XX Century - Communist Era
(1959-2000)
With the arrival of Fidel Castro to power on January 1, 1959, the situation changed radically. The events developed very rapidly and the people of Cuba realized early on, that the so called revolution as green as the palm trees was a big lie concocted by Fidel Castro and his accomplices, to become the owners of the country and establish in the Island a Marxist–Leninist, atheist and anti–Cuban system.
Güines, a highly agricultural town throughout its history, which based its wealth and progress in the cultivation of its soil, had to face the illegitimacy of so called laws dictated by Castro, that curtailed or eliminated the individual and social freedoms of the Cuban citizen, among them confiscatory laws to the right of private ownership, free enterprise, free exercise of religion, freedom of speech and other fundamental rights recognized by all civilized countries of the world and contained in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations Organization.
The Agrarian Reform started in 1959 to confiscate from its owners without compensation, farms, ranches, sugar mills, sugar plantations and large farms, reducing the work and sacrifices for so many years of their legitimate owners, into salt and water.
Fidel Castro and his Communist system started to confiscate, also without just compensation, all stores, businesses, enterprises and private industries, all over Cuba, declaring himself the only and sovereign master of the life and property of the Cuban people. The workers and employees lost automatically all their benefits acquired at a great cost and sacrifice in labor struggles, throughout the years becoming then, workers and employees of only one boss.
Then the Urban Reform came in 1960, also planned in a Machiavellian way that did away with ownership of urban private property in Cuba. Güines was also affected with this measure. The owners of houses, apartment buildings and other real estate, lost such properties, confiscated by the mislabeled Government and the owners failed to receive the income from tenants and lessees and the latter did not benefit at all, because they had to keep paying the rent to a new owner, the Communist system.
Other measures followed in direct opposition to the ideas of freedom and democracy for which the Cuban people fought so hard since the dawn of its history. Private education was prohibited, newspapers and other publications were at first censored and later on, confiscated and closed, without compensating the owners of those voices of freedom of speech. Radio and television stations were also confiscated without compensation. Religious persecution and the closing of all private and religious schools. The obligation to work voluntarily without a salary, when the system demanded it. The change of the national currency in circulation. The creation in each block of a Committee for the Defense of the Revolution to watch and denounce neighbors, friends and even relatives. The establishment of the rationing card that reduced the food allowance of every Cuban below the minimum level of sustenance, compelling the citizen to resort to the black market in order to meet his more elemental needs.
Such black market is supplied by stealing from state enterprises, the reason why, none is profitable, contributing in this fashion to the national economic bankruptcy. That's why it can be deduced that the worse counterrevolutionaries are the same corrupt enterprises managers that besides their disorganization and inefficiency do not allow that this equal system, could function adequately.
The executions, arrests, abuses and humiliations, starting in 1959, continued and increased during 1960, 1961 and 1962, Cuba being transformed into an immense jail, and the situation continues up to the present time. Thousands and thousands of Cubans have been shot by firing squads of Castro's brutal regime and his followers. Thousands and thousands of Cubans have been jailed and still are jailed as political prisoners in Castro's dungeons for the only reason of having democratic ideals and wanting freedom and progress for Cuba.
The people from Güines firm believers in democracy and liberty, besides having deep religious feelings, totally rebelled. At the beginning it was a subtle and underhanded opposition, which turned itself into an open popular revolt.
The massive exit of güineros to exile started, leaving everything behind, yearning only for freedom in foreign but friendly lands.
Beginning in 1959, thousands upon thousands of güineros went to exile in United States, Spain, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Venezuela, Dominican Republic and in any other country which would offer them shelter and freedom.
It was calculated that the population of the Municipality of Güines in 1959 was approximately 50,000 inhabitants, taking into consideration the Villa itself, Catalina de Güines and the rural boroughs. Statistical studies made during 1970 and 1980 indicate that more than 15,000 güineros decided to take the road to uncertainty and exile, rather than to live, as our National Anthem says sunk in affront and infamy which represents almost a third of the total population of the Villa, a never seen before percentage, which was reflected in all of Cuba, when the majority of Cubans voted with their feet and sought refuge in lands of freedom and democracy. The Villa of Güines was repopulated with persons from other regions of the Island and today more than 70% of Güines' population, was not born there.
Add to this the gradual deterioration of the town's infrastructure, the lack of water and electricity, the collapse of buildings and houses, the shameless state of public health, the sub-standard conditions in which the majority of Cubans live, all over the Island, the lack of stimulus, hope and future for the youth and you have a general picture of the present situation in Cuba, created by Castro and his nomenclature.
