Scenes from Rosario Beach. Photos by Rafael Alfonso, Hialeah Gardens, Florida, August 2002

Rosario Beach, Cinderella of Güines

By José Izquierdo, Biblioteca Cívica "Sebastián Arcos" ("Sebastian Arcos" Civic Library)

Güines, March 10, 2003 (www.cubanet.org) - Located in the southern coast of Havana Province, 15 kilometers away from the county seat, there is the previously popular Rosario Beach, called nowadays by its residents “Güines’s Cinderella.”

Abandoned by governmental authorities, Rosario shows today a desolate view to its visitors. About five kilometers of coastline fell prey to those who do not care for our national flora and, as a consequence, the preservation of the environment.

Famous for the medicinal properties of its waters (rich in sulphur) and its abundant marine life (mainly shrimp and lobster), this intricate region of Havana's geography shows little resemblance to the one that half a century ago received thousands of bathers, anxious also to enjoy the delicious paellas cooked in town. Its residents in fact represented the main suppliers of all fresh fish that Güines population consumed in that era.

Presently, Rosario Beach is synonymous with misery, deterioration and underdevelopment. About 50 families live in this forgotten coastal area. Almost all of them come from the eastern provinces. Public transportation does not work due to the deterioration of the fifty-year-old highway. Vehicles are prevented from reaching the beach. A primary school, which is in the process of collapsing, educates the few children living in the area.

“You see it now, there is nothing resembling the beach I knew when I came to live here in 1940. The sea has taken over almost all the zone. For example, where my house is presently located, the waves spray the porch of the house, without taking into consideration that when there is bad weather, water comes in from one side and exits on the other,” says Israel Ulloa, 75 years old, who has lived in this place for more than 60 years.

“Look, here you do not fish anymore; we have a lot of eyes placed on us and if they catch us spreading a net to get some shrimp or lobster, they will fine us between 1,500 to 3,000 pesos. On the contrary, Government enterprises daily fish hundreds of kilograms of shrimp, lobster and scale fish such as red snapper, grouper and mangrove snapper”.

The old man, good mannered and with a pretentious language, also complains about the deforestation.

“The indiscriminate cutting carried out by the Government is directly harming the environment. Tens of trucks leave day by day toward Güines and other regions, full of lumber, and nobody tries to stop this process, which in fact, is now irreversible”.

The truth is that Rosario Beach, in other times a Güines resort of well being and leisure, does not show its best clothes nowadays.