Sites of Memory of Slavery in Cuba

Description

01	Sierra del Rosario Cultural Landscape	22º51´44´´ N	82º55´40´´ W
02	Remains of Angerona Coffee Plantation	22º50´58´´ N	82º51´11´´ W
03	Church of Nuestra Señora de Regla	22º07´53´´ N	82º20´10´´ W
04	Remains of Alejandría Sugar Mill	22º49´05´´ N	82º01´16´´ W
05	San Severino Castle	23º03´22´´ N	81º33´34´´ W
06	Remains of Triunvirato Sugar Mill	22º55´52´´ N	81º32´13´´ W
07	Remains of Demajagua Sugar Mill	20º17´01´´ N	77º17´01´´ W
08	El Cobre Cultural Landscape	20º17´01´´ N	77º10´34´´ W

The enormous impact of slavery in Cuba for almost four centuries on economic, social and cultural life is appreciable through the sites of memory of this sad episode of universal history, such as dwellings, places of work, cemeteries, sites of rebellion, places of worship, memorials, terrestrial and submerged archaeological sites and cultural landscapes.

Based on the investigation of the sites of memory of slavery in Cuba, their exceptionality, integrity, authenticity, level of management and legal protection, this serial nomination is proposed, which groups as its components the most representative properties:

Sierra del Rosario Cultural Landscape: Located in a mountainous topography, protective stronghold of the sugar advance in the west of the island, the site preserves testimonies of the coffee development achieved in the first half of the nineteenth century with slave labor, the number of coffee plantations reached one hundred, with a number of slaves close to two thousand. In the description of Las Terrazas, a community located in the center of the territory, the site is described as "a network of historical, social, economic and cultural relationships, the result of the footprint of the various actions of men and nature combined in time."

Ruins of Angerona Coffee Plantation: It was the most important coffee plantation in western Cuba and the second on the island in the first half of the nineteenth century, it had around 450 slaves in its endowment, a colossal number for a single plantation. Founded in 1813, by the German Cornelio Souchay, its relevance was recognized by the testimonies of the American Abiel Abbot, after his visit in l828 and the Cuban writer Cirilo Villaverde, who visited it in 1839. Due to the particularities of its owners, the interracial relations, unprecedented for the time and the treatment of slaves, this site is exceptional in the context of the slave society in which it reached its splendor.

Church of Nuestra Señora de Regla: the first temple dates from 1690, thanks to alms and a donation obtained by a Peruvian pilgrim named Manuel Antonio, in 1696 the current image of the Virgin of Regla was located in the Sanctuary, since them Havanans pay tribute to her every September 8. In 1792 a new building was erected, around which the town of Regla was born. The present church was built between 1811 and 1818. The Virgin of Regla and its temple constitute one of the most eloquent examples of religious syncretism where Catholic and African elements are mixed, Cubans identify this virgin with Yemayá, deity of the Rule of Osha-Ifá, arrived in these lands as part of the worldview of the Yoruba ethnic group.

Ruins of Alejandría Sugar Mill: The Valley of San Julián de los Güines, original name of the territory, is a space of the Havana-Matanzas plain that, at times, reached the highest level of concentration of sugar mills during the nineteenth century in Cuba, which brought with it the need to build the first railroad in Latin America from Havana to the site in 1838. Much earlier, in 1797, Don Luis de las Casas, who had been governor and captain general of the island (1790-1796), founded the Alejandría Sugar Mill, which had the particularity of using water as a driving force, being the only one of this type preserved.

San Severino Castle: It is the most important fortification in the west of the island, except for the defensive system of Havana, it was built between 1684 and 1734, by diverse labor, including slaves, of which there are evidences in its walls. The work was born to protect the strategic bay and city of Matanzas, the main urban center of the largest sugar and slave emporium of the island in the nineteenth century. Currently in the Castle is located the Museum of the Slave Route in Cuba, which has become a cultural center for the promotion of the African roots of Cuban culture.

Ruins of Triunvirato Sugar Mill: In this place took place on November 5, 1843, the largest slave uprising on the island, which was brutally repressed. In 1991 in commemoration of the events the Monument to the Rebel Slave was erected, currently there is a site museum and the numerous archaeological remains that are preserved are investigated.

Ruins of Demajagua Sugar Mill: October 10, 1868, is identified as the beginning of the Cuban War of Independence. That day the bell of the Demajagua sugar mill called its crew of slaves to congregate to fight for freedom. The owner of the mill, lawyer Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, also considered Father of the Nation, added to the decision to fight for a sovereign homeland, the need to free his slaves and invite them to join the heroic epic. In Demajagua began the struggle of the Cuban people that culminated in the independence of the last vestige of Spanish colonialism in America.

El Cobre Cultural Landscape: It constitutes the most important milestone of the religiosity of Cubans, both for Catholics and followers of the syncretic derivations with Afro-Cuban influence that have venerated this site from its relationship with the Virgin of Charity of El Cobre, Patroness of Cuba; it is also listed as the place of the first slave uprising in Cuba of which there is news, and the mine, first gold and then copper, it was one of the first exploited by the Spaniards in America and one of the pioneer places in the use of slave labor. In the place stands the Monument to the Cimarrón.

