Valley of the Sugar Mills: Scars sugar
Today it is oil that drives the economy of many countries, But it was not always like this. And Cuba They make an effort to find a vein that enhances the long economic decline of the island through different formulas that, little by little, they are opening up to the whole of society, although with some other difficulties. Sometimes, the country lives oblivious to its not so distant and glorious past, when sugar dusted a whole nation proud of its industry.
Gone are the years of the heyday of sugar since, in the middle of the seventeenth century, the Spaniards will arrive from Jamaica with the aim of promoting cultivation to unsuspected limits. But the true peak took place more than a century later., when at the beginning of the 19th century the fertile lands were working at maximum yield, slaves worked by the thousands (it is estimated that there were some 11.000 in 1850) and fortunes emerged among the new owners.
Gone are the years of the heyday of sugar in Cuba
The call Valley of the Sugar Mills is the symbol of that glorious age. Located around the city of Trinity, this immense plain of more than 200 square kilometers is no longer upholstered by sugar cane fields as then, but the references of that glorious past are kept alive in an area declared a World Heritage Site in 1988. It was in the second half of the 19th century when production shifted to other areas because the fertile land had already collapsed., as had happened in Haiti before, and because the War of Independence destroyed many power plants, turned into lumps of iron.
What remains in this wide valley is the beauty of the surroundings, streams running through fields while peasant horses lead tourists among surviving sugar plants; also the remains, the skeletons of abandoned industrial buildings. And the recovery of many others that represent the power of an era.
The skeletons of abandoned industrial buildings remain in the Valle de los Ingenios
Manaca-Iznaga is one of those symbols. This old farm belonged to some Basque descendants of whom one of them, Pedro Iznaga, they say he was an evil landowner. The small town is located fifteen kilometers from Trinidad following a beautiful road that leads to a song to the past: an immense bell tower, reconstructed, it is sensed in the distance. From their 45 meters high slaves were summoned, that were also watched. The perspective from on high, where you go up some wooden stairs, lets imagine the echoes of faded splendor. At the foot of the tower, and among the handicraft vendors posted on the stone path, there is the mansion of the lords, also rebuilt. Some old sugar cookers complete the old farm located in the immense fertile lands that were connected to the port by rail..
Another way to get closer to this area and the sugar heritage is to take the tourist train that leaves from Trinidad and goes to Guachinango, another restored farm located in a unique setting. The historic steam locomotive that pulls the wagons travels, crossing bridges and fields, the almost 20 miles to this 19th century house that, however, it was not dedicated to sugar, but it was a cattle farm. It is in a very good state of conservation and is surrounded by animals and coconut trees. Inside there is a restaurant.
Manaca-Iznaga is located 15 kilometers from Trinidad following a beautiful road that ends in a song to the past
There are not many other facilities standing from that time. Some ruin, abandoned houses and thirteen haciendas trying to recover thanks to the efforts of the Office of the Historian of Trinidad. The Guaímaro farm (century XVIII), that in its day achieved the most abundant sugar harvest in the world, according to Cuban data, It is undergoing rehabilitation work to turn it into an interpretation center for the area and a sugar museum.
The shadow of sugar glory stretched many years after colonial times, but the last five years have been truly disastrous judging by the production of a world power that currently has to import the same product: if the production in the decade of the years 50 it was an average of five and a half million tons per year, today they fight to reach a million and a half.
The shadow of sugar glory stretched many years after colonial times, but the last decades have been disastrous
In 2002 they closed 62 central; in 2011 the Ministry of Sugar was eliminated, which became dependent on state companies. They fight to double the quota, but the returns are very low and, despite efforts, It seems that the golden times of sugar cane are behind us. Critics, also, lament the country's lost opportunity to jump on the agrofuel bandwagon.
The truth is that the history of Cuba runs parallel to that of this coveted product that played an essential role in colonial times.. In fact, Haiti ended up devastated by this monoculture that filled the pockets of many people and uprooted thousands of people from their countries to turn them into slaves. The scars of that history are condensed in the surroundings of Trinidad.
The history of Cuba runs parallel to that of this coveted product
As in many other aspects, in the pearl of the Antilles (whose territory is exaggeratedly fertile) contradictions operate with apparent perfection. And that of food is one of them, since the same country that imports the 80% of food has benevolent lands for all kinds of crops. But, the vast part of the fields are abandoned and there are hardly any cattle.
One of my obsessions over the course of a year has been asking for those reasons: Why is it not cultivated? Why is there no cattle? And, truth, I have never received minimally convincing answers. Laziness, including.
