Day 4, February 15, 2020: Going Walkabout (Mostly), in Baracoa

“The famous cross was planted by Columbus at the mouth of a cove ‘on some rough stones,’ according to …Bartolomé de las Casas. What we know of the next five-hundred years at that site can be attributed to fact, speculation, inference, oral accounts, likelihood, supposition, logic, or the sort of retro-history that has anointed the mojito at La Bodeguita del Medio (in Havana) as Hemingway’s favorite.” —Tom Miller, “Trading With The Enemy”

El Yunque

February mornings in Baracoa are balmy. On two days there it rained in the wee hours, and we awoke to a mix of clouds, shadow and sun, and puddles. There was in-house “desayuno,” at each individual casa particular. We (Faith, Viviana, Dave, MJ), guests of Onoria, ascended to the top floor deck, for al fresco scrambled eggs, bacon, fresh-squeezed juice, sliced tropical fruits, cheeses and bread, and coffee. There was also the famous Baracoan chocolate, a richer version of our hot chocolate. From this spot we'd chat, watch the sun illuminate the far side of the bay, and listen to the street below come alive. The cuisine and the chats would be our morning routine in Baracoa.

One industrious hombre, unofficial and not entirely welcome alarm clock of the neighborhood, was alive before everyone else except for the time-challenged cockerel next door (whom Faith and Viviana grew instantly not to love). Our man bicycled along, each morning and afternoon, with a box of fresh pastries behind his seat. He pedaled a circular route which would bring him by us about every 20-30 minutes. He also had a shrill referee’s whistle, so all could hear that he was open for business, starting around 5 am.

Morning coffee on the deck.  Just out of bed, or breezy? You make the call. (Photo by Faith Garfield - thank you, Faith!)

Mouth of small creek, black sand beach, Bay of Baracoa

Early am, street in front of our casa

The army is inconspicuous, but omnipresent

From the roof, the family abajo

The group convened after breakfast and walked to historic central Baracoa, only a few blocks. We paused in front of a building on Calle Antonio Maceo, now home of Cuba Ecotours. This same building, in the 1940’s, was the boarding house where Stuart Ashman’s father resided in Baracoa as a young man.

One group, under surveillance

Where Stuart Ashman's father boarded.

Ambling along, we came to Parque Central de Baracoa (over time also named Plaza de Armas, Plaza Cacique Hatuey, AKA Plaza Independencia). The space is small but prominent, and triangular rather than square. The base of the triangle is fronted by La Catedral de Nuestra Señora de la Asunción, on the site of the original church of Baracoa.

Nuestra Señora de la Asunción (photo credit: Trip Advisor “getlstd_property_photo”)

Interior of still active church, on the site of the original church from ca. 1512. It has been destroyed and rebuilt many times over the centuries.  Hence the more modern interior look.

Alejandro Hartman Matos, city historian of Baracoa. A treasure trove of history, politics, culture, climatology, and congeniality.

Columbus claims Cuba for Los Reyes Católicos de España. El Yunque is prominent here. This window, and the one below, are to the sides of the altar.

John Paul II came to Cuba in 1998, the first papal visit since the Revolution. Castro had declared Cuba to be officially secular, no longer atheist, in 1992.

NOT INTERESTED IN HISTORY?  SKIP TO GALERIA DE ARTE BELOW (REENTER AT ***)

CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS AND BARACOA:

The seaman’s log of Christopher Columbus says that he and his crew, and some native Caribe guides landed in eastern Cuba in November, 1492. The journal, abstracted by Padre Bartolomé de las Casas sometime after 1530, provides enough physical description that  speculation as to the exact location is possible.  Prominent in the log is an “anvil-shaped mountain,” looming above the bay. The log also gives us Columbus’s now-famous statement:  “the most beautiful land that human eyes had ever seen.” Columbus thought that he had touched upon eastern Asia.

The small beach at the entrance to the bay.  Landing site of Columbus.

In 1511, Diego Velazquez entered the bay and formed the small settlement which became Baracoa.  Per the story, shortly thereafter the company found a wooden cross beneath some vegetation. They knew this to be the cross planted by Columbus when he claimed the territory of “Juana” for the Spanish crown. They carried it to the church where it has stayed permanently, except for brief periods when it required extraction and shelter from storms or invasions.

