An Old Colonial Town and UNESCO World Heritage Site
Introducing Trinidad
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| Cuba |
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| Trinidad de Cuba |
Trinidad grew and prospered on the sugar trade, the plantations worked by slave labour. Although
Spain abolished slave trading in 1820, the practice continued on the island until
1886. The sugar industry did not survive the end of slavery and Trinidad now makes
its living from processing tobacco and tourism, its new growth industry – at least
it was until March this year.
The town, a couple of kilometres from the Caribbean coast is the centre of a much larger municipality. The municipality, with a population of 77,000, is a rough semicircle of radius 30 km, bounded by the Caribbean Sea to the south and the Sierra del Escambray, to the north. Trinidad’s Old Town and the nearby Valle de los Ingenios (Valley of the Sugar Mills) together make a UNESCO World Heritage site.
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| The Island of Cuba with Trinidad on the Caribbean Coast |
Plaza Mayor and Around
Leaving our B&B in Calle Gloria…
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| Hostal Maidys, Calle Gloria, Trinidad |
…we turned left and then right through the narrow, cobbled streets and made our way uphill to the Plaza Mayor, the heart of the Old Town.
I had expected a proper city square, but the road merely widens and ends in a set of broad steps colonised by a café, leading up
to the ‘Casa de la Música’.
A little way along a road to the left was a small garden surrounded by white railings and a walkway. This, according to Google maps is the Plaza Mayor.
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| Plaza Mayor, Trinidad |
The Plaza is described as a ‘historic city park with public art’. It is a pleasant space and the hedges are neatly trimmed, but there is little public art beyond an underwhelming marble statue of Terpsichore, the Greek muse of dance.
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| The Plaza Mayor from the other side with Terpsichore bottom left and the Church of the Holy Trinity behind |
Iglesia de la Santisima Trinidad
The edge of the square and the surrounding streets contain a cluster of colonial buildings. Most noticeable is the Iglesia
Parroquial de la Santísima Trinidad (Parish Church of the Holy Trinity), its
neo-Classical façade featuring in the photo above. The building is hemmed in on
both sides, so the exterior has nothing of interest beyond the façade.
The church was completed in 1892, replacing an earlier building destroyed during a hurricane.
The interior is largely plain. The most venerated object is El Señor de la Vera Cruz, an 18th century wooden statue of Christ on
the cross. The story goes that the statue was ‘originally
destined for a church in Veracruz in Mexico... [but]...
the ship carrying the statue was driven back to Trinidad three times by bad
weather and was only able to make the journey after abandoning part of its
cargo which included the statue of Christ. This was taken as divine
intervention by the local population.’ (Wikipedia).
Parts of that story do not quite ring true. The statue is in a side chapel, but
due a failure in my research I have no picture; it is, though, identical, but for the
slant of the head, to the one at the front of the church. The statues behind were
covered because it was Lent.
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| Interior of the Iglesia Santísima Trinidad, Trinidad |
I do have a nice picture of a different side chapel, if that is any consolation.
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| Side Chapel, Iglesia Santísima Trinidad, Trinidad |
Brunet Palace
The handsome building next door is the so-called Brunet ‘Palace’. The original house was built in 1741 for Captain Felipe Santiago de
Silva. Two generations later it was sold to José Mariano Borrell who added the
upper floor in 1808. When he died in 1830 the house passed to his daughter who married
Nicolas Brunet. I am uncertain how long the house was in the hands of the Brunet
family, but their name has stuck. In 1973 it became the Museo Romántico, most
of the items on display coming from the collection of the Borrell family.
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| Brunet Palace, Trinidad |
National Museum of the Struggle Against the Bandits
A little further down Calle Cristo is the Former Convent of Francis of Assisi, now the National Museum of the Struggle Against
the Bandits. We thought we ought to drop in and find out who ‘the Bandits’ were
and it provides an appropriate place for…
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| Bell Tower of the Former Convent of St Francis of Assisi, Trinidad |
Cuban-American Relations (3)
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| Fidel Castro in 1959 (Library of Congress) |
Released under an amnesty in 1955 they went to Mexico where along with Che Guevarra they recruited and trained a revolutionary group.
