Cuba (6): Trinidad and the Valle de los Ingenios

A Valley of Sugar Mills and Slavery

Cuba

Before breakfast we harvested the ‘Covid News’ from home: worries that they might actually have the disease from some relatives, concern about working conditions being compromised from other quarters and general irritation at the consequences of unnecessary panic buying. On the other hand, our daughter had been delighted to visit her local supermarket to find that, although they had no bread, brioche was available – I doubt Marie Antoinette would have enjoyed the irony.

We breakfasted on omelettes and fruit in the company of Maidy’s other four guests - the Swedes were fine, the British man who has been ill was apprehensive about today’s clinic visit and was still fretting about having no flight home.

At the time appointed by our itinerary a young man came to the door and introduced himself as Luharki, our guide for the day. We set off on what we soon discovered was a walking tour of Trinidad covering very much the same ground as our self-guided tour yesterday – that was not on the itinerary. A telephone call to the office clarified the situation – Luharki had been misinformed - and very soon we were in a taxi setting out on the short journey to the Valle de los Ingenios, which, along with Trinidad’s old town, makes up the local UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Trinidad is on Cuba's southern (Caribbean) coast

If panic buying was becoming a problem at home, it is endemic in Cuba. The USA will not trade with the island, and uses its economic power to dissuade others. The result is a rolling series of shortages. Soap, we had been told, was a current problem, though I cannot be sure it was the cause of the queue we passed as we left Trinidad.

Queue outside a shop, Trinidad

Valle de los Ingenios

Valle de los Ingenios (Valley of the Sugar Mills) is actually three linked valleys some 10km north of Trinidad. For a 100 years until the late 19th century Cuba was the world’s largest sugar producer and these valleys were a major production area. At the height of the boom they were home to over 50 sugar mills.

Our first stop was a viewpoint overlooking the valley. Luharki was keen that we should have a picture with us marring the view….

Valle de los Ingenios, Trinidad

….but I took several more on a small scale. There is still sugar here, though relatively little, and the valley hardly looks like a hive of activity.

Valle de los Ingenios, Trinidad

San Isidro de los Destiladeros

Leaving the mirador we drove a short distance to the ruins of the San Isidro de los Destiladeros estate.

The Big House

The estate owners lived in some style and comfort…

The house, San Isidro de los Destiladeros

…though the house is in a poor state outside and in.

The remains of stucco decorations, San Isidro de los Destiladeros

The Tower

Bell towers were a feature of many estates and at San Isidro the tower is barely 50m from the house.

The Tower, San Isidro de los Destiladeros

A bell marked the beginning and end of the working day and, if the estate owner was particularly devout, the times of the Angelus. It could be used as an alarm in the case of fire or an escaping slave and the tower provided an excellent perch for the overseers to spy on the slaves at work.

The Trapiche

A trapiche is a mill of three horizontal rollers, originally designed for crushing olives. The Spanish brought them to the Caribbean and adapted them for crushing sugar cane. Originally turned by a donkey, from 1820 the San Isidro trapiche was steam driven.

All that remains of the San Isidro trapiche

Only some brickwork survives, but we will see an intact trapiche later.

The Jamaican Train

The next stage in the process was to remove the water from the juice. In the 19th century, this was done in a ‘Jamaican Train’, a series of kettles each set over its own fire looking, with a bit of imagination, like a row of train carriages.  The juice was partly evaporated in the largest kettle, then transferred to the next smaller kettle and on to progressively smaller kettles (there seem to be 8 at San Isidro) as the volume of liquid decreased. It was a continuous process, all the kettles being used simultaneously, but even so it was slow and inefficient, some juice being lost every time the liquid was poured, by hand, from one pot to the next. It was also extremely dangerous for the workers, but being slaves, they had no control over where they worked.

