Arango y Parreño's Park
Many times, in advertisements and publications from different sources, our recreation plaza has lately been called Central Park, the very same that after the several changes that will appear in this brief work, was called Arango y Parreño Park, a name assigned to it at the end of the Spanish domination to honor the illustrious Cuban statesman and that it still has.
According to a background research done for this article, there is no mention at all, at anytime, that this park had been named Central Park.
Presently, the data determining the erection of the recreation plaza in front of the church and limited by Máximo Gómez, Trujillo, San Julián and Habana Streets is unavailable, but inasmuch as its true nature as a public promenade arose in a relatively recent era, I will start from the year 1820, with enough information to achieve the purpose of this article.
On April 19, 1820 the swearing in and proclamation of the 1812 Constitution, abolished since May 1814, took place in this Villa, and the Second Constitutional Town Council was consequently created returning to their offices those who were replaced in 1814. The First Category Mayoral ship was held by Don Manuel Martínez de Pinillos and the Second Category by Don Gabriel Argüelles, the remainder of the Municipal Government being as follows: Trustees, Don Nicolás de Ocaña and Don Manuel Curbelo; Secretary, Don Andrés Pardo; Judge of Letters, Don Pablo Estévez; Constitutional Regents, Don Blas Martín de Salazar, Don Ramón de Prado, Don Julián Curiel, Don Francisco de las Cagigas, Don Felipe de la Torre, Don Francisco Vizarrón, Don José Alzaga, Don Francisco María Héctor and Don José Padrón.
The proclamation took effect among extraordinary festivities that lasted fifteen days.
One of the first resolutions of the Town Council was to erect a monument in the plaza in front of the church, to preserve the memory of such event.
Güines population at that time, was divided into two sides or groups: Those of the Town and those of the Villa. The former ones occupied the sector included from the ditch which runs parallel to Maceo Street towards the north and the latter ones, from this point towards the south. An inflamed rivalry existed between both of them which caused violent outward demonstrations due to the Constitution Monument, because those from the Villa demanded that it had to be erected in the Villa’s Plaza and not in front of the church. The purposes of those from the Town finally prevailed and it was decided to erect it in front of the church, being in charge of its construction and placement, the Trustees Don Nicolás de Ocaña and Don José Alzaga.
To defray the expenses a public subscription was opened among the neighbors, $324.00, one thousand bricks and labor from two masons were collected from the Villa and from the Town $368.00, all the stone needed, labor from one mason and the sculpted memorial stone donated by Don Gerónimo Pérez, were collected.
The construction went very slow due to the rains and the Monument was not finished until December 20, 1821. The following January, the memorial stone with its appropriate legend was placed, being pompously dedicated on the 28th of such month, day of the feast of patron Saint Julian.
Then, by resolution of the Town Council, this plaza in front of the church was called Constitution Plaza and it is almost sure that the dandies of that era gathered there to watch and court the beautiful Güineras that on board of luxurious carriages, rode around the plaza.
On December 14, 1823, Royal Edicts arrived from the Península ending the constitutional system and declaring null and void everything done since April 1820 and filling the offices in the Town Council with those that were fired on that date. One of the first resolutions of the new rulers was to take away the memorial stone from the Monument, resolving later on, on January 16, 1824, to make the Monument in Constitution Plaza disappear, that for all the above mentioned, ceased to officially be known by that name.
There were disagreements among the authorities in connection with the site where the Monument should be transferred, some of them proposing to transfer it to the Villa’s Plaza, others insisting in keeping it in the site it already was, placing a new memorial stone on it with a dedication to His Majesty. For sure, the latter gentlemen were fond of history and the fine arts and preferred to respect the work that was, above all, an important factor for public adornment that during that era, must have been very poor.
Such disagreements were made known to the General Captain of the Island, who, exercising an extraordinary radicalism, ordered the Monument to be destroyed without even making good use of any of its materials.
The order of Don Francisco Dionisio Vives y Planes was formally carried out and the Monument’s materials were deposited in a room at Pious School donated by Don Francisco de Arango Parreño, that at that time—due to the fact that its badly constructed roofs were being replaced with tile roofs—was not functioning.
Afterwards, the recreation plaza in front of the church remained being little more than a vacant lot until 1857, when it became a really public promenade.
Güines Lieutenant Governor Don José Huerta y Sostre, made important improvements to the park and it was then called Concha Plaza in honor of the Island’s General Captain Don José Gutiérrez de la Concha, Marquis of Havana. The plaza had a rectangular shape divided into four beautiful gardens with a fountain in the middle of each one and lighted by sixteen gas lampposts. In the center of the plaza there were four royal palms and around all of it on each of the four surrounding streets, a beautiful line of laurel trees.
On each side of the plaza, two masonry columns in Tuscan style, were raised, joined together by a thick chain and crowned by a pomegranate. Those facing Luisa Dulce Street, nowadays called Máximo Gómez, had inscriptions on each of them. The one on the right read: “Built in the year 1857. Lieutenant Governor of the Jurisdiction Don Juan Huerta y Sostre, Cavalry Lieutenant.” The left one read: “Concha Plaza. Being Governor General Captain of the Island the Most Excellent Sir the Marquis of Havana.” The gardens were surrounded by iron grates and Chinese box shrubs grew on them profusely. The pavements of the walks were made of flagstones and the bench seats, also made out of flagstones, had iron banisters as back rests. Our recreation plaza was already, as it can be seen, a veritable public promenade fashioned after Mars Plaza in Havana.
In another article the subsequent changes of this plaza, will be published, until it became today’s Arango y Parreño Park.
Translated by the staff of Círculo Güinero de Los Ángeles
Continue to: The Recreation Plaza's Cemetery
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