The Castro brothers, Guevara and 80 others left Mexico in November 1956 by
yacht and landed in Eastern Cuba. They set out for the Sierra Maestra but were
attacked by Batista’s army. The leaders survived, but the force was severely
depleted.
They regrouped and recruited. Castro’s small efficient force helped by the (anti-communist) Student
Revolutionary Directorate and other anti-Batista groups, harried Batista’s
army in a lengthy guerrilla campaign. The Americans became ever more irritated
with Batista’s behaviour and in 1958 imposed an arms embargo.
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| Raúl Castro and Che Guevara in 1958 |
Meanwhile Castro’s weapon supply was organised by Frank Sturgis whose relationship with the CIA has always been opaque. He re-emerged
from the shadows in 1972 as one of the Watergate burglars.
Batista’s defeat at the Battle of Santa Clara on December 31st 1958 by a combined force of opposition groups completed the
revolution. A week later, Fidel Castro became Prime Minister.
At first America welcomed the revolution as a blow for democracy – Fidel Castro denied he was a communist - and recognised the new
government. Their mood soon changed as Castro started nationalising US
interests.
The counter-revolution started almost immediately. A coalition of former Batista soldiers, local farmers, and the Student Revolutionary
Directorate who had previously fought alongside Castro gathered in the Sierra
de Escambray north of Trinidad. At first they were supported by the Dominican Republic’s
dictator Rafael Trujillo and the CIA. The CIA withdrew their backing after the
Bay of Pigs fiasco in April 1961, and Trujillo was assassinated in May 1961.
The uprising was doomed, though fighting continued until 1965.
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| Museum of the Struggle against the Bandits, Trinidad |
The museum covers the years of the Escambray Rebellion, or the Struggle Against the Bandits, as they call it - they are very
clear who are the goodies and who the baddies.
There are displays of equipment, much of it Russian in origin, descriptions of the course of the struggle, and photographs of the
Cuban martyrs.
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| The Cuban martyrs, Museum of the Struggle Against the Bandits, Trinidad |
St Francis of Assisi Bell Tower
The former convent’s bell tower is on the museum premises, but has no exhibits….
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| The Bell tower of the former Convent of St Francis of Assisi, Trinidad |
…except for a view north to the Sierra del Escambray where all the fighting happened.
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| The Sierra de Escambray from the former Convent of St Francis of Assisi, Trinidad |
Alternatively, you can gaze south across the town to the blue of the Caribbean…
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| Looking south across Trinidad to the Caribbean |
…or down at the little Plazuela del Cristo.
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| Plazuela de Cristo, Trinidad |
It is remiss of me to have reached the fifth Cuban post with hardly a mention of music. Music is everywhere and (almost) every
Cuban considers themselves a musician. There was, of course, music in the Plazuela
del Cristo. The band cannot be seen from the tower because the sun was hot and like
all sensible people, they were playing in the shade.
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| The band on the Plazuelo de Cristo, Trinidad |
To Plaza Santa Ana
Coffee time had arrived so we walked back past the Plaza Mayor, lingered over an espresso in a convenient café and then made our way north(ish).
The grid of old streets has gates at the northern and southern entrance to keep
traffic out, an attendant opening them for local residents and deliveries. Like
everywhere in Cuba, old American cars are relatively abundant – an unintended
consequence of Cuban-American relations (see part 4).
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| Aged American car enters Trinidad's old town |
Old American vehicles apart, there are surprisingly few cars on the streets of Trinidad. The top end of Calle Santa Ana was empty apart
from one cycle rickshaw.
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| Calle Santa Ana, Trinidad |
At the end of the street is the small Plaza de Santa Ana. It contains a bust of Isidoro Armenteros who led a minor uprising
against the Spanish in Trinidad on the 24th of July of 1851. It was quickly put
down and Armenteros was executed.
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| Isidoro Armenteros, Plaza de Santa Ana, Trinidad |
A simultaneous uprising in Camaguey was equally unsuccessful. Both were in support of one of a series of speculative invasions
by freelance General Narciso López. None of them achieved
much, but the flag López designed for his men to follow is now the national flag.
The Church of Santa Ana for which street and square are named…
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| The ruined church of Santa Ana, Trinidad |
…is a ruin, and has been since 1812. Lots of sources tell me that, but nobody wants to tell me why.
