CubaPLUS Magazine

On Sunday, November 5, the former town of San Miguel turns 510 years old. Salvador de Bayamo, definitely founded near the margins of the Bayam River (today Bayamo) by Adelantado Diego Velázquez in the distant 1513, after having tried it at other nearby points of the island´s geography. It was the second Cuban town to emerge in a colonizing process that began by proclaiming Baracoa as the primacy, on August 15, 1511 at the eastern end.

Today's Bayamese have been joyfully awaiting the new birthday of its historic city which, since ancient times, it was a kind of pretty girl in the middle of the fertile Valley of the Cauto River, the largest in Cuba, since it starts from the peaks of the Sierra Maestra. The birthday always comes still with the echoes of beautiful celebrations that also further adorn the southeastern city, capital of the province of Granma, on the occasion of national festivities, such as being the cradle of the Cuban National Anthem and the process manager of the nationality that led to the beginning of the first feat by independence in 1868.

So that date brings new reasons for the celebration of marked cultural spirit that continues among the locals. And it is because the environment there is filtered by a powerful halo of history and legends that surround the also declared City Monument. It is the first with that condition in Cuba, because it is declared the capital of the Republic in Arms, on October 20, 1868, and for starring in the courageous and magnificent act of resignation over the fire of the town on January 12, 1869.

This unprecedented event in the nation until that moment was the decision of her children so that the place was not recovered again by the Spanish with all their wealth intact. Even in the midst of such beautiful remembrances, this city currently does not live only inspired by the glories of yesteryear. Its inhabitants are committed to promoting production in a territory that is eminently agricultural and showed its  people that it was an emporium of prosperity, even when it was not free. The name of Bayamo, softly pronounced, prevailed over the imposed 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, coming from the Taínos, descendants of Arawaks from South America.

There, not only the major patriotic song was composed, but also the love song La Bayamesa, created in the mid-19th century in honor of a beautiful lady, Luz Vázquez y Moreno, who later became an illustrious patriot. The authors of that first Cuban piece were the poet José Fornaris, Francisco del Castillo and Carlos Manuel de Cespedes. And until today Bayamo is the only city in Cuba with a movement of precious craftsmanship that has been rolling through the streets, forever, colonial style carriages, for transporting passengers. However, everyone knows that Bayamo is not a pictorial fresco of the past, there life advances settled in its half millennium and is very emergent.