New book in Camagüey for scholars and lovers of interculturality (+ Photos)

Text and photos: Lázaro David Najarro Pujol

Camagüey, Cuba.- The publishers Ácana and El Lugareño closed 2020 and arrived at the new calendar with a literary, historical and investigative novelty; it is the book Association of Blacks and Mestizos in the city of Camagüey (1879-1961) Their contributions to social development, of the MSc. Kezia Zabrina Henry Knight, available to readers in bookstores in the capital of Camagüey.

It is a text that is the result of the intense research work of the also specialist of the House of Cultural Diversity of the territory, of dialogue with distinguished families of the City of Tinajones, whose historic center is a Cultural Heritage of Humanity; a topic of interest for scholars and lovers of interculturality and raciality.

In addition, he delved into the Historical Archive and the Julio Antonio Mella Provincial Library with the aim of preserving the written memory of the Maceo and Victoria associations.

In a text published on the website of the Office of the Historian of the City of Camagüey, the author pointed out that “on November 20, 1864 the Santa Cecilia Philharmonic Society was established, in the former Port-au-Prince, in the then El Fénix theater.” .

Henry Knight adds that “the first president with 39 votes in his favor was Fernando Betancourt y Betancourt. The regulations were approved by the Lieutenant Governor of the Department, Mr. Casimiro de la Muela, this procedure allowed the inauguration of the organization on the 22nd of the same month and year, the day of Santa Cecilia, at the El Fénix theater itself.

“On that day for the inaugural speech the name was changed” … because since before there was another institution in the city called the Philharmonic Society, it was considered prudent to modify who was initially put, to avoid confusion. ”

“The internal operation allowed the self-organization of sections of Music, Literature, Sciences and Declamation; while in 1867 the newspaper El Popular was founded, directed by Mr. Don Antenor Lescano.

“The normal course of the association was altered in the months of October and November 1868, as the beginning of the Ten Years War changed the activities due to the increased number of losses in the membership. Especially when the Chief of Police, Manuel Anduiza, by order of the Governor Commander General, ordered the institution to close.

In 1870 the Spanish Casino was the beneficiary of the institutions: the Philharmonic and the Popular, the latter’s premises were established as the Theater of the Spanish Casino ”.

As stated on the back cover of the work Association of Blacks and Mestizos in the city of Camagüey (1879-1961) His contributions to social development in the book distinguish the contributions of these societies of “instruction and recreation to the social and cultural life of the town, an unpublished argument that the Ácana publishing house offers, as a first, to the readers”. (Translated by Linet Acuña Quilez)

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