Güines High School

Güines High School

At the beginning of 1937, a Committee Pro Güines High School was formed and met for the first time at the Spanish Society Social Club’s meeting room. The committee was composed of local authorities, members of the banking and trade businesses, religious organizations and other personalities, agreeing to take the necessary steps and negotiate with the official authorities for the purpose of creating in Güines a high school, a matter of vital importance for the Villa and nearby cities.

The negotiations were made mainly at the Ministry of Education in Havana, with a lot of advertisements aired and published on radio and in the local press at that time. Dr. Alfredo Jacomino López, a Representative to the national House of Representatives for Havana Province and a good friend of the then President of the Republic, Dr. Federico Laredo Brú, as well as Dr. Rafael Zervigón Castellanos (Fillo) and Dr. Silvano Herrera Mora, also Representatives, achieved their purpose and were able to obtain the inclusion of a credit for the establishment of Güines High School in the national budget corresponding to the fiscal year 1937-1938.

The high school started to work on November 1937. The Faculty appointed Dr. Francisco A. Martell Valdés and Dr. Aracelia Hernández de Jacomino as Principal and Secretary, respectively. After the expiration of these first officials’ term, the Faculty elected and appointed Dr. José A. Reyes González as Principal and Dr. Reinaldo Becerra Ortega, as Secretary.

The institution had officially registered, more than 1,000 students, and it had a good number of students enrolled in the unofficial and incorporated registries.

The students formed a Committee called Pro High School Building which, with the help of Principal Dr. Reyes and the Faculty, conducted several negotiations in the Ministry of Education in favor of constructing a building for the high school, whose negotiations were unsuccessful.

At the end of the term of Dr. José A. Reyes as Principal and Dr. Reinaldo Becerra, as Secretary, the Faculty elected Dr. Enrique Lavernia Saumell as Principal and Professor Rubén Morales Gárriz as Secretary. These new members dedicated themselves without rest to negotiate with the Ministry of Education the goal of constructing the high school’s building. In one of the interviews with the Minister José M. Alemán, he told them that if they would find the land, he promised to obtain the credit for the construction of the same.

The acquisition of the land was due to the generosity of Mr. Fred James Chambless, an American by birth and Güinero by heart who lived in Güines and who formed a large and beautiful family as time went by, whose members gave and keep giving honor and prestige to the Villa of the Mayabeque. Mr. Chambless was the owner of a development known as Reparto Chambless (Chambless Urban Development) very well located, which still had some empty lots available. The Committee paid a visit to him, explaining its reason and he, generous, human and disinterested, stated that if it were for the construction of a secondary education school for Güines, he would donate the land free.

We have to mention here that this altruistic gesture by Mr. Chambless was worth several thousand dollars, because he donated for the construction of the high school’s building two blocks of land in the best location of his development.

The new high school’s building located at 541 Maceo Street (formerly Reina Street) was inaugurated in 1948, being its Principal Dr. Enrique Lavernia, who kept fighting to improve the laboratories and museums as well as to endow the library with text books. The Band of Music was created and also a school bus was acquired for the transportation of the student body.

Dr. Olga Surós de Lavernia and Professor Régulo Cuesta Báez replaced Dr. Enrique Lavernia and Professor Rubén Morales, as Principal and Secretary, respectively. At the conclusion of their term for which the Faculty elected them, the same Faculty appointed Dr. Hernán Hernández Cárdenas as Principal and Dr. Felipe Ponzoa Garulla as Secretary. When their term ended, the Faculty appointed Dr. Rogelio Zaldívar Sabatés as Principal and Dr. Zaira Betancourt Pernía as Secretary.

Güinero Francisco Valls Jiménez was the author of the High School Anthem. The lyrics of the Graduate’s Anthem was due to Dr. Rosa Trujillo Arredondo and its music was composed by Father Salvador Herrera Fons, SDB, Principal of Saint Julian Salesian School.

Güines High School Seal

Güines High School was an educational institution that served the Villa of the Mayabeque and other cities nearby in the task of educating young people, within the secondary level, which prepared them to continue their university studies. Almost all the group of professionals from Güines who practiced in the Villa, were graduates from this high school.

With the arrival of the Communist system, the autonomy of the institution, its academic independence, the political and social activism of the students and its tremendous contribution to the advancement of Güines society, were all lost with the imposition of hard and asphyxiating control measures, typical of a Marxist-Leninist regime, obstructing the free traffic of ideas which caused the high school to submit itself to the whims of the regime, losing all the luster it had since its foundation. Now the high school or Basic Secondary as it is known nowadays is another organization, submissive to the system, languishing for lack of stimulus and creativity.

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