Lady Luck gave UH lecturer Rodolfo Casparius the spark he needed to start what has become a decorated career. Hard work, courage and love for the hotel and tourism industry are the cards that made him a winner.
Sitting in his office at the Conrad N. Hilton College of Hotel and Restaurant Management, Casparius, the director of the Latin American Hotel and Hospitality Management Programs, can recall memories spanning from a time when he had to wash dishes to stay off the street to his years playing host to Fidel Castro and Che Guevara to working as a diplomat for the president of Mexico.
‘One thing that is important to know in the hotel industry is that opening a hotel is like having a child,’ Casparius said. ‘Before you open, nothing exists. Then comes the construction phase, and after a given time, it becomes a hotel. It comes alive and everything is supposed to work perfectly.’
Casparius said a hotel manager must be able to handle employees with problems and guests with preferences and make the business work smoothly.
‘The most expensive item in a hotel is an empty room, because a hotel is not like a retail store that at the end of the year you hold a big sale. You cannot hold an end-of-the-year sale of empty rooms,’ Casparius said.
There were times when Casparius faced far more serious issues than empty rooms. Time when the lives of hotel guests, personnel and his own were at stake. When Castro’s rebel forces overthrew Havana, Casparius and the Havana Hilton was entrenched in the coup.
On New Year’s EveHI 1958, Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista fled the country and left it without a government. Casparius was in Havana opening the Hilton hotel. Without any authorities policing the city, people began to loot and destroy Havana.
Casparius’ managerial responsibility shifted from proving hospitality to providing protection for a hotel full of guests.
Despite the violence in the streets, Casparius said the hotel avoided mob takeover through both dialogue and a show of strength.
‘When the rebels arrived, we welcomed them with open arms because at least there was a new authority that could take over. Havana was still under sporadic fire,’ Casparius said.
‘We had troops in the hotel. Those days, emotions ran high with Che Guevara, Camilo Cienfuegos and Fidel Castro in the hotel. At one point, I had 1,500 soldiers from the Escambray second front lodged in the banquet halls of the hotel.
‘Castro was a striking character. He was the victorious rebel clad with all types of weapons; young and crowned with the laurels of victory. The man engendered a sense of awe and aura around him that moved people. When he first confronted the press at the Sugar Bar in the hotel, with his cleverness, smarts and ability to talk, he literally placed the press in his pockets.
Casparius said Castro often talked with him about his plans for the country. One of these plans was the purchase of tractors for the cultivation of fields.
‘He convinced us to contribute to his campaign and all of us at the hotel agreed to raise funds to purchase the tractors,’ said Casparius.
But the relationship soured son after Casparius witnessed an event he deemed unacceptable.
‘The trial of a member of ‘Los Tigres de Manferrer’ was being televised, and we were watching it on color television – Cuba was the only country in Latin America with color television at the time. The man was found guilty and people were shouting, ‘Paredon! Paredon!’ similar to the French cry for the guillotine, and he was sentenced to death,’ Casparius said. ‘Immediately after, he was taken outside and executed on live television. The man was partially beheaded by a shot in the head and his cap went flying in the air. That made me realize that things weren’t the way they should be.’
In other situations, Casparius said he bore witness to Castro’s arrogance.
Casparius said he can remember Guevara and Castro walking towards the hotel elevator one day when a woman was crying near the door. He said Castro turned to her and said, ‘Oye, vieja que pasa?’ And she said her house had been burned to the ground and she was left with nothing.
‘Castro turned to Guevara and told him to give the woman a check for $500 – at the time the Cuban peso was at par with the U.S. dollar,’ Casparius said. ‘Guevara gave a check to the woman and the three of us entered the elevator. When the doors closed Guevara said to Castro, ‘Fidel, we have no money in the banks.’ Castro turned to him – and laughing his head off – replied, ‘I would like to see what bank would dare not honor a check from Fidel Castro.”
Casparius said Castro eventually expropriated the hotel.
‘One of my greatest disappointments is Castro, because he failed the people who believed in him,’ Casparius said.
After his time in Cuba, Casparius’ career proceeded on a continuum of success.
He opened 27 hotels and managed many others, among them the Presidente Hilton in Mexico City, The Camino Real and Las Hadas in Canc’uacute;n, Mexico.
