Camagüey, county with more tourist permanency in Cuba

Camagüey, 20 Sep. The information that has just published the National Office of Statistical, that Camagüey in the first semester is not only the county of more tourist permanency in Cuba full with joy to those that work in this sector, but to all the inhabitants of this center oriental region.

According to the study of the entity, the stay of the foreign tourists in the extensive and flat lands of Camagüey grew in 22%, the biggest figure reported by the counties and collection in the publication Tourism, indicators for territories.

Follows Camagüey, Santiago de Cuba with 13% and the Youth's Island with 6, territories that are able to increase the days of foreign tourists' stay, indicator associated to the expenses.

The international tourism arose properly to the beginning of the special period as important option to capture quick hard currency, to propitiate the economic recovery of the country and to revitalize other sectors like the slight and alimentary industries.

In Camagüey, to 550 kilometers of Havana, the biggest quantity in keys and islands of the country and 25% of the beaches of the Cuban archipelago are located, and to the capital city can be consented by the international airport Ignacio Agramonte.

The main attributes of the region are Santa Lucía's beach and the city of Camagüey, leaves of whose historical center possesses the title of Cultural Patrimony of the Humanity, granted by the UNESCO.

To the excellent beaches unite diving places and sport fishing. In the key of the north lives great quantity of species of the flora and the fauna, while in the ecological region Sierra de Cubitas assures to walk for among hills of green and humid flora, to explore caverns and to navigate for a labyrinth of almost virgin islands and to cross plains. (Enrique Atiénzar Rivero)

Camagüey streets

The martyrs' avenue. La Vigía neighbourhood

The Charity Avenue

Streeet to San Juan de Dios Square

Cisneros Street

Independencia Street

Maceo Street

Avellaneda Railroads

El Carmen Church. Bedoya Square

Culture in Camagüey

Camaguey

Founded in 1994 as a response to a growing interest on the part of many Madisonians to find out more about Cuba, the Madison-Camaguey Sister City Association (MCSCA) has endeavored to bring our two communities together in a spirit of mutual respect.

Madison and Camaguey share the distinction of being each country’s “dairyland.” They are both capital cities for their respective province, as well as centers of culture, education, and research and development institutes. They also share that special attitude that characterizes them among their country folk as different and unique.

Cuba’s third largest city, Camaguey was founded in 1514 by Spanish conquers and has always played a key role in the development of the Cuban nation. Last year, it was declared by UNESCO to be a World Heritage Site as it was being overwhelmed by Hurricanes Ike and Paloma. MCSCA has led relief efforts to help those affected by the storms and plans to continue with specific projects designed to help with the restoration of historical buildings.

In spite of restrictions on travel to Cuba imposed by the continuing U.S. embargo on the island, MCSCA has been able to maintain a relationship with Camaguey by working with other humanitarian groups, such as the Wisconsin Medical Project, and just recently commemorated the 15th Anniversary of the sister city program.

Tax deductible donations are welcome and can be made to: MCSCA, P. O. Box 608, Madison, WI 53701. You can also make your contribution online.

Carlos J. Finlay

Carlos Juan Finlay was born in the city of Puerto Principe (now Camaguey), in the Island of Cuba, on the 3rd of December, 1833. His father was Edward, a Scotch physician, and his mother, Isabel de Barres a native of France.While he was still in his infancy the family moved to Havana where the boy grew to his eleventh year, residing at times in the Capital, and at times in Guanimar.We can well imagine that the life of young Finlay in the open awakened his love for the study of Nature.

In 1844 Carlos was sent to France and studied in a school at the Havre until 1846 when he had to return to Cuba on account of an attack of cholera.

