Yesterday we went up the mountain ridge of El Escambray.
Today, in contrast, I skirted the south side of the mountains at neck-breaking
speed in a 1954 Plymouth (beefed up with a Toyota diesel motor) to arrive to
the charming town of Trinidad. This town reminded me of Antigua in Guatemala or
San Miguel in Mexico. Beautiful country houses in a fair state of conservation,
cobble-stone streets, handcraft shops in every other door, and countless places
to spend the hours drinking mojitos.
I am conveniently staying at a house right behind the main
plaza, so after getting settled I went for a walk across the central park, and
much to my delight found an archaeology museum. Rather sad looking displays,
but I learned that the first inhabitants of Cuba arrived ca. 8,000 BC from
Florida. The next wave was ca. 2,500 BC from Central America, followed by
groups from the Gulf Coast (Texas, Mississippi, and Louisiana) ca. 500 BC. A
final group arrived from Venezuela ca. 500 AD, and that was it until the
arrival of the Spaniards in 1492.
After all that culture I was thirsty and was glad to stumble
with the Casa de la Cerveza. Beer here is a bit weak, but they know how to keep
it cold.
An interesting museum was the Museo del Bandidaje, mostly
because it added some order to what I have understood of the modern history of
Cuba. It all started with the Spanish-American war in the late 1890’s, with the
Americans giving the Spanish colonies of the Caribbean “a hand” in securing
their independence. In exchange, the United Fruit Company was given exclusivity
and all kinds of incentives to open extensive banana and sugar cane plantations
in the Caribbean. The history of the United Fruit Company is a dark one, and in
Cuba resulted in all sorts of abuse of the workers and their families in the
first half of the XX century. To add insult to injury, organized crime used
Cuba as a place of business, and a place for wealthy Americans to go and buck
the restrictions of the Prohibition era. In short, Cuba became the brothel of
America.
Under these conditions, the socialist message of the recent
Soviet revolution started to eco through the land, and there were many who
denounced the corrupt Cuban government and called for unions and better
conditions for the plantation workers. The US saw this as a threat to the
United Fruit Company, and trying to stomp out the unrest supported the coup
d’etat of General Fulgencio Batista in 1950, during Truman’s second-term in
office. Batista was going to be the hard hand that would brutally quash the
unrest. A young lawyer, Fidel Castro, took it upon himself to organize an
opposition, and in 1954 attempted an armed takeover of one of the military
garrisons. He failed and was tried for treason to the regime. He conducted his
own defense, and in a final peroration to the judge, in what was to become the
famous “History shall absolve me” speech, he denounced all the social evils
perpetrated by the regime. Fidel was condemned to jail, but thanks to the
influence of his family and friends was paroled two years later and expulsed
from the country.
Fidel then went to Mexico, where he met Ernesto “Ché”
Guevara and other Cuban dissidents, to plan his next move. In August 1956,
Fidel and José Antonio Echeverría, issue the Carta de México calling to arms
against the Cuban dictatorship of Batista. Echeverría himself led a failed
attack to the Presidential Palace in March 1957 and was killed. Fidel, on his side,
organized a group of perhaps 40 armed revolutionaries, and in late 1957
embarked in the yacht Granma, and all but shipwrecked in the coast near
Santiago. Only a handful of revolutionaries made it on land. Taking stock of
his forces Fidel is claimed to have said “Eight men and seven rifles? We can
win this war.” Fidel lost himself in the Sierra Maestra, near Santiago de Cuba,
while Faure Chomón led another revolutionary group into the El Escambray
mountains. Together they started the fight in February 1958, gaining strength
as peasants and other revolutionaries joined them, and in surprising 10 months
they defeated the forces of Batista, and in January 1, 1959, entered La Habana
in victory.
The next three years Fidel and his associates spent setting
the government, and also fighting Los
Bandidos, which was the name given to the guerrilleros who didn’t lay down
their weapons as the revolution triumphed. The Bandidos holed themselves in the mountainous areas of Cuba, but
very particularly in El Escambray, from where they spoiled nearby towns like
Trinidad. The revolutionary government promptly organized brigades to hunt and
catch these rebels. In December 1960, shortly after his inauguration, JFK
attempted to use these Bandidos to
destabilize the revolutionary government, and attempted to disembark weapons to
support them in the nearby Bay of Pigs. He hadn’t count on the revolutionary
brigades, however, who quashed the invasion and thus harvested a very fine
collection of weaponry. That was the end of the Bandidos era.
Eventually I got tired of walking through the town, and went
back to my room to read. It was a bit early to go to bed, however, so around
6:30 pm I got out and soaked in the color and music of an afternoon in the
town, with people pulling chairs into the sidewalk to enjoy the breeze and talk
loudly with their neighbors. Night fell and I headed for the central park,
attracted by the sound of music. Looking toward the cathedral I realized that
the music came from the very wide stairs that flank the cathedral. This area is
the House of Music, and is an outdoors recreating area where, for 2 CUP (or 1
CUC), you can sit, order a beer, and listen to a salsa band. Dancing is
encouraged but not required. What a lovely way to finish the day!
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