The Jamaican Train, San Isidro de los Destiladeros

The indigenous Cubans, Luharki told us, were all but wiped out by various common European maladies to which they had no resistance. The survivors were enslaved in the nascent sugar industry but proved too easy to work to death, so the plantation owners looked to Africa as a source of more robust slaves. Luharki has traced his forbears back to the Congo, which accounts for his fore-name and the similar name of his sister – who we had encountered her earlier while walking to the taxi rank. His great-great-grandmother (I think) had been raped by a white overseer and Luharki described himself as a mulatto, a word which has largely gone out of use and I would have otherwise avoided. The slave trade was abolished in the Spanish Empire in 1820, but that did nothing for those already enslaved, the practice continuing in Cuba for another 60 years

Luharki explains his ancestry beside the Jamaican Train

Cuban Demographics

Cuba's multi-ethnic population reflects its history. Intermarriage between different groups was and is widespread, and there are huge discrepancies in reports of the country's racial composition. The Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies at the University of Miami determined that 62% of Cubans are black, the 2002 Cuban census found that 65% are white. They may both be right, it depends on how you define ‘black’ and ‘white’.

A 2014 study published in Genetics* found that the maternal lineages of Cubans were 39% African, 35% Indigenous Cuban and 26% European, while male lineages were 82% European and 18% African. This is hardly surprising, those who have the power plant their seed widely, whether it is welcomed or not. This makes Luharki’s story fairly typical; by my calculation from the above, European male lineage and African maternal lineage is the background of 32%, Cuba’s largest group, while only 5% have an African paternal and a European maternal lineage. It really is all about power, and does not reflect well on white males.

Some Trees

Many trees stood among the crumbling stonework. Among them, a ceiba (kapok) tree – a Cuba native and the tree beneath which Havana was founded, …

Ceiba Tree, San Isidro de los Destiladeros

…and a Crescentia.

Crescentia Tree, San Isidro de los Destiladeros

The huge round fruit are not good to eat, but have traditionally been turned into cups and bowls, or maracas.

Crescentia Fruit, San Isidro de los Destiladeros

Purge House and Mill and the ‘Barracks’

Beyond the Jamaican Train was the Purge House and the ‘Purge Bar Mill’. I don’t know exactly what happened here – the details of 19th century sugar production required more ferreting than they are worth – but the crystalised concentrate spent some time in the purge house, of which only a small section of wall survives, before being milled. The brick base where a donkey plodded in circles driving the mill can still be seen.

Purging Mill base, San Isidro de los Destiladeros

The Barracones (Barracks), the slaves’ quarters, were as far away from the house as possible. The owners preferred to live by the industrial part of their mill rather than beside the people who worked it. The mill-owner, in his leisure time, and his wife and children at all times could not to see the people they had enslaved, perhaps it made their consciences easier.

Remains of the Barracones, San Isidro de los Destiladeros

In 2016 we visited Bristol. The elegant 18th century residence of John Pinney is now Bristol’s Georgian House Museum. Pinney’s wealth came from 15 years as a sugar planter in the Caribbean. He wrote that when he first arrived, he was uneasy about buying and selling human beings, but reasoned that if God had not intended these people to have been used as slaves then surely he would send a sign. Signs are hard to see when your victims are hidden away, and even harder when you are blinded by the prospect of wealth beyond imagining. And what applies to Pinney, applies in the Valle de los Ingenios.

Manaca Iznaga

A couple of kilometres down the road, Manaca Iznaga is another old sugar estate which offers a more dramatic if less informative visit.

The Tower

The tower here is 47m high – 6 storeys compared to San Isidro’s 3 – the bell has been removed, but the ladders are still in place so it can be climbed.

Tower, Manaca Iznaga

From the top there is a fine view over the valley….

Vale de los Ingenios

…and the village that has grown up around the estate. Part of the original slave quarters are allegedly still occupied, though in poor condition; they do not feature in my photograph. The villagers attempt to make some money by selling handicrafts – embroidered cloths and aprons – to visitors was, today at least, resulting in slim pickings. As the picture shows there are many vendors, but few visitors. We did our bit by making a purchase.

Manaca Iznaga village

There is also a good view of the owner’s house, always grander than San Isidro and now in much better condition – it currently functions as a restaurant.

The 'Big House', Manaca Iznaga

Rum

Descending the stairs and entering the house ...

