REMEDIOS, CUBA

                                      A City Well Preserved
          I was lucky enough to get to Cuba in November just before President Bush cut off all US travel to the island. Now that travel has opened up somewhat, I keep lookimg at itinerates and have seen nothing as extensive as I was lucky to have.

       One morning we were off to Remedios, a town of 18,000.  Our first stop was at Inglesia de San Juan Batista Church (1692), the focal point of Plaza Marti, the town square. A cute little elderly docent showed us around. The altar was gilded with 24-carat gold leaf. In 1762 the church was the center of the city when it was designated a bishopery.

        An 1939 earthquake damaged the church bell tower. The church has never been demolished, just added on to. The 81 year-old docent was delighted to show us the only known pregnant Madonna, which stands protected in one of the many wall cabinets.

    The carved cedar altar and carved mahogany ceiling were beautiful. This gorgeous ceiling had been

Remedios Church

plastered over and rediscovered during restoration. There was one interesting cement grave covering in the floor where the builder of the church and his family are buried. Some of the letters in the names were doubled up to conserve space. It was most unique.

The town of Remedios, settled in 1514, is one of the oldest cities in Cuba. This is where I really felt like I was in a time warp and that time had stood still for decades. The city is flat and its narrow streets are paved. The entire city was named a national monument in 1979, and is in relatively good repair.

     Leaving the church we walked across the street where bike-taxis were waiting for us. We took off in a caravan to the tobacco factory.

      The tour of the cigar factory was most interesting. It was fascinating to see the cigars hand rolled. Some used full leaves; others used the tobacco scraps for the filling. The cigars are placed in special holders and then pressed for 16 minutes. Following that, the ends are cut, the final wrap applied and the ends fixed. The bands are applied elsewhere.

Only women remove the main vein of the tobacco leaf splitting it in two. We were told that women are more precise and particular. There is a technique to getting the vein out in one piece. Workers work on a quota of 125-180 cigars a day, depending on what area they are working.  This small factory produced 10,000 cigars a day, about half of which are exported.

      The same factory makes several different brands of cigars. The cigars, even in the same brand, can vary regarding quality and taste. We were told, “Each worker is given two cigars a day plus one box a month.”  Most often the workers sell the cigars for extra money. We were cautioned not to buy cigars on the street, because they might be filled with banana leaves. Our guide had a relative who worked in the cigar factory so he was the cigar source for many of us, and most of us bought the legal limit.

       At the local museum  we learned about the Festival of Parrandas, unique to this area. It was started in 1820 when children were making noise in the streets to wake people to get them to church on Christmas day. Today two neighborhoods compete building floats, torches, and fireworks. The float building is very secretive. The festival starts at 9:00 PM on Christmas Eve with a parade, and goes all night, ending with fireworks. Everyone is a winner as it is all in fun, then everyone returns home to sleep and Christmas mass is given in the evening so everyone can attend.

     The museum had costumes, lanterns, pictures of previous floats, and other festival paraphernalia.  Each year there is a theme to the festival, which is reflected in the floats, lanterns and costumes.  

Trusty bike-taxi

       When I left the museum I was looking over our bike-taxi. The wheels spin backward like on a geared bike, doing nothing. There is a hand brake similar to the old car hand brakes. I motioned to our driver that I would like to pedal the bike. After a couple of tries he understood. He hopped in the back with my friend and I got in the driver’s seat. We took off again caravan-style. There must be a secret telegraph in the town as all the women came out onto the doorstop to watch the spectacle of the only women peddling away among the many men, but it was easy to pedal and a fun thing to do.