The cross is wood.  Scientific dating methods are consistent with crafting in the late 15th century. The gold bands were affixed in the 18th and 19th centuries.

There are, of course, uncertainties.  Debate and research continue even concerning just which Caribbean island Columbus viewed first, and upon which he first landed. In 1939-40 Samuel Eliot Morison sailed with the Harvard Columbus Expedition. After experiencing and accounting for predictable currents, prevailing winds, physical descriptions in Columbus’s log, etc., Morison advocated for Gibara as the true landing site. Indeed (see Day 2) a similar mountain rises above the bay there:

Gibara Bay, much west of Baracoa, with saddle-shaped Silla de Gibara.  Compare this to the silhouette of El Yunque, at Baracoa. The view of Silla from Bariay would be similar, but reversed.

Other investigators put the landing site at Cayo Bariay, east of Gibara. The same mountain over Gibara Bay is visible, but from the other side. Cayo Bariay is the official landing site recognized by the government. The national park there has costume re-enactments of Columbus’s encounter with the Taíno, historical monuments, and a replica of the cross which is in the church in Baracoa. Bariay was not on our itinerary.

Cuban poet, philosopher and public intellectual Ariel James, interviewed by Tom Miller for his book “Trading With the Enemy,” was convinced that his own collected evidence puts the landing point at Guardalavaca, considerably west of Baracoa and east of Gibara and Bariay.  He thinks this not disputable. (I refer to Ariel James in past tense; regrettably, he died in Santiago the day before we arrived in Holguín).

A few factual contradictions point away from Gibara, Bariay, or Guardalavaca. The logbook clearly says, for example, that Columbus’s boats entered into sheltered water many fathoms deep, easily below the keels, at no risk. Gibara Bay and Bariay are relatively shallow. The mountain above both Gibara and Bariay is historically called “Silla,” saddle, not "Yunque," anvil.

That cross!  It was brought from Europe by Columbus, for planting in Asia, and for claiming the land (turned out to be Cuba, but there it is).  Or maybe not.  In the 1980’s scientists analyzed a short splinter of wood at a laboratory in South Africa. Cuba participated. With little controversy, they agreed that the wood sample displays the genetics of certain trees which are indigenous to, and common in and around Baracoa.  So, NOT brought from Europe. A humorous aside:  the cross was greater than two meters in height at first.  Today it is between 3 and 4 feet. Shrinkage is attributed to the harvesting of “relics” over the centuries  (Hartmann, cited by Tom Miller). We saw it; that’s about right.

Finally, there is the problem of Columbus’s logs. When Columbus returned to Spain the next year (1493) he presented the log to Queen Isabel. She ordered the log to be copied. The copy came to be known as the “Barcelona Copy.” Within short order, the original log disappeared. It has never reappeared. Columbus, then later Columbus’s son, had the Barcelona Copy until 1554.  Then it also vanished. Sometime after 1530, using that same Barcelona Copy, Padre Bartolomé de las Casas created the abstracted “Diario” of the voyages of Christopher Columbus, still in print and translation.

Documents outlined in pink are lost.

The descriptive evidence - mountains, tides, winds, water depth, etc. - reflect conditions 530 years ago. So really, do we know, CAN we know, exactly where Columbus landed in eastern Cuba? We can say, “Close by here,” but more than that? Ultimately, Alejandro Hartmann, the city historian of Baracoa, possesses the passionate conviction that it happened in Baracoa, exactly as and where the local story says. And he knows as much as anyone.

An aside: Bartolomé de Las Casas stands out as a historical figure. A voice for a small minority of Spanish Catholics at the time, he advocated for the common humanity of the Indian "races" in the New World. He was much disturbed by the genocidal and exploitative tendencies of Spain.

Sated with the wonderful and exotic history of Baracoa, we exited the church, and crossed through the park to Baracoa Galeria del Arte.

