By: Santiago Romero
In the province of Santiago de Cuba most people do not know what Turquisa is. However, everybody knows the “Celia Sanchez” Textile Complex
Although the “Celia Sánchez” Textile Complex does not exist now, in its beginnings was projected with more than 8 thousand workers and possibly the largest textile company in Latin America. It implied the training of thousands of technicians and engineers, the purchase of equipment and machines, raw material and other indispensable goods.
Of those foundational moments of the “Celia Sanchez” Textile Complex,» Ada Mendoza from Santiago, a key figure in the internal organization, who had just got there, recalls, «I was very young. I remember the Commander in Chief on that July 27, 1983 when he spoke to all of us about the importance of the industry.»
The sad news came by the late 80s when the specialists of the former JUCEPLAN (the Central Planning Board) personally confirmed to me that the giant complex would remain in projects, because the blockade and the fall of the socialist block provoked: first, in making the prices of the looms more expensive, which then became incompatible, because protectionism raised the prices of raw materials, and then, to the change of its nature, totally, obsolete before the equipment that existed in the Santiago complex.
Quality is the Key Word in the Santiago de Cuba Barquillo Industrial Park
What to do then?
Based on the existence of an industrial infrastructure, the huge facilities and manufacturing plants, it was decided to move towards the assimilation of new business management that responded to the production of high demanded goods in the domestic and foreign markets.
Thus a complex of mini-industries was born aimed at the production of mattresses, towels, sheets, pillows, cloths, mops, bedding modules; home handicrafts, bags and curtains, among other types of productions, which today bear the seal of the local brand “Turquisa”, present in ExpoCaribe and other trade fairs, this time, the seal with better attractions and quality defended by more than four hundred workers from Santiago, inspired by the legacy of Celia Sanchez Manduley.
Interesting is that in the midst of so many internal transformations, it has never forgotten the image of Celia Sanchez.
Santiago de Cuba CTC into Cyberspace
On the premises of the former Celia Sanchez Textile Complex, today Turquisa Santiago, there is a statue of the eternal Cuban par excellence heroine, with her gaze rising in perspective towards the Sierra Maestra.
