José Villa Soberón

José Ramón Villa Soberón (born September 2, 1950, Santiago de Cuba, Cuba) is a Cuban artist, particularly known for his public sculptures around Havana.

In 1969 he was included in the collective exhibitions of painting and esculpture Exposición Escuela Nacional de Arte in the Centro de Arte Internacional, Havana, Cuba.

These include statues of Ernest Hemingway (2003, sitting on a barstool in the Floridita bar and restaurant),[1] Che Guevara (1982, Palacio Central de Pioneros Ernesto Che Guevara, Parque Lenin), and John Lennon (2000, John Lennon Park, Vedado, Havana).

[2] In 2001 his statue of José María López Lledín, a local vagabond dubbed the "Gentleman from Paris" (El Caballero de Paris), was placed outside Basilica Menor de San Francisco de Asis, and is stroked by visitors for good luck.

[3] His 1986 Monumento a Martí (José Villa y Rómulo Fernández) is in the Plaza de Quito, Paseo de la Habana [es], Madrid, Spain.