When the dead came out, tales of apparitions were the order of the day, as they often appeared, either out of a simple desire to frighten, or to make revelations to those who wanted to hear them, or to ask for masses.
The most common manifestations were: a hen followed by her chicks; a black dog that did not bark; a newborn baby crying or a headless man. Another form, although not visible, was dragging chains or knocking on doors.
We have already said that some apparitions made revelations, including the indication of some place where there was money buried, which were not few according to the common people, since there were no banks, the savings went to a clay pot, or other appropriate container, which after being buried under the bed, or at the foot of an old tree, which was the most common thing to do.
Botija
If, on the one hand, there was no lack of faint-hearted people who wanted nothing to do with “dead people’s money”, others were looking for it with zeal. But they were also divided into two classes: those who had no doubt that, upon finding the burial, they would find good peluconas[1]Slang word used for referring to Money and doubloons; and those who, a little suspicious, because, being the dead, what they would find would be coals, which had to be sprinkled with holy water, so that they would be transformed into constant and resounding pieces of gold on the spot. The final result was the same.
A revelation of such a nature was made to a Canary Islander, named Don Carlos, foreman of a repair crew of the railroad, in the section of this city to Azotea de Mora, and neither slow nor lazy, he used the men of his crew to open a deep hole, next to an old mamey, immediately to the track, at the exit of the town; and firmly believing that he would find the said coals, he went pulverizing the earth that his laborers were taking out, ready to make use of the holy water; but it seems that the dead man lied to him, because the result was absolutely negative.
If the reader believes that this islander, who knew how to read and write, was crazy, he should know that such belief was very popular among the seekers of buried money, or “dead men’s money” as it was called, who were always looking for a route, or indication of the place where there was, or should be a burial; a hobby or hobby that has had to disappear because, as has been said before, the dead no longer come out, neither to put fear, nor -what is more regrettable-, to tell where the guaca[2]Another Slang word to refer a place where people used to keep Money safe is.
Author: Florentino Martínez
Edition: Ángel Cristóbal García
Illustrations: Fernando Caluff
The first teacher that Santa Clara had was a native of Jamaica, invalid, called Blas Martín who taught the first letters to the children free of charge as far back as 1689. The first school began to work in 1712 in the hermitage El Carmen and attended personally by the priest Juan de Conyedo who gave classes to the boys; while the girls were taught to read and write by Doña Agueda García, wife of the poet José Surí who was the first Cuban bard.
§I
Leoncio Vidal Park. City Center.
The economic life of Santa Clara had its main items in livestock with the sale of salted meats and hides to several places of the Island, in addition to the active trade of contraband that for many years developed, and the cultivation of wheat. Walking towards the end of the current Serafín García Street (formerly Nazareno), after passing a bridge over the Bélico River, we find the remains of an old well, known as Los Molinos, which supplied water to a wheat mill that was built there.
The growth of the town was slow but sustained, little by little other streets were drawn up that curiously were named with religious names, such as San José, Sancti Spíritus, San Agustín, La Gloria del Calvario, La Cruz, San Mateo, San Vicente, San Pablo, San Pedro, etc., and that with the passing of time were renamed with the names of patriots distinguished in the fight against Spanish colonialism; Enrique Villuendas, Juan Bruno Zayas, José B. Alemán, Leoncio Vidal, Carlos Roloff, Coronel Gálvez, Eduardo Machado Gómez or with names of fallen in the fight against the Machado’s tyranny as Rolando Pardo, Chiquitín Pedraza, or illustrious figures of the city such as Julio Jover, Manuel Dionisio Gonzáles, etc. It is worth noting that Santa Clara has more martyrs and patriots than streets to honor them.
§II
It was also at the initiative of Father Conyedo that the first church was rebuilt, which in 1738 was replaced by a new masonry temple built in the same place, and which was called Iglesia Mayor, so the square that was next to it received since then the name of Plaza Mayor and it is on one side of this church that was the first cemetery of Villa Clara, apart from the traditional custom of burying high civil, military or religious officials inside the church itself. Conyedo’s work was the so-called Ermita de la Candelaria, built where today is the Teatro La Caridad, and it was also the first hospital that the town had.