He returned to Europe in 1848 to complete his education in France, but the revolutionary movements of that year obliged him to remain for a short time in London, and during one year in a school at Mentz on the Rhine. He entered college at last in Rouen where he continued his studies until 1851 when he returned to Cuba to convalesce from an attack of typhoid fever.
The
Spanish law at the time would not validate for the degree of Bachelor in Arts, the college courses followed in France, and he came to Philadelphia where the said degree was not necessary for the study of Medicine. He graduated in Medicine on the 10th of March 1855 from the Jefferson Medical College,Dr. Finlay incorporated his diploma in the University of Havana in 1857, and began the practice of his profession. On the 16th of October 1865, he married, in the city of Havana, Miss Adela Shine, a native of the Island of Trinidad. In 1881 he went to Washington representing the colonial Government of Cuba at the International Sanitary Conference.

in 1898 He wrote at the time a complete plan of campaign against the yellow fever on the same lines, which were subsequently followed with the brilliant results now familiar to all of us.The great work of Finlay may be expressed in very few words: He discovered the fact that yellow fever is transmitted by the bite of one species of mosquito, and he invented a sure method for the extinction of the disease.

Great as our satisfaction must be, how much greater must be that of the man, illustrious as he is modest, who has made all this possible through a mental effort equaled by very few in the history of the human mind".

PUBLIC LIBRARY JULIO ANTONIO MELLA

The Provincial Library Julio Antonio Mella is located in historical downtown, Camaguey city, across from beautiful Ignacio Agramonte Park . It was founded on June 1, 1963 and it is attended by a technically trained library staff who offers dynamic and efficient services. The Library has more 230000 volumes in stock, 86000 library users per year, and provides 146000 loans and other services –as a result of its wide and systematic activities of extension work and reading promotion, not only in the library itself, but also in the community. Nowadays, it is compiling local bibliographies and developing bibliotecological researches. It functions as both the Provincial Library and as the head of the provincial public libraries system, which comprises 30 libraries located in twelve municipalities and rural areas.

MISSION

Library's mission is directed towards the conservation, protection and dissemination of book collection and the promotion of reading, too by means of different actions and activities.

LENDINDG DEPARTMENT

It is composed of the Registration Department and the rooms dealing with general information, rare books, general literature, literature for children, literature for the young, visuals arts, music, and extension work. Each room keep very valuables collections according to its thematic outline and readers' interest.

PRINCIPAL SERVICES

Book lending, local lending of serials and audiovisuals materials, reference works (by phone and mail); services of bibliographical search, vertical file, cassette recording, musical auditions, concerts, library exhibitions, and other interesting activities.

SELECTION, ACQUISITION AND TECHNICAL PROCESSING DEPARTMENT

It has the responsibility of selecting, acquiring and processing library materials which the Institution obtains through different means. Besides, there are others important areas: Conservation and Computers. The WEB page is update. It is working on the Iberoamerican Digital Library Project.

SPECIAL AREAS

Minerva Book Club. The Public Library founded it five years ago to provide more books to readers. This collection comprises by new books from Cuban and foreign writers, or recently acquired by the National or provincial Libraries.

BLINDS AND VISUALLY IMPAIRED PEOPLE DEPARTMENT

It has a collection of books and magazines in Braille and offers “talking book”, rehabilitation, and teaching services for blinds and visually impaired; as well as home reading and extension work. This Area was founded in 1983.

OUR ACTIVITIES

Our cultural and reading promotion activities have gained real reputation due to the librarians' commitment and dedication. These activities are supported by a close link between the Public Library and different cultural institution.

• Wednesday's Concert. Second Wednesday at 3:00 pm.

• Young Performers. Third Wednesday at 4:00 pm.

- Camagueyana Conversation Last Monday at 5:00 pm.

• Movie Club Glauber Rocha. Third Thursday at 8:00 pm.

• Literature and much more… Last Friday at 10:00 am.

• Literary Saturday for children. Second Saturday at 10:00 am.

FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG

The Children's and Young's Rooms have lovely developed several activities for reading promotion such as reading teams and workshop concerning Braille system, theater, painting, readers, story telling, literature, contest and games. Besides, these rooms have been awarded the International Prize Chamán and the National Prize Cuentería for yours systematic work in story telling for children.