‘Canc’uacute;n is very special for me. I traveled to Canc’uacute;n to buy the very first piece of land ever sold there for a hotel – the land for the Camino Real,’ Casparius said. ‘There were only 156 people living in the whole area, and now there are half a million who live off the tourism industry because there is nothing else there. I am very partial to Canc’uacute;n because I am one of the pioneers and maybe the only pioneer alive.’
Casparius was a key player in the development of tourism laws in Mexico and spearheaded key international missions for President L’oacute;pez Portillo.
He worked with the Mexican Congress developing tourism laws for 10 years, during which time he was appointed head of a delegation to China by Portillo to help the tourism industry. He was also appointed head of a delegation to Yugoslavia to study how a communist country had been able to rapidly develop a tourism industry.
‘Yugoslavia had gone from zero to 30 million tourists in five years. L’oacute;pez Portillo was interested in knowing how Yugoslavia had been able to accomplish this,’ Casparius said.
He said the highlight of his career was the success he had in managing the hotel chain Hoteles El Presidente.
‘During that time, it was a challenge because the company was losing money and we turned it around. I was fortunate not to have political intervention whatsoever from the president or anyone in the government, so I ran the company as a private company. And I am very proud of something that had never happened before: we were a government-owned company, also managing privately-owned hotels,’ Casparius said.
‘When L’oacute;pez Portillo left office ? and I left office, too, because I was his appointee ? he asserted that I returned prestige to government-owned companies.
‘After I left, the government sold the company at a very good price because it was making money. With the company’s money, we had paid all the debts and had surplus to build 13 new hotels. The company was solvent and had money in the bank when I left my position.’
This committed work ethic of over 50 years has earned Casparius worldwide respect and recognition throughout the service industry and an impressive list of medals and awards, among them the Golden Angel from CESSA University in Mexico. Most recently he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Confederation of National Tourism Associations of Mexico.
Throughout his career, Casparius met many world leaders, political personalities, writers and musicians and was often invited to state functions.
Casparius and his wife of 40 years, Lucila, broke bread with Japanese Emperor Hirohito at a state dinner in the Imperial Palace. They were guests at a state dinner offered by Her Majesty Shah Farah Pahlavi Shahbanou of Iran and shared a private dinner with Henry Kissinger on Kissinger’s honeymoon in Acapulco.
Casparius’ secretary, Teresa Torrez, has had the opportunity to know the
hotel head honcho, and said she has enjoyed his warmth and kindness.
‘I consider Mr. Casparius a good friend and not just someone with whom I work. I enjoy listening about his success in the industry, but most importantly, I learn about everyday life from a true friend,’ Torrez said.
But it is not for the accolades of his successful career in the service industry by which Casparius wishes to be remembered. It is as a writer.
‘I have written books, fiction, novels and stories, and I am still writing and writing and writing,’ said Casparius. ‘I would love to be remembered more as a writer than as a hotel manager. I think that’s much more exciting.’
Among his published short stories are La Jugada, Cuentos Cortos y Largos and En la Sombra de su Rostro.
It has been many years since a young man, born in Mexico to a German father and a Mexican mother, left his country in search of a dream and came to America. Casparius’ rendezvous with fate had a name: Conrad N. Hilton, the man who changed a life with a simple question.
‘When I returned to Mexico, I worked in whatever job I could find to save money, and in 1945 I traveled to New York where I found a job in a nightclub at the Statler Hotel.’ When Hilton bought the Statler Company, I suppose personnel went through the files of the people that were working at the hotel and saw that I spoke three languages,’ Casparius said.’ ‘And that’s were my career started.
‘One day, I was told that Mr. Hilton wanted to talk to me, but I thought the person was pulling my leg and did not pay attention. Days later, I received another call informing me that Mr. Hilton had been waiting for me. So, I went to the Waldorf Astoria where he was. I was in the waiting area with five other people, and when we were finally admitted into his office, he asked us, ‘Gentlemen would you be interested in management training for Hilton International?’ And, we all said ‘yes.’ He said, ‘Well, that’s all.’ That’s where my career started.’
Casparius is using his experience in the industry to combine his two true passions: writing and teaching. He is writing a textbook on opening new hotel properties that he hopes will assist students in accomplishing even more in the future.
‘Teaching has given me the opportunity to educate my students so that they build a better world than I did and to teach them to love the service industry. I do not want them to follow my footsteps, but to imprint theirs in life,’ he said.
‘Somehow when I teach, I feel that part of me, even minimal, will be part of their lives. So, when I am gone, I will be here. I help them to believe in themselves and in the endless possibilities of their mind.’
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