Sister City

Havanna and Mobile, AL became Sister Cities in October 1993.

Mobile and Havana go all the way back to the 1500s and 1600s when Spanish explorers Diego de Miruelo, Hernado de Soto, Tristan de Luna and Juan de Jordán tried to increase their country’s powers along the Gulf Coast. Mayor Michael C. Dow was the first U.S. mayor to sign a twinning agreement with a Cuban city, creating the sister city relationship between Havana and Mobile.

A local group has formed to represent Cuba as our sister city, Mobile La Habana. The mission is to work with citizens and officials in Havana Cuba to promote better understanding of each other’s cultures; to share in solving mutual problems, especially in the fields of health, education and the arts, and to promote good relations between all the people of Havana and Mobile. The goal is to strengthen and expand long-term, sustainable people-to-people partnerships and community exchanges. Mobile founder Pierre le Moyne d’Iberville is buried there. Before embargos, the two port cities traded cotton, timber, copper, sugar and tobacco. Many believe the fathers of Cuban baseball, brothers Nemesio and Ernesto Guillo and their friend Enrique Porto, developed a love for the sport while at Spring Hill College. Plus, they celebrate Carnival, which is basically a Latino Mardi Gras. Mobilians can stay connected to this sister city through the Society Mobile-La Habana.