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| Inside the Church of Santa Ana, Trinidad |
Lunch at the Jazz Café
Returning to the centre we decide to lunch in the Jazz Café, not just because they offered free wifi, they had a band, too, not
playing jazz as much as cheerful Cuban music.
Soon after we sat down the wifi gave up. It was the only power cut we experienced in Cuba, but fortunately we had just ordered gazpacho
soup and a cheese sandwich with banana chips which required no heating.
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| Lunch at the Jazz Café, Trinidad |
The band were less fortunate. The bassist put down his instrument, shrugged his shoulders and left. The drummer decided that without
his friend in the rhythm section his contributions were unnecessary. The guitarist
and singers carried on doggedly. They were really rather good.
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| The remains of the band after the power went off, Jazz Café, Trinidad |
The Baleful Influence of Covid
We returned to our accommodation, arriving just in time to take a phone call from our local agents. Our original departure date was
next Tuesday, but Covid had caused much cancelling of flights, so at first were told we would leave on Friday (tomorrow) which had not pleased me. Yesterday we had a call saying we had confirmed flights for Monday, which was acceptable.
Today I learned that 'confirmed' did not quite mean what I thought. Now, we were
still leaving Cuba on Monday evening and flying to Paris, but we would then
have to fly to Amsterdam to get a connection to Birmingham. Oh well. We were
given flight numbers and a booking reference, so this was properly confirmed (I
think).
We went out for a stroll, venturing into the new town to change some money (Cuba is a cash economy and our cards did not work in the
ATMs) and buy some new internet cards as ours had run out. 1$ (peso or dollar, same value, same sign) buys a password for an hour’s use of a wifi hotspot. You
must then remember to turn off your device, or next time you wander unknowingly
through a hotspot it will connect automatically and use up your time.
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| Trinidad's New Town |
Both the money changer and ETECSA (Cuban telecom) were operating a one in, one out policy, and a man on the door ensured hands were
sanitised. Up to then I had thought of Covid as a problem ‘over there’, now I
had to reassess.
Little Parque Céspedes in the centre of the hardly enormous Plaza Carillo was green, shady and a wifi hot spot.
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| Parque Céspedes, Trinidad |
Here we learned that at home toilet paper and cleaning products had disappeared from supermarket shelves and that in some places there
was no meat, though fish was available. It never ceases to amaze me how panic
buying can create shortages when none really exist.
Trinidad’s New Town
A poorly dressed old man shuffled into the park. He took off his cap, looked round, saw us and hobbled over. Lynne dropped a coin
into his outstretched cap, which he accepted as his due. Several of the people
sitting round remonstrated with him; I wish my Spanish was good enough to
understand what was said. I felt sorry for the old man (who may actually have
been younger than me!), but he had clearly transgressed the Cuban moral code.
Cuba has an all-encompassing welfare system, and very few beggars.
We strolled gently back, reading restaurant menus and taking a few pictures. I had yet to become used to the number of horse-drawn
vehicles in the streets.
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| Horse drawn vehicles, and where they may not go, Trinidad |
I was also unsure if the town was particularly quiet; do the parked cars we routinely see lining narrow residential roads at home make our
towns look busier than they are?
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| Would this street look busy if both sides were lined with parked cars? |
Dinner at Casa Mimi
We chose our restaurant for dinner on the menu – and on the availability of free wifi. Customers seemed in short supply, but with Covid
driving many tourists home early and no new travellers arriving, business was poor everywhere.
My daiquiri could have benefited from more rum, Lynne's mojito was fine. Lynne chose the Cuban speciality ropa vieja (lit: old clothes) which is a stew of sorts, cooked for hours until the meat can be shredded. We had enjoyed a pork variant in Viñales, but this was the traditional beef version. It was, she said, very good. My pork and onions was fine, if a little chewy.
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| Dinner at Casa Mimi, Trinidad |
Part 1: Havana
Part 2: Havana to Viñales
Part 3: Walking the Viñales Valley
Part 4: Viñales to Trinidad de Cuba
Part 5: Trinidad (1) The Town
Part 6: Trinidad (2) Valle de Los Ingenios
Part 7: Santa Clara and Che Guevara
Part 8: Jibacoa and a Strange Trip Home
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