Hatuey has been called the first "anti-colonialist" of the Western Hemisphere.  He was the cacique (chief) of a tribe on what is now Haiti and Dominican Republic.  He resisted the Spanish, and was driven west to Cuba. He was captured in 1512, near Baracoa.  Tied to the stake, in  the village of Yara, prefatory to auto-da-fe, he was urged to convert to Christianity.  Famously he asked, "Do the Spanish go to Heaven?" Told that those who were saved indeed did so, he retorted, "If that's where the Spanish go, I prefer hell." And he died unconverted. He is a Cuban national hero.

***WELCOME BACK THOSE WHO SKIPPED THE DISCURSIVE HISTORY

Down the street to the Baracoa Galeria de Arte. Yoel Barossa is the director, and one of the artists.  The focus is largely, but not entirely, arte naïf.

Kevin, Gay, Linda, and art

This painting, "Limites," and the one above, are by Alexei Osorio Blet (from Imias). This one touched us both, but MJ in particular. Her intense involvement with Central American asylum seekers informed the sense of struggle to get to freedom. She has since become "pen pals" with the artist.

Art fills the entire space, even the hallway that stores emergency fire equipment.

Down the street from Galleria de Arte is the Casa de la Cultura. Here children and young teens are given art instruction, and form organized instrumental and choral groups. There is a museum of French-styled costumery from the 1800's, the French era of occupation of eastern Cuba. From that era derives the drumming and dance tradition of Tumba. A later post will touch on Tumba.

For art demonstrations and musical performances, we mingled with the teachers, and with some of the parents. We could think back how proud our own parents were when we were 8 years old and stumbled through a recital, a school open house, or an art show.

Teacher art

Teacher art

Choral director

Assistant choral director

You can watch these gorgeous children singing and playing:

https://youtu.be/2oS9EKMBGsg
https://youtu.be/ab9ij82U3tM

We lunched at Restaurante Marco Polo, on the land side of the Malecón, on their glassed-in second floor where the views are awesome.

MJ.  Hey, it's OUR blog.

The artist Leandro Gómez Quintero and his physician wife live on the Malecón, a short walk north of the Marco Polo. We were their guests. Leandro fashions hand-crafted miniature vehicles in the pattern of the various ramshackle cars and trucks visible all around Cuba. He makes these from salvaged materials, wooden sticks and pieces, papier-mâché and so forth. (FWIW, his wife makes hand-crafted addictive biscochetas as good as there are on Earth.  Yummm). Leandro exhibits and sells his very popular creations at the Santa Fe International Folk Art Market, even when he himself might not be allowed to leave Cuba (visas can be difficult).

Dave and MJ acquired front row, second from left.  All these otherwise were destined for shipment to Santa Fe.

Leandro is repairing his home, damaged by Hurricane Matthew. His earnings from the folk art market and
what he sold at our visit will help him finish, and he will be able to add stairs to the second floor and a bathroom.

Some homes were destroyed by Hurricane Matthew, others less so. Miraculously, not one person in Baracoa perished in this Category 5 storm.

Leandro (flanked by Stuart and Peggy) and his wife baked us a cake.  Jonathan eyes it.  In Leonardo's hand is the invitation to show at the 2020 International Folk Art Market (sadly, cancelled for coronavirus).

At dusk we regrouped on the roof of Mirador El Yunque, a casa particular along our thin street.  The excellent Cuban rum flowed, in some directions very freely.  For about an hour, we listened, sang along, and danced with Carlos Hernandez and La Banda Tropical.  They are renowned in Cuba.  The music showcases one of the many traditional types of Cuban music, called “son."  It was a privilege to meet them, and hear them.  They are world-class.

Dusk at Baracoa

Carlos Hernandez y La Banda Tropical, https://www.facebook.com/gtmo.cult.cu/

Watch La Banda here:
https://youtu.be/xEm0uOc5jN8
https://youtu.be/eS7ZER_5Ci8
https://youtu.be/rp5p0-rk7QE

Dinner at La Baracoanda, a family-owned vegetarian restaurant.  The owner family is charming.
It was wonderful, despite the absence of alcohol, caffeine, and air conditioning.

El dueño, Aristides Smith, y sus hijos

La esposa 

Janis, are you looking for a smooch?