In his honor and that of another priest who did a lot for the education of children in Santa Clara, an obelisk of gray granite was erected in today’s Leoncio Vidal Caro Park, which was paid for by the distinguished patriot Doña Marta Abréu de Estévez, who carried out numerous works for the benefit of the city.
It is worth knowing the fact that those who were born in Santa Clara and were baptized in the font of the main church were given the nickname of pilongos, which replaced the poblanos, as they were initially called. Being pilongo is a guarantee of being a legitimate and pure villaclareño.
Another interesting fact related to the foundation of Santa Clara is that when the Remedians arrived at the banks of the Cubanicay River they found there a rustic wooden cross which years later and at the initiative of a neighbor was replaced by another one of marble that is still preserved and that is part of our most appreciated legends of Santa Clara; the legend of the Bridge of the Cross.
§III
That very modest and poor village founded on July 15, 1689 is today the sixth largest city in Cuba, with more than a quarter of a million inhabitants; it has large industries, higher education centers, paved streets, an aqueduct and sewage system, and is the capital of the current province of Villa Clara.
To the wars against the Spanish colonialism Santa Clara contributed a great number of its sons, most of them fell gloriously in the battlefield murdered after having been taken prisoners. During the tyrannies of Machado and Batista new names were added to the villaclareño martyrology, and we cannot forget that, precisely in it, the last battle in the war of National Liberation was fought and many of its current buildings show the traces of the bullets received as the Hotel Santa Clara Libre or the beautiful marble monument erected in the Parque del Carmen in memory of the founders; It was witness to the combat for the capture of the Police Headquarters where Captain Roberto Rodriguez, “El Vaquerito”, was mortally wounded, in whose honor a memorial stele of that action is erected in the same park.
There, next to the monument to the founders stands a glorious tamarind tree. It is not precisely the one under whose shade the founders heard mass; the more than 300 years that have passed since then have caused the first one to die, as well as those that have been planted since then. This is the fourth tamarind tree, but it is no less glorious for that reason, which is evident every July 15, the anniversary of the founding of the city. Always at the foot of the same one is celebrated the celebration that serves to remember, to own and strangers, that to the shade of a tree a small group of people met one day that united their efforts and arms to lay the foundations of what 300 years later would be a splendid, beautiful and welcoming city, the present Santa Clara, cradle of hard workers, of selfless patricians, of brave and courageous men of revolutionary action. [1]If we take into account the date and the historical circumstances of the country in which this text was published, the patriotic and haranguing tone of the last sentences will be better understood.
Luis A. García Gonzales
Dr. Luis A. García Gonzales. Born in Santa Clara on January 18, 1917. He graduated in Philosophy and Letters at the University of Havana. He has been a professor at the Universities of Oriente and Central de Las Villas. Also of the Pre-University "Osvaldo Herrera" of Santa Clara.
He has been awarded 5 times in the 1st of January History Contest.
He has published biographies of Orestes de la Torre Morgado and Juan Alberto Días Gonzales by Editora Política. He has published articles in Granma[2]Official newspaper of the Cuban Government with national scope, Bastión, Vanguardia and in the magazines Transporte, Mar y Pesca, Cubanacán and the Bulletin 8/16 of Cine Club Cubanacán[3]Magazines and newspapers with local and national scope. Five of his scripts have won awards at the Cine Club Cubanacán Festivals[4]Amateur Film Festival that takes place annually in the center of the island.
Editing: Angel Cristóbal García
Source:
Escambray Collection, Santa Clara, 1993. Printed in Cuba by PUBLICIGRAF
https://cubasi.cu/es/cubasi-noticias-cuba-mundo-ultima-hora/item/66457-santa-clara-una-ciudad-de-historia-cultura-y-juventud
If we take into account the date and the historical circumstances of the country in which this text was published, the patriotic and haranguing tone of the last sentences will be better understood.
On June 1, 1689, the authorities of the town council of Remedio, the mayor Miguel Rodriguez and the alderman Antonio Diaz de Acevedo, sent a letter to the highest Spanish authorities requesting the definitive moving to the herd of Antonio Diaz, which was accepted by the governor Viana de Hinojosa who, on the same month and year was issued an order authorizing the request.
