支倉常長（1571-1622）は、江戸時代初期に仙台藩伊達家に仕えた仙石市出身の戦国武将です。洗礼名はドン・フィリッポ・フランシスコ・ファセクラ。

Tsunenaga Hasekura (1571 – 1622) was a Japanese warlord from Sensei city, who belonged to the Date clan of the Sendai domain, in the early Edo period. His Christian baptismal name was Don Filippo Francisco Fasekura.

ヨーロッパとの交易を求めていた大名・伊達政宗の使者としてキューバに派遣され、日本人として初めてキューバの地を踏んだのが支倉です。礼儀正しく誠実な人柄から「誠の人」「完璧な日本大使」として広く知られ、当時のキューバの人々から絶大な信頼を得ていました。その功績を称え、今日、ハバナにはキューバと日本の人々の友好のシンボルとして、長谷倉の銅像が建てられています。

Hasekura was sent to Cuba as an envoy by the feudal lord Date Masamune, who was seeking trade with Europe and was the first Japanese to set foot on Cuban soil. His polite and sincere character made him widely known as a “man of sincerity” and a “perfect Japanese ambassador” who gained the trust of the people of Cuba at the time. To acknowledge his contribution, today there is a statue of Hasekura in Havana as a symbol of the friendship between the people of Cuba and Japan.