LIBRARY AND THE COMMUNITY

It is a long-range project which serves people's needs in Camaguey city and its sorroundings, but it specially involves the assistance to disadvantaged persons. The Library offers services to people in health institutions, prisons, and also to the handicapped. Children Room carries out a weekly biblioterapy program , and other activities which require our spiritual and human support.

ANNUAL EVENTS

• Camagueyanos Writers Meeting, February

• Braille Workshop Reading , April.

• Scientific Workshop Bibliotecological, June.

• Special Areas Meeting, June.

• Children's Workshop National Story Telling, November.

DESK SCHEDULE

Monday to Friday: 8:00am.- 9:00 pm.

Saturday: 8:00am.-4:00 pm.

Sunday: 9:00am.- 1:00pm.

Dramatic group “Nino Moncada”: quality and sense of belonging

Dramatic Group "Nino Moncada"It is impossible to speak of successes, professionalism and dedication to the radio, without referring to the Dramatic Group “Nino Moncada “, a troupe of actors, directors, playwrights, music consultants, special effects specialists and advisors who convey the audience a rich programming. This programming includes Cuban romances, detective serial Operative Guard, children intended program Pioneers’ World, stories, dramas and many other shows that as Radio Cadena Agramonte’s slogan reads “are in the people’s heart.”

The group was founded on January, 1969 and the first feature programs it produced were the Cuban romance “A New Dawn” and a 12-chapter serial dedicated to Jose Martí’s life. Those actors and actresses who founded it were Deogracia “Nino” Moncada Fontes, Manuel Rodríguez Cruz, José Martínez Estévez, José Luis Cadenas, José “Pepín" Bueno Díaz de Arce, Benito Gil Lacal and Homero de Dios.

The most outstanding of them were Nora Thomas, Mario Crespo, Consuelo Cruz, José Martínez, Martha Queipo, Héctor Vilató, Ángel Olivera, Orosmán Bueno, María Elena Fernández, Yolanda Fonseca, Jorge. A. Morán, Homero de Dios, and others; while the pioneers in narration ere Francisco Rivero and Rafael López Álvarez. quality and sense of belonging.

Nicohlas Guillen

Nicohlas Guillen was born in 1902. He was an Afro-Cuban poet, writer, journalist, and social activist.

Guillen’s father introduced him to Afro-Cuban music when he was very young. His father was a journalist.Guillen began writing about the social problems faced by blacks in the 1920, his first poems appeared in Camaguey Grafico in 1922.

In 1930, he created an international stir with the publication of Motivos de son, eight short poems inspired by the Son, a popular Afro-Cuban musical form, and the daily living conditions of Cuban blacks. Composed in Afro-Cuban vernacular, the collection separated itself from with Spanish literary cannon and established black culture as a legitimate focus of Cuban literature. It was as if Guillen had touched on something that the people of Cuba could recognize as having been on the tips of their tongues waiting for Guillen to articulate it.

In 1940, he ran for mayor of Camaguey and in 1948, Guillen was a senatorial candidate for the Cuban Communist Party; both campaigns were unsuccessful. He truly identified with the plight of blacks beyond his native Cuba, this is reflected in his Elegias (1958). Upon his return to Cuba in 1959, Fidel Castro awarded him the task of designing a new cultural policy and setting up the Union of Writers and Artist of Cuba, of which Guillen became president in 1961. During the next two decades, he wrote and published a number of collections of poetry including Tengo (1964), El gran Zoo (1967), La rueda dentada, and El diario que a diario (1972), and Sol de Domingo (1982). Guillen died in Havana in 1987.

The Maximum River and Los Cangilones

To the southeast of the Sierra of Cubitas, the Maximum River shows splendid Los cangilones.

The most famous natural pool in the Island and one of the emblematics landscapes of the territory Camagüey

By:Jesus Risquet Bueno

Charming site , somebody called this way to this place in that the Maximum River, in the north area of the county of Camagüey, illuminated by the sunbeams, seems a silver cord among the greenery of the area: Los Cangilones .