§I
On the date chosen for departure, not for the purpose of relocation but to found a new urban center, the following families left Remedios [1]Note that previously there were 17 families, but here there are only 7 families with two separate persons. Inconsistencies such as these are not explained in the original source. It is very probable … Continue reading.
Manuel Rodríguez (Mayor of Remedios) and family ……….. 4 personas
El Capitán Gabriel de Moya and family …………………………… 10
Juan González de la Cruz and family ………………………………. 4
Gaspar Bermúdez and family ……………………………………….. 6
Ana María Rodríguez and family …………………………………… 5
Bernarda Torres and family ………………………………………….. 3
Juan Antonio Noble and family ……………………………………… 3
Regidor Esteban Díaz …………………………………………………. 1
Fray Salvador Guillén del Castillo ………………………………….. 1
This is how, after a difficult cross-country march and having to pass rivers of abundant flow due to the rainy season which – according to the latest research – a total of 37 people arrived at the Orejanos barracks of the Ciego de Santa Clara hacienda, including seven families and two single people, the alderman and the priest.
This reduced group joins at the foot of a leafy tamarind tree, which was located at the top of a small elevation of the land that later would be called Loma del Carmen, with the descendants of Antonio Díaz y de Pavia, that integrated the families of the Diaz de Pavia and the Rojas de Pavia (138 people) with the objective of carrying out the ritual accustomed by the Spanish conquerors of saying a mass of rogations requesting all kinds of fortunes from the Most High for the new town that was going to be founded, ritual that was officiated precisely by Fray Salvador Guillen del Castillo.
Memorial Mass at the Carmen Church under the tamarind tree in 1907.
We want to clarify that the remedian neighbor Juan González de la Cruz is the brother of the priest José González de la Cruz, who would not take long to pack his belongings and settle in the new town.
Once the religious duties had been fulfilled, the 175-persons group set off down the hill looking for a suitable place to build their new homes, and they found it a short distance from what would become the famous tamarind tree.
§II
Once the site was selected, the layout of an area destined to be a square was drawn up and, in accordance with Spanish traditions, a modest church with palm wood walls and a guano roof and the town hall were built in a corner of the square; it was on July 15, 1689, the date that has officially remained to commemorate the founding of Santa Clara.
Once the house where the town council would officiate was finished, the election of its mayor took place and Manuel Rodríguez was elected as the first one. The first family houses were also built of palm wood and guano roof and began to be built along the first street that was traced, which for some time was called Calle de los Crímenes and later, after the Church of Buen Viaje was built at the end of it, it was renamed Buen Viaje Street, although its real name today is Rolando Pardo in memory of a fighter in the struggle against the Machadist tyranny, the truth is that for everyone it continues to be called Buen Viaje Street.
§III
Now a special situation arose with reference to the name to be given to the newborn village, according to old chronicles, during its first years it was known as Ciego de Santa Clara, then Cayo-Nuevo, Villa Nueva de Santa Clara del Cayo, Pueblo Nuevo de Antonio Díaz, until August 16, 1695, at the proposal of the alderman, then ordinary mayor of the town holding the rank of Captain Juan Sardui, it was agreed to name it GLORIOSA SANTA CLARA, because July 15 was the date consecrated by the Catholic ritual to the virgin of Santa Clara de Asis, also approving that this virgin would be the patron saint of the town. Notwithstanding this formal agreement, for more than 200 years it was called VILLA CLARA and this is recorded in the Chapter Acts of the time. In 1864 when the Queen of Spain Isabel II granted it the category of city, she did it to Villa Clara, not to Santa Clara.
Reaffirming Natalia Raola’s thesis regarding the large number of people who already lived in the Ciego de Santa Clara hacienda, we have a message that a group of remedian women dated October 9, 1690 addressed to Bishop Diego Evelino de Compostela, where referring to the founding of the new town they say:
(…) it is only useful for those who wanted to move because their country estates are very close to the surrounding area, since without having moved or settled in a town, they used to stay in the countryside all year round without coming to this place (…).
