CubaPLUS Magazine

San Salvador de Bayamo was the second town founded by the Adelantado Diego Velázquez on November 5, 1513, which is why a few days ago he celebrated his 509th birthday.

Its location, in the middle of a fertile plain now known as the Basin of the extensive Cauto River, contributed a lot to the prosperity that the town began to achieve since colonial times, even with the severe locks imposed by Spanish colonial rule.

The name of Bayamo, softly pronounced, prevailed over the tax in the files of its foundation. It comes from the aboriginal word Bayam, which evokes the ancient chiefdom of the first inhabitants of the area, from the Taínos, descendants of Arawaks from South America. Very close to the city runs the river that repeats its name.

Returning to the importance of its foundation by the Spanish, this city is among the heritage cities of the country, in the select group of the first seven charming and historic Cuban towns baptized in the 16th century.

But if there is something essential that makes Bayamo endearing, it is that of having been the birthplace of the Cuban National Anthem, created by patriot Perucho Figueredo, and being the hometown of the Father of the Nation, Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, who initiated the first war for independence on October 10, 1868, in La Demajagua.

There is another beautiful remembrance: it is that Bayamo was the first capital of the Cuban Republic in Arms, almost for three months, as a result of the victorious takeover by the Liberation Army on October 20, 1868.

Unfortunately, when the siege of the Hispanic power won, its inhabitants decided to lose everything and in a sublime gesture set fire to the town so that the enemy would collect only ashes from it. Considered decisive in the crystallization of Cuban nationality and the cradle of essential elements of Cuban culture and identity, it was the first city in Cuba declared a National Monument, always considered a source of pride and immense commitment by its inhabitants.

In that lively city, beyond the nostalgia or evocations of its glorious past, the beautiful love song La Bayamesa, created in the mid-nineteenth century in honor of a beautiful lady, Luz Vázquez y Moreno, then an illustrious patriot.

The authors of that first Cuban troubadour piece were the poet José Fornaris, Francisco del Castillo and Carlos Manuel de Céspedes. And to this day Bayamo is the only city in Cuba with a precious artisan movement that has always rolled through the streets, colonial-style carriages for passenger transport.

But Bayamo is not a pictorial fresco of the past, there life does not stop and it is very interesting, by the way.