The river is not very mighty, as most of those of the island, in it a sandy, neither dark bottom is not appreciated; but rather clean, flat and white as if it was an extensive marble flagstone submerged in the water.

This happens because the Maximum River, when crossing an area of very crystallized calcareous rocks, covered by a deep alluvial floor, has settled, with enviable sculptural polish, the bowels to a mantel of underlying calcareous rocks, creating an interesting bed that for more than 350 meters constitutes a natural pool of great beauty, which National Monument was declared: Los Cangilones of the Maximum River.

This interesting place that began to be formed about 28 million years ago, en1867 was visited, for the priest, geographer and Spanish writer Antonio Perpiña who later on captured its impressions of the paradisiac place in the titled book The Camagüey, published in the year 1889. “It was the waves of the waters of the Maximum river. What dilute so crystalline those of that mighty river! What so picturesque margins! It was that a Paradise

The river is born in the central area of the county and finishes diluted in the northern Bay of La Gloria melting with the brackish environment in an extraordinary unrepeatable place.

During a time the waters of the Maximum River suffered a severe contamination caused by waste of a station of a unit of a growinf of sweet waters which damaged also to Los Cangilones, but a plan of rehabilitation of that area of extraordinary beauty has included actions like the cleaning of the bed, the reopening of the bathrooms and of the tourist center in its proximities.

Los Cangilones have always been good as trip place and entertainment for the people of Camagüey and other casual visitors or in passing. This attractive landscape and reference point for many people, continue getting the attention for the opportunities that it toasts for who looks for serenity in a shady and always green atmosphere.

The direction of the near base of Camping controls the use of the referred place whose public use was endorsed by diverse organisms.

Los Cangilones of the Maximum River have a deviation channel that impedes the traffic for the natural pool from the noxious substances to the health, because after being degraded the pours river below.

The Maximum River has a modest itinerary, 66,2 kilometers, but it makes honor to its name with its journey of humidity and fertility for the bigger than the counties of Cuba and Los Cangilones represent a legitimate postcard of the universal patrimony.

“Birth House of Ignacio Agramonte” Museum

During the first decade of the 18th century a shed type house occupied this spot, later on, towards the second half of the century the Agramonte Recio family built the two-story house which now stands in its place.
Ignacio Agramonte y Loynaz who became Major General of the Liberating Army in the 10-year war was born in this house on December 23 1841.
The house occupies a large area and volume, forming angles with the streets Soledad y Candelaria. Its main facade has a wide Spanish door in an elliptical arch flanked by two slender pilasters with threaded moldings, bearing as its only detail the family’s Coat of Arms. The continuous balcony with wooden posts finished with wooden capitals can be found on the front and lateral facades, distinguishing the building and bestowing upon it great architectural value. The mezzanine level is marked on the outside of both facades by two detached balconies. The building’s layout is C-shaped and has balcony with wooden posts looking down unto the interior courtyard, in which we can find five tinajones, and a well with a white marble rim.
Access is gained through the zaguan to the courtyard, secondary dormitories, or to the staitway that rises to the mezzanine level that housed the servants quarters.
On the uppermost floor the magnificent woodwork of the four-sloped roof with trusses, paired struts and fretwork can be observed as well as the exquisite frieze that adorns the spacious main room which is likewise decorated with the beautiful objects of that period.
All the interior and exterior carpentry reproduces faithfully details of the period, windows with shutters and asymmetrical bars, sculpted balusters and Spanish-style doors with smooth panels fixed by iron nails all offering security and beauty to the building.
Throughout time this house was used for different purposes, as the family home, business establishment and Spanish consulate among other uses. On May 11, 1973 it was inaugurated as a memorial house to commemorate the centenary of the Major’s death in combat.Because of this building’s historical and architectural importance it has been declared a national monument.