The Santiago de Cuba «Hermanos La Salle» School Turns 116

Santiago de Cuba, ciudad de 505 años. Visión artística del centro histórico en conservación y restauración..
Raúl sentado, Fidel a la derecha, Ramón Castro a la izquierda y Cristobal Boris al centro en el colegio La Salle de Santiago de Cuba (1936).
Raúl, Fidel, Ramón Castro and Cristobal Boris (1936). Hermanos La Salle school.

By: Santiago Romero, MSc.
«Hermanos La Salle».- It was a milestone in Santiago de Cuba the opening on September 1, 1908 of the new school under the patronage of Nuestra Señora de la Caridad.» Students studied from Primary Education to High School. In 1932 the Hermanos La Salle school had a better building.

In 1908 the school was given in usufruct to the De La Salle Brothers, who remained there until the nationalization of education in 1961, after the revolutionary triumph. The lack of capacity to house the college and the archbishopric in the same building led to the sale of the archbishop’s facility to the De La Salle Congregation in 1927.

The San Basilio Magno Seminary moved to a building attached to the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre, and continued its work of training the new generations of priests of the Christian Church.

From the La Salle Brothers school many of those who later became personalities in culture, politics, science, sports, the arts and even in teaching graduated.

The San BasilioMagno Conciliar Seminary was an educational antecedent in Santiago de Cuba. It was founded by the dean of the cathedral chapter Pedro Agustin Morell de Santa Cruz, a pioneer institution among the centers of higher studies in eastern Cuba, established as early as April 14, 1722. Here students could undertake theology, Spanish, ethics, love for his homeland and other basic foundations for university majors in Havana.

The teaching-educational legacy of the French pedagogue Juan Bautista de La Salle had many influences on Cuban education, starting with the precedent that was very polemic about the colonial intentions that in «every native village there should be a Sacristan to teach them to read and write and to speak Spanish». Arts, grammar, ethics, civic discipline, formal education and Latin were, among others, teaching novelties for the time.

It was confirmed by the city archives and in Fidel and Religion’s interview with FreiBetto, that it was in 1908 when the premises passed to the De La Salle Christian Brothers to found the ColegioNuestraSeñora de la Caridad, «in whose classrooms the future revolutionaries Otto Parellada, José Ramon Fernandez, José Tey, Antonio Enrique Luzón, Luis Morales and the brothers Fidel, Raúl and Ramón Castro studied. «

In 1932 there was a refurbishing of both properties, both the San BasilioMagno Seminary and the De La Salle Brothers school. They were united to give rise to the second as a prominent institution facing the streets San Basilio and Corona, Heredia and Santo Tomas, where today is the Office of the City Curator of Santiago de Cuba and its Cultural Center «Francisco PratPuig».

After the earthquake of February 1932, which devastated the weak city of Santiago and its historical-colonial epicenter and «…given the poor condition of the facility, it was decided to build a new one, designed by engineer Rafael Geno».

A new three-story building with «a timid Art Deco style concentrated in the figurative elements of the facades, composed of vertical zigzag bands, which give the building a certain monumentality and slenderness.

The La Salle Brothers School in Santiago de Cuba functioned until May 1961 with the motto: «God, Homeland, Home». From «Basic Secondary School, Pre-University Institute, Language School, Workers’ Faculty and Polytechnic of Crafts, it is currently the headquarters of the Office of the City Curator of Santiago de Cuba, an institution that plays a transcendental role in the conservation and rehabilitation of the built heritage.» 

On July 21, 2003, the building was officially declared a «National Monument.

Postscript: Congregation of the De La Salle Brothers

«It was founded in 1680 in Reims (France) and is spread in more than 80 countries of the world, in all continents, of all languages, races, ethnicities, cultures and religions. It has 5,000 brothers who annually educate about 1 million students around the world and at all levels of education,» according to Ecured, the Cuban digital encyclopedia.

Historiadores en el Centro Cultural Francisco Prat Puig.
It was a milestone in Santiago de Cuba the opening on September 1, 1908 of the new school under the patronage of Nuestra Señora de la Caridad.» Students studied from Primary Education to High School. In 1932 the Hermanos La Salle school had a better building.

Among the students and teachers were:

José Ramón Fernández
 Fidel Castro Ruz
 Raul Castro Ruz
Ramon Castro Ruz
Otto Parellada
Luis A. Morales Mustelier
José Tey    
Pedro Maurice Estiu

The Santiago de Cuba «Hermanos La Salle» School Turns 116

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