By: Santiago Romero, MSc.
The largest island of the Caribbean, Cuba, whose archipelago can be seen like a majestic Green Cayman, always bathed by the warm waters of the tropics, the hurricanes and the trade winds perfumed by the dances of the corals and the infinite blue of Yemaya.

Have you ever tried to see the heroic city from the south?

I imagine why Santiago de Cuba was always an attraction for European navigators and explorers almost five centuries ago. Christopher Columbus himself was in these parts on his second voyage and was amazed by what later became one of the first three villages in eastern Cuba.

Corsairs and pirates, explorers, missionaries, special envoys of the Spanish Court, filibusters, men of good and evil, doctors, priests, writers and chroniclers were here, but most of them continued their journey to the West, Central or South America.

There was some immigration of black slaves, Galicians, Chinese, islanders and aborigines from the south. In the end, Santiago de Cuba had in a short time a convergence of cultures, that although they impacted the tradition and the language; in the architecture a typical way of making and identifying the nascent streets, roads and alleys until the expansion of the metropolitan city also appeared, provoking constructive styles, with materials and perspectives of an extreme hot and humid environment and of very rough relief.

Already in his first voyage in 1492, Christopher Columbus found the port of Bariay (Holguin) and years later, in 1511, Diego Velazquez set out from Hispaniola to conquer and colonize – with sword and cross – the neighboring Fernandina (Cuba).

Columbus founded the first village, Asuncion de Baracoa, then San Salvador de Bayamo. He created three others in the center and west of the island territory and on his return, he erected Santiago as the seventh in 1515, which was designated capital of the island, due to its proximity to the viceroyalty of Hispaniola

The later colonization of the American continent and the beginnings of gold and silver mining brought depopulation to the eastern region, due to the transfer of metropolitan interests to the west of the island of Cuba, once the regime of fleets and galleons was organized. In spite of that, the Cuban East did not collapse, because the scarce population organized an austere life of herds and corrals dedicated to cattle raising and practiced the illicit commerce through the Cauto River and the bay of Manzanillo, at the bottom of the Gulf of Guacanayabo.

By Royal Decree in October 1607, the crown created the Eastern Department, dependent on the west, and designated Havana as its capital. Thus, Santiago de Cuba would be the capital of this Department, with a departmental governor and lieutenant governors in the other two.

Very early on, there was the so-called “Island Road” that linked the departmental capital with Bayamo and continued to Havana. There are still traces of this border crossing, in the grounds of the current Santa Ifigenia cemetery, on the way to an area that today is called Barca de Oro.

Thus, a serious problem remained to be solved, the defense of the urban areas, how the city would be, its layouts, the main port, the market square, where the Cathedral would be built, the seat of the Government and the key institutions to guarantee the control of the Villa coveted by the Spanish Court.

These and other questions, had difficult answers, Solomonic in some cases, terrible in others, but they shaped in time, the space of a Creole architecture, with strong incursions in European styles.

Santiago’s Firmest Ground

Let me stop here, to drink cold water, a good root beer (typical local drink) and after deep breaths of Caribbean air, continue walking down “my Santiago”, de Cuba, pal.

Meeting between Caribbean brothers

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

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 Natural Amphitheater of Eastern Cuba