Justification de la Valeur Universelle Exceptionnelle

The starting point for considering that the series has a universal value focused on the following aspects:

- The African slave trade was a phenomenon of universal connotation.

-The dimension of this phenomenon for the insular Caribbean has no comparison with any other region of the world due to its intensity.

- The slave process in Cuba and the entire region was characterized by being closely linked to colonial plantation systems, associated with the enormous commercial traffic generated in the world economy.

Criterion (ii): The group of components of the series testify to the colossal interrelation of values, traditions and knowledge between Europeans and Africans fundamentally, throughout almost four centuries of slavery, in countless manifestations, such as the construction of buildings of dissimilar typologies, the creation of cultural landscapes linked to the plantation systems that shaped the regional geography and mining, The colossal development of the sugar industry in this period was the result of the coexistence of the slave society with the introduction of novel technological processes.

Criterion (iii): The components of the series testify dissimilar elements of a clearly defined society and culture that predominated for centuries in the process of colonization of the new world, slave societies, in this sense they are examples of the form of organization, institutionality, social structure, technology and exploitation of economic resources. Culturally, these properties have the capacity to bear witness to visions of the world, ideologies, beliefs, values and customs that were forged in the process of colonization and birth of new nations in the region. At the same time, they constitute an exceptional example of cultural resistance of slaves, turned into a tradition of their descendants.

Criterion (v): The system of slave plantations and mining activity constituted the archetype of the use of the lands of the new world in the process of colonization and consequently the economic, social and cultural support of societies. The components of the series, for the most part, are exceptional examples of this process in Cuba and representative of the phenomenon throughout the Caribbean, for the interaction of the settlers with their slave skills in the natural environment in which the mines, sugar mills and coffee plantations were installed. These traditional forms of land use, mostly generators of cultural landscapes, have undergone irreversible changes and continue to be exposed to the pressures and vulnerabilities of development, natural disasters and climate change.

Criterion (vi): The sites of memory included in the serial nomination are directly associated with events of universal importance, in this case slavery in America and particularly in the Caribbean, of which they constitute a monument to the memory of millions of enslaved beings, they are also linked with the ideas of independence and freedom, as well as with living traditions and beliefs of which this colossal human mass was a carrier and which is evidenced in the cultural and religious connotation attributed to these sites by the communities that inhabit them.

Déclarations d’authenticité et/ou d’intégrité

The components of the serial nomination meet the conditions of authenticity, although the state of conservation of some components makes it difficult to appreciate their original forms and design due to the absence of elements that are part of their composition. In the constructions works predominated the use of local materials such as wood, clay tiles, quarry and rough stone, adobe and lime mortars, most of the properties maintain a direct or indirect relationship with the original uses and functions and with their cultural significance, in the same way they have a close relationship with manifestations of intangible heritage, particularly in terms of beliefs, rites, dances, celebrations and orality; in general the components of the serial nomination preserve the context in which they acquired their relevance, where the rural environment predominates, eminently agricultural. The components fully express all the spiritual energy contained, helps in this sense the use maintained or attributed to these properties as temples, monuments and museums, even the disuse and ruinous state of some in the midst of an exuberant nature gives it a certain mystical connotation.

The attributes on which the value of the elements of the series rests are present, they allow the interpretation of each one, except for criterion v in the case of the Alexandría, Demajagua and Triunvirato mills. There are not threats or damage caused by the adverse effects of development inside of the properties; As for its context, the most complex situation is in San Severino Castle because its location in the middle of an industrial area. In the case of the remains of Angerona Coffee Plantation and the Alejandría Sugar Mill, the administrative negligence of local governments is the main cause of the adverse effects they present. The problems identified in the Integrity of some of the components can be solved in the future work process.

Comparaison avec d’autres biens similaires

In the process of evaluating the outstanding universal value of the series, the following analyses were carried out:

• comparative study with properties related to slavery already declared World Heritage and others registered in the National Tentative Lists;
• the criterion used to demonstrate the outstanding universal value related to slavery both in the properties already on the World Heritage List and in those properties proposed in the National Tentative Lists, when the information was available;

-The typology of properties in the World Heritage List and the National Indicative Lists;

• The chronological scope covered by the inscriptions or nominations was analyzed.
• The ability of this nomination to strengthen the credibility of the World Heritage List, the balance of the Convention and fill the gaps in representativeness was taken into account.

In conclusion, we can summarize that the comparative analysis of the nomination demonstrates its unique and exceptional character, no other nomination on the World Heritage List has addressed the phenomenon of slavery with such typological diversity; No previous nomination from the Caribbean region has set out to demonstrate its outstanding universal value on the basis of these postulates, or so many criteria. On the other hand, the nomination can be enriched and strengthened with other components from the Caribbean region, which would result in a transnational serial nomination.