities were Fidel Castro and his brother Raul. Fidel donated the Guayabera shirt he wore at the 4th Ibero-American Summit in Cartegena, Columbia. For this occasion Fidel had replaced his traditional olive green uniform with a crisp white Guayabera shirt for the heads of state and the world to see.
It has been said that one of the most famous personalities to have worn the Guayabera was Ernest Hemmingway, though no pictures have been found. After World War II, Hemingway purchased a home, Finca Vigia, near Havana, Cuba. In 1952 he wrote a story of a tired old Cuban fisherman and his battle with a giant marlin called “The Old Man and the Sea” for which he won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1954.
Several US politicians have also worn Guayabera shirts, including two presidents. In the 1980’s, when Ronald Reagan visited Ferdinand Marcos in the Phillipines, he put one on. Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, also wore one when he visited Cuba in 2002. He was the first U.S. president to visit Cuba since the 1959 revolution. And presidential runner Mitt Romney had one on when he attended a ralley at a youth center named after Jorge Mas Canosa, the founder of the Cuban-American National Foundation.
On a negative note, the agents of the Cuban secret service known as the General Directorate for State Security (DGSE), wear Guayaberas as their civilian incognito uniform. And Raul Castro had a specially designed Guayabera made for the military.
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The Guayabera shirt is known by several names. There is the Mexican Guayabera or the Mexican wedding shirt, the beach wedding shirt and of course the Cuban Guayabera Shirt. Why you may ask, does this shirt have so many names? Several countries like Mexico, The Philippines and Cuba have manufactured Guayabera shirts and each one has taken credit for its origin. So where did this distinctive shirt really come from?
Most Latin Americans tend to say that the Guayabera comes from either Cuba or from the Caribbean. However Mexico claims that the Guayabera, known as “camisa Yucatan,” originally came from the Yucatán Peninsula. It has been disputed that the Mexicans copied the garment from visiting Cuban tourists.
In Cuba there are several stories related to the Guayabera shirt. There is the story of a poor seamstress who sewed large pockets into her husband’s shirts so that he could carry Guayaba’s (guava) from the field. There is also a story that the shirt was designed for a wealthy Cuban rancher back in the 1700s. And yet another story states that the word Guayabera comes from the word “Yayabero,” a term used to describe a person who lived near the Yayabo River in Cuba.
Since all the claims come from Latin speaking countries, some say that the Guayabera shirt actually came from Spain. Since I am Cuban, and to set the record straight, here is the version of what I think is the true history of the Guayabera shirt.
The shirt was designed by Spanish immigrants who came to Cuba over 200 years ago. There was a poet named Juan Cristobal Napoles Fajardo (1829 – 1862) known as “El Cucalambe” who was born in Tunas, Oriente Province, Cuba and was believed killed by the Spanish. He wrote a poem praising the Guayabera shirt. In this poem he describes the shirt and traces its origins to the Yayabo River mentioned above. After Cuba’s independence from Spain in the Spanish-American war, the Cuban government created “the day of the Guayabera” on July 1st. which happens to be Fajardo’s birthday.
After the Spanish-American War, Cuban tourists traveled to the Yucatán Peninsula wearing the Guayabera shirt which was then adopted by Mexican craftsmen and later became known as the Mexican wedding shirt. Merida, Mexico, a city in the Yucatán, is the prime exporter of the shirts today. When people started moving to Florida from Cuba in the late 1880s, they brought the shirts with them.
Regardless of its true origin, the guayabera’s timeless fashion style has remained a favorite among businessmen in Latin America. Today Guayabera has gained popularity with the Urban comfort-loving generation and many designers have added their own impressions to the Cuban Guayabera Shirt.
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