Inside the house, Manaca Iznaga

…I took the opportunity to buy some rum to take home; shops are not easy to spot in Cuba, and many are not open to foreigners. The three-year-old white rum has no great personality but provides the alcoholic backbone to most of the cocktails that dominate the drinks menu in Cuban bars and restaurants. The seven-year-old is serious and complex with (according to Tesco’s) a palate of honey, vanilla, chocolate, cocoa, sweet tobacco, dry fruits and spicy notes. Fortunately, it is widely available (if rather more expensive) in the UK; the bottle in the picture is from Morrison’s (also available at Sainsbury’s, Waitrose and specialist shops) as the one I bought at Manaca Inzaga swiftly went the way all good bottles go. My attempts at making daquiris have been less successful, so that is still the original bottle of three-year-old.

Havana Rum, back home

Trapiche

Behind the house is a trapiche in good working order, though I am not sure why the chairs are set out as though milling was a spectator sport. We pushed it round a couple of times – a job originally thought suitable for a donkey.

Trapiche, Manaca Iznaga

A Glass of Sugar Cane Juice

As we left, we passed a stall selling the juice from freshly crushed sugar cane – they had a little trapiche. Sugar cane provides a surprisingly refreshing drink on a hot day, and we have often stopped at such stalls in India. Hygiene standards are noticeably higher in Cuba – not that we have ever had a problem from an Indian stall – but the Indians always fold a small lemon into the shattered cane on the second pass. The lack of acidity here made the drink rather cloying. Each glass came with a little stick of sugar cane. You can chew the fibrous cane if you want, but Lynne lobbed hers at a small dog standing expectantly a few feet away and instantly made a friend.

A glass of sugar cane juice, Manaca Iznaga

Back in Trinidad

Our half-day tour included lunch which we had expected to be in the Valle de les Ingenios, but turned out to be back in Trinidad.

Lunch in the Colonial Restaurant

The Colonial Restaurant is, predictably, in a colonial mansion in Trinidad’s old town. With a German tour party and a few others, we sat below stucco decorations in the marble floored dining room while the previous owners looked down their noses at us.

The Colonial Restaurant, Trindad

The food was entirely acceptable, if not particularly exciting, which is par for the course in Cuba. A green salad with a pleasant dressing was followed by a choice of main courses, though we both went for prawns. They came still in their shells, which always makes them taste better, and in a sauce, which made the meal enjoyably messy. Rice and potatoes were the only accompaniment, which was more carbohydrate than we needed. The dessert was an ice-cream, coloured red but of no discernible flavour, perked up with a spoonful of honey. The inevitable band played cheerful Cuban music.

Luharki lingered to ensure our order had been taken and reappeared at the end of the meal to check all was well. We said our goodbyes and wished him well.

The Rest of the Day

After a large lunch we made our way back to the B&B where we met the other British guest. He was delighted to tell us that he had a confirmed flight home for tomorrow, BA/Iberia via Madrid, which sounded much better than Aeroflot via Moscow a week later.

After a rest we made our way out for a walk…

Trinidad, Old Town

…which ended in our favourite café for a late afternoon cocktail. I seemed to have become stuck on daiquiris, but Lynne was more adventurous choosing a canchanchara. Not unrelated to a daiquiri it is made from a rougher distillate related to the Brazilian cachaça, the usual lime juice and honey instead of sugar. Served in a ceramic pot, it has more bite than a regular daiquiri. I resolved to get out of my rut.

A canchanchara and a daiquiri, Jazz Café, Trinidad

We fell into conversation with a young Frenchwoman who had been staying with friends in a more remote, wifi-free region, and was only now trying to organise a flight home before the money ran out. Like us, she had discovered Cuban ATMs did not like her cards and only had the cash she brought with her. We wished her luck, unfortunately it was all we had to offer.

Later we decided we could not a manage a full dinner, so we took another walk …

Trinidad, Old Town

…to have a final look at the charms of Trinidad’s old town before dining on cup-a-soups and peanuts and then sat in out atrium with a book.

Trinidad, Old Town

*Cuba: Exploring the History of Admixture and the Genetic Basis of Pigmentation Using Autosomal and Uniparental Markers, a 2014 paper with many authors published in Genetics (a peer-reviewed academic journal). The figures I quote are rounded off from the mtDNA and Y chromosome analyses section of the report. (Click here for the full report)

Cuba

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