Nuevitas, 2025.- I never imagined that the traveling exhibition “Cuba: Heritage and Nature”, on display at the Guernica Gallery in the city of Nuevitas, north of Camagüey, would have such an impact in that territory.
The important thing is that children and teenagers from different primary and secondary schools undertook an imaginary journey around the first eight villas founded by the Spaniards in the largest of the Antilles, through the 19 images in the collection.
It was also visited by participants in the Camagua Folk Dance International Festival.
The exhibition is the result of several visits I made (with my own resources and the support of friends) to the cities of Baracoa, Bayamo, Trinidad, Camagüey, Sancti Spíritus, Santiago de Cuba, Havana and Remedios, the latter in the north of the province of Villa Clara.
It is fair to point out that Santa María del Puerto del Príncipe, today Camagüey, was founded in Punta de Guincho, Nuevitas, which is why Roberto Figueredo, the curator, included two snapshots of that environment.
The display is a selection of more than 54 photographs from the book Cuba: An Excursion through Time, published in nine languages. It invites locals and visitors to feel, from unsuspected angles, the heritage treasure of those first settlements, and the text was illustrated with snapshots under the premise that a picture says more than a thousand words.
The traveling exhibition was also shown in important galleries in the city of Camagüey and Florida.
Meanwhile, according to those who have read it, the text Cuba: An Excursion through Time, stands out for its fresh and pleasant language. It proposes in 169 pages a look, from unsuspected angles, at the first seven villas founded by the Spaniards in the island, including Remedios, a place that maintains in very good condition the buildings of the time, so for some, it is considered as the eighth villa.
It is no coincidence that experts in heritage issues include the text as a colonial literary jewel, but at the same time with a distinctive accent supported by the architectural and natural modernity from which the author does not detach himself.
Not only does he use period buildings, but in his verbal path he conquers the almost anonymous Cuban wonders of the 20th century, where the impressive La Farola viaduct, an engineering work built in the easternmost mountains of the country; the Havana Malecón; the Nacional Hotel of Cuba; the famous Tropicana cabaret; and the Casino Campestre, the largest Cuban urban park, in the city of Camagüey, shine.
It undresses with proverbial and well-deserved charm of the remarkable, singular and natural contexts of this Caribbean island. The Sierra Maestra, the Escambray, the Limones Tuabaquey Ecological Reserve, in the province of Camagüey, and the waterfalls and tributaries of Baracoa also deserve a distinctive space.
The display goes far beyond and transcends the boundaries of time imposed by more than five centuries and describes legendary stories such as those of the cacique Hatuey or the black man Golomón, in Bayamo, and that of the cacicazgo Camagüebax and his daughter, Princess Tínima, in the region of shepherds and hats.
It embraces in its pages to Santiago de Cuba with combative passages for liberation, but also a very characteristic culture, in which European customs from Spain and France intermingle with African roots, becoming closer to the Caribbean spirit of the Cuban people.
Neither is San Cristobal de La Habana, the cosmopolitan city and capital of the nation, which became the center of important routes between the Old and the New World, forgotten. And as an essential axis of the patrimonial framework of the novel text, the indigenous cultures of the island are highlighted: the Taíno, Guanahatabey and Siboney groups.
According to the epitaph of this text: So far it has been a road trip to return more than five centuries, a very pleasant journey through countless heritage sites and beautiful landscapes that turned the ride into a pleasant excursion through time, both of the colonial era and the recent past.
Cuba, due to its geographical position, was used as a base in the 16th century for the conquest and colonization of the continent. Precisely in 1513 from the island, Juan Ponce de León discovered and undertook the exploration and capture of Florida, USA; and in 1519 Hernán Cortés set sail from Havana to Mexico.
Thus, the 'pretext' of Eduardo Saborit's chorus: Know Cuba first and abroad later has allowed this fascinating journey through the Pearl of the Antilles. Now, at the end, one cannot say goodbye without repeating with Saborit himself: Cuba, how beautiful Cuba is.
So Cuba: The First Eight Villas. An excursion through time, is a gift for all those who wish to learn about the historical and cultural evolution of the largest of the Antilles.
