Sancti Spíritus beyond time (+photos and video) – Escambray

510 years after its founding, the fourth town in Cuba maintains its ease and elegance. Nobody like the people of Sancti Spiritus to flatter her and preserve her charms.

The town of Espíritu Santo wakes up every dawn, elegant and still charming. Calmly, he begins the already long count of his next 510 Junes. She does not consider herself a senile, forgetful or foolish old woman at all. Without rushing, in a calm birthday meditation, the city exorcises each of its sins and flirts in the mirror with even the smallest of its charms, while scanning the horizons to come.

The archives say that Sancti Spíritus came into the world in lands of gigantic groves, abundant cedars and kapoks, on a fertile plain, crossed by rivers and singing birds: a bucolic environment in the then Indian province of Magón.

Some apocalyptic versions claim that its first location on the banks of the Tuinucú River was barely maintained for a few years, as the original inhabitants fled, frightened by a plague of bibijaguas or other ants that pierced the navels of newborns.

However, some more logical and earthly reasoning suggests other causes for the move: conflicts between officials, better geographical location, more arms for parcels…

But the truth is that the fourth town founded by Adelantado Diego Velázquez—this village city of warm and meek beings, with bars and roofs, cattle and guitars—settled forever on the banks of the Yayabo River, almost in the center of the island, condemned to isolation for centuries due to the inoperability of its only port in Tunas de Zaza and the bad luck of the central railway when it ignored it on its route.

In the beginning, guano and board constructions predominated here, but little by little the buildings improved with mud brick and tiles. Many of the streets persisted and maintained their peculiar tortuous and cobbled layout to this day.

And from almost all its arteries you can see the highlight of the town, the Main Parish Church, the temple whose founding date historians place in 1680 and appears among the oldest, most massive and tallest of the Cuban colonial period.

But, beyond its pilasters and cornices, beyond the multiplied faith of its parishioners, the Vicarage of the Holy Spirit also keeps the special charm of its bell tower, from where perhaps the best landscapes of Sancti Spiritus can be observed.

Among them, those facades with Moorish influences, which appeared simple and not very ostentatious. Meanwhile, here and there bridges, squares and small squares multiplied, pleasant for strolling at sunset. It is said that money and prosperity came to Sancti Spíritus in the 19th century, when interest in its livestock grew on the island and the Central Highway provided communication.

From then on, the architectural works were born that, together with the Main Church, still give it that authentic splendor that identifies the town throughout the world: the Principal Theater and the walkway over the Yayabo River, that “superb bridge over a humble river, according to the historian Luis F. del Moral.

From our ancestors we inherited the Santiago festivities, the livestock fairs, the love of serenades, trios and trova. However, in Sancti Spíritus that shyness was maintained, that half-country calm that distinguishes it to this day and that so many memorable poets have known how to bring to the stage, such as that mockingbird of Marcial Benítez, with his Palmarito always on the tip of the tongue.

Because the uniqueness of Sancti Spiritus is found in every corner, from the ancient tradition of the guayaberas and the cultural legacy of the Fernández-Morera family, to the exalting patriotism of Major General Serafín Sánchez Valdivia, as conciliatory as he was firm and brave in his three wars for the independence.

Reviewing more than five centuries of life in just a few pages implies the risk of unforgivable forgetfulness that is not deserved by Antonio Díaz’s tiles, the song Thoughtby Teofilito, the trios and points of Yayabo, nor the many tenths and exalting poems that they offer to this city.

Sancti Spíritus entered the doors of the 21st century, stopped at the edge of its colonial magic, with the lightness of a parade. The days flirtatiously mock each other and climb the ladder of the almanac without looking back. The keys and the choruses embrace each other in a musical genre that reinvents itself robustly until today and for tomorrow.

The passage of time always leaves traces, especially in times of scarcity, when there are no bricks left to rebuild, nor paint to make up, as so often, this old city. Perhaps we, the people of Sancti Spiritus, can do little today to restore and keep the town lush.

On the other hand, we can do much to revere and protect her as the goddess who protects and clothes her children; like the mother who, without intending to, achieves with hers such particular charms that—from closeness or distance—everyone pampers, venerates and embraces her with the same warmth as always.