REDEEMING FORESTS
Around 1840, the Cuban sugar industry reached a great boom with the application of technical transformations. All the landowners who had sufficient financial resources began to build "modern mills", seeing in it a way to reduce costs and the number of slaves employed in the industry. But it was necessary to expand the cultivation areas to satisfy the greater production capacity of the mill, so the slaves ended up in the plantations, that is, slavery continues to manifest itself as an obstacle to industrial growth.
The forests that reinforced the northern waterfront of Cienaguera were cut down, so that the sweet grass grew in its space - in this way the nascent sugar mills were satisfied, but it had a great ecological impact on the basin, the “Neptune” and “Pluto” domains. ”They expanded considerably - the cane plantations proliferated and with them 43 mills throughout the border area.
For agricultural work there was no thought of the salaried worker, the creole landowners continued to cling to slavery in times when, under pressure from the “mother of industrialization” (England), the cessation of the slave trade had been decreed since 1820.
Then the "disgusting galleys" continued to make an appearance, carrying beings - who, torn from their mother Africa - those who did not perish in them or were devoured by the sharks, stepped on our muddy land barefoot and chained on the way to the north shore where they awaited them. slower death: Slavery.
There are still names that perpetuate and attest to that horrendous and illegal slave trade: Playa La Maquinaria (landing point); Loma Los Negros (north of Soplillar); Cayo Campamento de los Negros (south of Carmel), in this one, were sold to the unhappy and unfortunate humans as beasts, conforming the endowments of the many mills of that time.
Just as there was slavery, there was also slave rebellion! The maroons - indomitable blacks - preferred to endure the rigors of the great swamp than to remain submissive to the "sugar whip" that slowly devoured them.
Those were the most important, since there are "infinity" of interior keys with the name Los Negros throughout the great swamp, indicative of their prolonged presence until the end of inhuman slavery in 1886.
The Maroons, like the aborigines, contributed to the empowerment and establishment of future population settlements in the territory. Since both - saving customs and degrees of development - built houses, located vital watered down, created conucos and the first domesticated wild cattle by conditioning paddocks in places of leverage.
At a time when La Cubana was forged in the jungle, Cimarrones and Mambises merged to fight for common goals: independence and an end to slavery.
The swamp was a great home; With the experience accumulated by the black rebels, the mambises settled in the same places and created others in correspondence with the circumstances and strategies of the war.
Generally, historiography, when addressing the redemptive processes of the 19th century, has assigned it a marked role of rearguard or natural refuge - essentially assisting reason - only a myopic would not accept that she cared like no other of the valiant Cubans, exalting courage and patriotism they made their forests a secure abode. But it turns out that on a few occasions reference is made to the role of the blind, complying with Céspedes6 and Martí7.
It seems that the coast, inland keys and irregular bell tower with its narrow paths, persisted in safeguarding names and actions of the patricians of this land, who in many cases scattering their valuable blood by the vital element of the great wetland, grasped the mangrove root of the ancient patriotic tradition of the native.
It is enough to read carefully the just writing of the precursor of the historians of the swamp of zapata, to become an unconditional supporter of the previous statement:
... "The great war and more intensely the last one of independence, exerted a certain beneficial influence on them and a little civilization, although small, invaded those lands of Zapata, influencing its inhabitants who, despite their backwardness and ignorance, provided heroes to the cause of the freedom of our land, paying tribute of blood in the two liberating epics "...
Examples of patriotic trails were:
Babiney - Crocodile - Medano.
Punta San Isidro - Punta del Sinú - Santa Teresa - Bahía de la Independencia (pigs).
Yaguaramas - Paso de los Güiros - San Blas.
Punta San Isidro - Los Pavos - Santa Teresa - Molina - La Majagua - Sábalo del Jiquí - Jiquí.
Juraguá - Bartolina - Médano - Camino Real de la Ciénaga - Santo Tomás - Santo Cristo de los Maneaderos - Ensenada de la Broa - Playa el Caimito.
Not only did these "brave Cubans" fill the forests with glory, they also made it possible for the education of the great wetland to be born patriotic, since its first teachers were part of the Liberation Army:
PEDRO PIÑAN DE VILLEGAS ................... Lieutenant Colonel. Performing in the
Headquarters of the 5th Corps during the
War of 1895. He taught classes (1905) in
"La Gallina" beach.
COLETO CASTRO SIERRA ................... Soldier of the "Gómez" Infantry Regiment
4th body. He is considered the "Don Quixote" of the
Cenaguer education, since since 1920, his
old figure is carved in the montuno;
remember grandparents today - illiterate children from
yesterday - the strong character of the teacher Who perishes
he was screaming in the woods with 70 years old ex -
giving birth to instruction with his patriotic spear of the
to know! Cayo Ramona, La Gallina, El Ébano, Mo
lina, San Lázaro, claim recognition
posthumously to the teacher.
Even the bandits purified their souls by coming into contact with the swamp forests! There is no better example than that of José Álvarez Arteaga (Matagas), who evolved into a patriot after being the man who spent the longest time outside the law in Cuba. Matagas upon death (February 3, 1896) held the rank of Lieutenant Colonel of the Liberation Army.
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