Santa Clara was embraced by two streams, one called Arroyo de la Sabana (later the Matanzas poet Gabriel de la Concepción Valdés, “Plácido” would baptize it with the name Bélico, which it still bears) and the Arroyo Cubanicay, a name of indigenous origin.
Within the perimeter of the nascent town there was a lagoon called De los Patos from where a small stream ran along the current Cuba Street, following through Maestra Nicolasa until it flowed into the Bélico River and was called Marmolejo, which has stopped flowing because the spring that fed it has been exhausted. Famous in the early years were the baths that Bélico had and that in the absence of beaches were places where it was customary to take a dip, among them we can mention the Borroto, the Misioneros (used to bathe there Capuchin friars), the Jácaro, the Copey by the large number of this type of trees that were on its banks, the Poza del Fraile, the Padre Lamadrid (in memory of the presbyter D. Antonio Lamadrid who used to go there to bathe), the Tejar and the Cucusubia.
Luis A. García Gonzales
Dr. Luis A. García Gonzales. Born in Santa Clara on January 18, 1917. He graduated in Philosophy and Letters at the University of Havana. He has been a professor at the Universities of Oriente and Central de Las Villas. Also of the Pre-University "Osvaldo Herrera" of Santa Clara.
He has been awarded 5 times in the 1st of January History Contest.
He has published biographies of Orestes de la Torre Morgado and Juan Alberto Días Gonzales by Editora Política. He has published articles in Granma[2]Official newspaper of the Cuban Government with national scope, Bastión, Vanguardia and in the magazines Transporte, Mar y Pesca, Cubanacán and the Bulletin 8/16 of Cine Club Cubanacán[3]Magazines and newspapers with local and national scope. Five of his scripts have won awards at the Cine Club Cubanacán Festivals[4]Amateur Film Festival that takes place annually in the center of the island.
Editing: Angel Cristóbal García
Source:
Escambray Collection, Santa Clara, 1993. Printed in Cuba by PUBLICIGRAF
http://www.vanguardia.cu/villa-clara/14749-santa-clara-la-mia
Photo: Carlos Rodríguez Torres
Note that previously there were 17 families, but here there are only 7 families with two separate persons. Inconsistencies such as these are not explained in the original source. It is very probable that the descendants of which it is spoken later: Diaz de Pavia and Rojas de Pavia are the ones that completed the number of 17 families specified.
I have never understood why our city lost the tradition of celebrating its birthdays; I have searched the archives and asked the elders: -Nobody knows!
And one day when the bells of El Carmen rang out announcing the beginning of the celebrations for the 300th anniversary of the foundation; when I saw the neighbours flooding the streets and the portals full of stalls; and the children running before “the Kid with the Boot”: then I understood the magnitude of the tradicide[1]A play on words that combines the words Tradition and Homicide to refer to the fact of “putting traditions to death”. happily overcome. Men should never lose the memory of their peoples.
§ I
If you are visiting our three-hundred-year old town that we know today as Santa Clara, we highly recommend you to visit a park called El Carmen, since it is an integral part of our small local history.
There, in the Parque del Carmen you will find a church that in colonial times, at certain times, was a prison for local[2]The original text in Spanish uses the demonym villaclareñas to refer to local patriot women patriots as recalled by a bronze plaque that is in front of it. There is also a marble monument in the form of an ascending spiral that has 17 columns with the family names of those who according to an old tradition were the founders of the town and next to it you can contemplate a tamarind tree that is part of our history.
According to an old tradition that the historian Manuel D. Gonzáles published in his work last century, back in 1689, 17 families of the village of San Juan de los Remedios, located on the north coast of the current province of Villa Clara, terrified by the frequent assaults and outrages of corsairs and pirates that on more than one occasion had plundered the population, decided to move to a more protected place in the interior of the country, which they did on July 15, 1689, settling in the Orejanos quarter of the Ciego de Santa Clara hacienda. After hearing mass at the foot of a leafy tamarind tree on the top of a small hill, they began to erect the first buildings.
