For nearly five centuries the Plaza de Armas has been one of the main social hubs of Havana. The oldest public square in the city (check out http://www.cubatravel.cu/en/destinations/havana-cuba). This was once the site for military parades when Spain controlled this Caribbean island. But the Spanish might faltered when it faced the bold scheme of one American newspaperman. Hell-bent on making a name for himself, so what was his audacious plan. How would it build an American publishing Empire. 1896, Havana the Cubans are in a heated battle for their independence from the rule of Spain. The prisons are filled with rebels. One unlikely imprisoned Cuban revolutionary is 19 year-old Evangelina Cosio y Cisneros. She's young petite girl; long hair and charismatic. She comes from what seems an upper caliber family whose father was a rebel. She's a political prisoner. But one man thinks he has the power to save her; New York publisher William Randolph Hearst. Hearst has a plan to use Evangelina story to get a leg up on his arch rival Joseph Pulitzer. There's a lot of machismo rivalry between Hearst and Pulitzer. He thinks that his readers are really good to identify with her and lock this up and it's gonna sell papers. Hurst believes if he can bust her out of jail, he could make her a heroine to his readers. It's this crazy out of control plan that Hearst going to break Evangelina at a prison like a real-life Prison Break!
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| Plaza de Armas, a place to visit at a holiday to Cuba, one of the main social hubs of Havana |
The plucky publisher has just the man to execute his secret scheme. His best reporter Carl Decker, so Carl's not your ordinary journalist. He's this swashbuckling guy who lives for adventure and danger and just loves a challenge. Hearst neighs he's the perfect guy for this mission. Under the cover of darkness Decker will secret her out of prison and straight to a hiding place. Angeline is supposed to stay in a safe house until a passenger ship bound for New York arrives at night. So she can secretly get on he begins by smuggling a box of candies laced with narcotics into Evangelina cell. The night of the breakout Evangeline is gonna give them to her cellmate. So that they're knocked down a few nights later. Evangelina feeds the candy to her cell mates while Decker and his cohorts work at springing her free. So in the middle of the night, Decker and his guys find a building that's nearby the prison. They go up to the roof they shimmy across to the roof of the prison. They fall they're gonna die or severely hurt themselves. Evading the guards Decker makes his way to Evangelina cell, and gets to work using a file. They first try to solve the metal bars. Amazingly despite all the noise of sawing and pulling, the Spanish don't hear it Decker bundles of Evangelina out of the jail and straight to a safe house where they wait for the ship to escape the island. But there's a problem the ship is delayed, and the police are scouring the streets for Evangelina.
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| Evangelina Cosio y Cisneros |
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| William Randolph Hearst |
The plan to leave Cuba under cover of darkness is now out of the question. She is like the most wanted woman in all of Cuba. Police chasing the city. He has to find a clandestine way for Evangelina to board a New York bound vessel in broad daylight. So how will he do it things are clearly not Comcast power plan. If they're caught, she could be killed. So they decide that they're going to disguise Evangelina as a boy. Because she's so small with a fake ID in hand and a cigarette dangling from her mouth they leave the safe house. People are looking for her and she's still not safe. She's timid, she's scared, she doesn't know what her future holds. Decker leads the disguised Evangelina towards the docks evading the authorities. Then walking in plain sight she gets onto the passenger ship finally free Evangelina pets for New York cursed wastes. No time he splashes across the headlines. Evangelina is safe and that his journalists had a hand in doing it it's called "jailbreak journalism"!
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| The final product of jailbreak journalism! Evangelina Cosio y Cisneros at news paper - NewYork Journal |
Two days later on October 14th Evangelina arrives in New York City to great fanfare curse journalism really pays off all. The sensational headlines are selling millions and millions of papers. The esteemed newspaper magnate also succeeds in the circulation battle. Besting his archrival.
Here is the short biography of William Randolph Hearst :
Today the beautiful Spanish colonial architecture of Plaza de Armas stands as a reminder of a once formidable power, one tenacious tycoons will to conquer the American publishing world in the heart of downtown Havana.
Don't miss the other parts of my blog series:
Mysterious Cuba Holiday (Part 1): Fidel & His Poisonous Love Morita
Mysterious Cuba Holiday (Part 2): Death of Ernest Hemingway; Was He a KGB spy?








