CubaPLUS Magazine

Cirilo Villaverde, born in San Diego de Núñez, Pinar del Río, was one of those intellectuals—a journalist, writer, founder of periodicals, and an independence patriot—who immersed themselves in the quest for the elements that constitute national identity. His work spanned from the descriptions of the mountains and caves of his native Pinar del Río to portraits of the streets and society of Havana in the first half of the 19th century.

Villaverde is a writer primarily known in Cuba for his novels, especially Cecilia Valdés. However, what is less known about this author is that he was also one of the pioneers of speleology in the country.

Loma del Ángel is a steep street in Havana, crowned at its summit by a church of the same celestial name. These are the very streets that serve as the setting for the love affair between Cecilia Valdés, a beautiful, poor, orphaned mestiza, and Leonardo de Gamboa, a young man of noble birth. This novel portrays colonial Cuba in the first half of the 19th century and the monstrous outcomes generated by slavery in the society of that era.

"Villaverde's magnum opus is a true compass, like Ariadne's thread guiding us to grasp the convulsing images of a society that was shaking and unsettled in search of its own identity," notes Salvador Bueno.

The book, whose definitive version was published in 1882 with the subtitle Loma del Ángel, has been adapted for musical theater and film. Currently, in front of the Church of El Ángel, there is a life-size statue of Cecilia Valdés, and a bust of her creator has been placed a few meters away.

Villaverde and Cuban Nature

The writer's interest was also directed toward natural landscapes. He was an enthusiastic explorer who meticulously described his journeys through the caves and forests of the Pinar del Río mountains, which held scenic treasures that, until then, had scarcely any existing descriptions. In his book Excursión a Vueltabajo (Excursion to Vueltabajo), published between 1842 and 1848 as a serial, along with other texts in El Faro Industrial of Havana, he describes various sites in the Sierra del Rosario, near El Pan de Guajaibón, the highest elevation in western Cuba.

His notes on the caves of Los Portales, Vargas, and Cueva de Canillas are particularly noteworthy. Antonio Núñez Jiménez mentions these in his book Cuba Subterránea (Subterranean Cuba), recognizing Villaverde as a precursor of Cuban speleology. Excursión a Vuelta Abajo has served as a basis for establishing protected areas in Cuba, such as Mil Cumbres in Sierra del Rosario, Pinar del Río province, which has incorporated these descriptions into its management plans as a reference for the study and characterization of the area.

Cirilo's was an observant gaze, whose literary journeys were fundamentally guided by the search for the essence of what it means to be Cuban.