This is the essence of the famous and ancient tradition about the foundation of Santa Clara, which after extensive and deep research carried out by the historian Natalia Raola Ramos, recently deceased[3]At the time this work was printed, 1993., it has been distorted and has remained just that, an old tradition or legend among the many that the city has.
§II
In order to get to know the historical truth, it is necessary to start from an event that took place on July 29, 1646, that is, 43 years before the date of the foundation, when the Cabildo of Sancti Spíritus, which at that time had jurisdiction over large extensions of land in the central region of the Island, granted a ranch named CIEGO DE SANTA CLARA to a neighbour of Remedios named Antonio Díaz y de Pavia, married to Graciana Tamayo Reinoso, also from Remedios, who immediately went to live in the hacienda. There they procreated an extensive family whose main economic activity was an active trade of ransom (contraband) with the so-called buccaneers (individuals who prowled the coasts mocking the commercial monopoly that Spain had imposed on its colonies).
As the years went by, the family nucleus headed by Antonio Días came to be made up of 138 people whom Natalia Raola calls THE BIG FAMILY because she considers them all as one.
Remedios, which at that time had only 600 neighbours, faced serious problems, the core of the matter was the criteria that existed regarding the transfer of the population to another place or to leave it in its place of origin.
There were three criteria that were debated among the remedianos; a group was in agreement with what the priest José Gonzáles de la Cruz was requesting, who was pushing for the transfer to his hacienda called El Copey; others were supporters of the priest Cristóbal Bejerano Valdés, who was in favor of the transfer to his property, the hacienda called Santa Fé; A group of landowners from Remedios headed by Jacinto de Rojas, Bartolomé del Castillo and Juan Jiménez were opposed to any movement of the town because their economic interests were close to the urban center and it would be detrimental to them.
The extremes that were reached in this heated debate about the possible transfer of Remedios, are extensively and interestingly described by the researcher Dr. Fernando Ortiz in his work of great historical and folkloric value entitled: A Cuban fight against demons, which was even made into a movie a few years ago. According to Dr. Fernando Ortiz, the priest José Gonzáles de la Cruz preached in his sermons that the whole town was in the power of demons, even making a census of them that showed a total of 800,000 demons of all kinds who had the purpose of destroying Remedios and its inhabitants. Using these supposed diabolical threats, the priest incited the neighbours to move to his hacienda without further delay. It is clear that both Gonzáles de la Cruz and Bejerano wanted to obtain a personal benefit with the movement of Remedios to their respective properties, since the plots would be sold to those who would build their homes there, and at the same time they would have abundant labor force to exploit their farms.
In this debate, the economic interests of the so-called Big Family played a preponderant role due to their urgent need to have a fixed point for their licit and illicit commercial activities, and it was their opinion that became decisive.
Luis A. García Gonzales
Dr. Luis A. García Gonzales. Born in Santa Clara on January 18, 1917. He graduated in Philosophy and Letters at the University of Havana. He has been a professor at the Universities of Oriente and Central de Las Villas. Also of the Pre-University "Osvaldo Herrera" of Santa Clara.
He has been awarded 5 times in the 1st of January History Contest.
He has published biographies of Orestes de la Torre Morgado and Juan Alberto Días Gonzales by Editora Política. He has published articles in Granma[4]Official newspaper of the Cuban Government with national scope, Bastión, Vanguardia and in the magazines Transporte, Mar y Pesca, Cubanacán and the Bulletin 8/16 of Cine Club Cubanacán[5]Magazines and newspapers with local and national scope. Five of his scripts have won awards at the Cine Club Cubanacán Festivals[6]Amateur Film Festival that takes place annually in the center of the island.
Editing: Angel Cristóbal García
Source:
Escambray Collection, Santa Clara, 1993. Printed in Cuba by PUBLICIGRAF
http://www.vanguardia.cu/villa-clara/14749-santa-clara-la-mia
Photo: Carlos Rodríguez Torres
From a rock in the port, the Prophet contemplated the white sail of the ship that was to take him to his land. A mixture of sadness and joy flooded his soul. For nine years his wise and loving words had been poured out upon the people. His love bound him to those people. But duty called him to his homeland. He tempered his melancholy thinking that his enduring advice would fill the void of his absence.
