Our Region

GREAT: Swamp, Wetland, Watershed, Wooded Area, Ecosystem, Biosphere Reserve, Prehistoric Seat, Defeat of Yankee Imperialism, Municipality How many nouns with a common adjective! And all to designate how immense is the Cienaga de Zapata.

As the daughter of imagination, neglect, abandonment and isolation before 1959, a distorted image of her was created: chilling murders, swamps or scrapie determined to extinguish the human species, snake eaters and crocodiles and implacable vampires, turned the Swamp into Zapata in the dark Africa of Cuba.

Despite this, nature has remained beautiful and lavish for millennia to support her children, constituting our most precious treasure. We cannot forget that she conceived, breastfed and still pampers history! All the transcendental events or social processes developed here have had the absolute complicity of forests, coastline, steeple1, swamp and grassland, which as silent witnesses jealously guard great secrets !

La Ciénaga before and after taking his surname - ceded by Mr. Francisco Zapata since 1636 when he applied for the land grant, which with the name of Rancho de Juan Caballero, is located on the north bank of the beautiful Hatiguanico river - constituted a safe haven, not only for animals but also for man, who for various reasons sought their protection: aborigines, pirates, corsairs, buccaneers, maroons, mambises, bandits, fugitives and Hispanics.

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.

PIRACY TIMES

From 1530 to 1830 the Cienaga and its cays were a safe haven and a feeding site for a large phalanx of “sea lions”, standing out: Diego Pérez, Gilberto Girón, Cornelius Joels, Olonés, Legraude, Morgan and Grandmond.

The first two have been immortalized by the place toponymy:

Diego Pérez carved his name in the maritime cay that served as his den, during the time that he directed pirates in this sheltered area.

Girón gave the surname to a cove that became a beach, which transcends not because of him, but thanks to the socialist patriotism of the Cuban people evidenced here, in April 1961. This daring pirate also had the privilege - although in a negative role - of being perpetuated by the cultural history of the country, all the time, which counts among the main protagonists collected by the first Cuban literary work: Mirror of Patience.

The prolonged presence of brigantines, sailboats, pataches and vessels with a black flag and human skeleton as a symbol, not only clouded the warm waters of the Caribbean Sea that bathes our coastline, but also had a notable influence on the first economic activity (livestock) and folklore of the basin.

There are numerous anecdotes and legends that have been preserved through oral history to this day, related to these bloodthirsty men: “ships, lights, chains, fabulous treasures and pirate routes, still roam throughout the great swamp thanks to the imagination and incessant search for the long-lived native ”.

Many toponyms point to those "sea bandits": The aforementioned Diego Pérez and Girón; Caletas Ávalo, El Ingles; Buenaventura, which had in its founder (Diego Ventura) a close relative of such criminals.

The Buccaneers (pirates on land), transferred customs and ways of preserving salt to cure hides and treat meat. It turns out that Los Lobatos, founders of the San Lázaro batey) preserved such a buccaneering skill for a long time, let's see:

THE FACT THAT PROVIDED US WITH UNIVERSAL STATURE.

"The deed of Girón" has been the most studied and widespread historical event in the Cienaga de Zapata. It transcended beyond the forests and homeland, to become a symbol of victory, courage, patriotism and optimism of the peoples of the world. When they mention the word Girón at any latitude, it is bitter, contrary and reminds the arrogant Yankee imperialists. It also highlights how vital unity, identity, history and possessing honest leaders committed to their homeland are to a people, which in this case was decisive in the combative morale of the militia army that in 64 hours dealt the first great defeat of Yankee imperialism in the western hemisphere.

The legendary image of the Victory Tank with the Commander-in-Chief on it - as a Mambí rider - has traveled the world; for this reason the shield of the great wetland perpetuated the sacred image, bearing it on the upper part with the rising sun that illuminates the green foliage and preserves the glorious beam of January 1, 1959.

                Shield of the Great Wetland

The grandparents from Cenaguer remember how ... "at 2:30 am on April 17, 1961, a mercenary brigade made up of 1,428 men began to land on the coast of our beloved swamp, from Puerto Cabezas (Nicaragua), recruited armed, directed and paid by the imperialist government of the United States of North America They formed that "famous phalanx": landowners, lieutenants, war criminals, ex-military, merchants, industrialists, fugitives from revolutionary justice, traitors and lumpen proletarians.