Then a politician from Elmira approached him and said: Master, tell us about the Cubans.
The Prophet picked up his chalk white robe in a fist and said:
Cubans are among you, but they are not of you. Do not try to know them because their soul lives in the impenetrable world of dualism. Cubans drink joy and bitterness from the same cup. They make music out of their tears and laugh at their music. Cubans take jokes seriously and make of everything serious a joke. And they don’t know themselves.
Never underestimate the Cubans. Saint Peter’s right-hand man is Cuban, and the Devil’s best advisor is also Cuban. Cuba has given neither a saint nor a heretic. But Cubans sanctify among heretics and heretify among saints. Their spirit is universal and irreverent. Cubans believe simultaneously in the God of the Catholics, in Changó, in charades and in horoscopes. They treat the gods of “you” and make fun of religious rites. They say they believe in no one, and they believe in everything. And they neither renounce to their illusions nor learn from disappointments.
Don’t ever argue with them. Cubans are born with immanent wisdom. They don’t need to read, they know everything. They don’t need to travel, they have seen everything. Cubans are the chosen people … by themselves. And they walk among other peoples as the spirit walks on water.
Cubans are characterised individually by their sympathy and intelligence, and in groups by their shouting and passion. Each of them carries the spark of genius, and geniuses do not get along with each other. That’s why bringing Cubans together is easy, uniting them is impossible. A Cuban is capable of achieving everything in this world except the applause of another Cuban.
Don’t talk to them about logic. Logic implies reasoning and moderation, and Cubans are hyperbolic and excessive. If you are invited to a restaurant, you are invited to eat not at the best restaurant in town, but “at the best restaurant in the world”. When they argue, they don’t say “I don’t agree with you,” they say “you are completely and utterly wrong”.
They have an anthropophagic tendency. “He ate it”, is an expression of admiration, “eating a wire”, a sign of a critical situation and calling someone a “drool eater”, is their most usual and lacerating insult. They have a pyromaniac will, “to be the flame” is to be the summit. And they love the contradiction so much that they call beautiful women “monsters” and erudite people “barbarians”; and when asked for a favor they don’t say “yes” or “no”, but rather they say “yes, why not”.
Cubans intuit solutions even before they know the problems. Hence, for them “there is never a problem”. And they feel so big that everyone is called “chico”. But they don’t shrink from anyone. If you take them to a famous painter’s studio, they just say, “It never cross my mind to paint”. And they go to the doctors, not to ask them, but to tell them what they have.
They use diminutives with tenderness, but also with the will to reduce the other. They ask for “a little favor”, offer “a little cup of coffee”, visit “for a little while”, and of the desserts they only accept “a little piece”. But also to who buys a mansion they celebrate “the little house” that he acquired, or “the cart” that he has to who bought a luxury car.
When I visited their island I admired their instantaneous and collective wisdom. Any Cuban considered himself capable of liquidating communism or capitalism, straightening out Latin America, eradicating hunger in Africa and teaching the United States to be a world power. And they are amazed that other people do not understand how simple and obvious their formulas are. So, they live among you, and they don’t quite understand because you don’t speak like them.
The ship had arrived at the dock. Around the Prophet the crowd swirled in pain. The Prophet turned to her as if to speak, but the emotion drowned out his voice. There was a long minute of moving silence. Then there was the impassioned cry of the ship’s helmsman: “Make up your mind, my brother, stop chatting and get on now, for I am late with the schedule.
The Prophet turned to the crowd, made a gesture of resignation and slowly boarded the deck. The Cuban helmsman then set his bow to the horizon.
The Spanish philosopher is credited with a more extensive text very similar to this one shown here on the Argentine people. Reading a little more about both authors we can confirm that they were contemporaries, being Julían Marías the older of the two, both also obtained degrees at the current Complutense University of Madrid, so it would not be surprising that Luis Enrique Aguilar was influenced by the work of Julían Marías or vice versa. What is certain is that this text, adapted or not, is a humorous illustration of the character of the largest of the Antilles, very pleasant to read and often accurate.