The exodus of güineros and Cubans has continued unabated during the more than half a century of Communist tyranny in Cuba. It is calculated that almost 3 million Cubans have left Cuba since 1959 out of a total population of 12 million, meaning that one fourth of the inhabitants of Cuba have decided to leave the Communist Paradise to reach lands of freedom and democracy.
The groups of güineros in exile in the United States are concentrated in 4 important areas of the great American nation. In the South of Florida, basically Dade County comprising the cities of Miami, Hialeah, Miami Springs, Hollywood, Pembroke Pines, etc. having the highest number of güineros and of course of Cubans; in the West of the United States, in Southern California, specially in Los Angeles and bordering cities; in the cities of New York and New Jersey in the East of the country and in the city of Chicago in the Midwest of the United States.
There are also important güinero groups in North Carolina, Tampa, Florida, New Orleans in Louisiana and the State of New Mexico and outside the United States in Spain, the Canary Islands, Venezuela, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Panama, Costa Rica, Lebanon and other countries.
The exodus of people from Güines caused the formation of organizations in exile whose original aim was, as in all human groups, to meet with persons of the same town, relatives and lifelong friends, to share and offer mutual help, encouragement, news and hopes in a foreign but friendly land, during the first years of hard exile.
Afterwards, when the exiled people from Güines started to get a hold in the new land and their lives were again normalized, reaching some economic stability, these güinero organizations became centers of assistance and orientation for the new exiles that were arriving to lands of freedom.
So in Miami, since November 20, 1961 when the first meeting was held, an organization called at the beginning Association of Güineros in Exile was created the forerunner of Municipality of Güines in Exile (Municipio de Güines en el Exilio).
This Association had a Provisional Executive Committee composed of a valuable group of güineros among others, Jesús Angulo as Secretary-General, José Trujillo as Treasurer, Moraima Labastilla as Welfare Secretary, Ángel Rubio as Correspondence Secretary and Dr. Juan A. Simón, Pedro García, Francisco Santos, José M. Brito and Emiliano Fara as Directors, beginning to offer from such early date, help and assistance to all güineros arriving to exile.
This organization, became later on, the Municipality of Güines in Exile, and is still in existence, vigorous and active, with its magazine Echoes of the Mayabeque (Ecos del Mayabeque) that has been published without interruption since 1967 sent to all güineros in exile, wherever they are.
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First issue of Echoes of the Mayabeque (Ecos del Mayabeque), June 1967, official voice of Güines Municipality in Exile
(Municipio de Güines en el Exilio), Miami, Florida |
In the West of the country on October 31, 1965, Circle Güinero of Los Ángeles (Círculo Güinero de Los Ángeles) was founded whose organization is also active fulfilling the ends and purposes for which it was created. Its official voice La Villa has been in publication without interruption since March 1968 and it is sent also to all güineros in exile, wherever they are located.
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First issue of La Villa, March 1968, official voice of Circle Güinero of Los Ángeles
(Círculo Güinero de Los Ángeles), Los Ángeles, California |
In the Northeast of the United States on October 8, 1972 Güinero Fraternity 28th of January of New Jersey-New York (Confraternidad Güinera 28 de Enero de Nueva Jersey-Nueva York) was created, also by a worthy group of güineros that were resettled or went to reside to that area of the United States voluntarily. The organization is still active in their patriotic and social endeavors. From 1972 to 1976 its magazine GÜINESCUBA was published, having valuable and interesting contents that kept informed in its time, the big güinero group living in that area.
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First issue of GÜINESCUBA, November 1972, official voice of Güinero Fraternity 28th. of January of New Jersey–NewYork, New Jersey |
In 1986 the Salesian Alumni Association of Güines was founded in Miami, gathering all former students of this prestigious güinero school. A reunion is held every year during the month of January and a bulletin named exalumno (alumni) is published.
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First issue of alumni (exalumno), November 1987, voice of Salesian Alumni Association of Güines, Miami, Florida |
Meanwhile in the never forgotten Villa, the Communist system continued changing and destroying everything. And it keeps doing it up to the present time, because the disorganization and chaos are characteristics of the Communist system enthroned in Cuba.
In 1961, Father Carlos Pérez Rodríguez, who was the parish priest of Catalina de Güines, was temporarily appointed as parish priest of Güines until February 8, 1964.
During Holy Week in 1961, while performing the famous Dramatization of the Passion of Jesus on March 31, the Communist hordes tried to wreck such demonstration of popular faith, opening fire indiscriminately against the crowd of spectators watching such religious performance. Let us allow a percipient witness and a main participant of this religious play, Efrén Besanilla who played the role of Jesus Christ during all the years that it was performed and who resides in Santa Monica, California tell us with his own words, how the events happened. (Click here.)
On April 17, 1961 the heroic Assault Brigade 2506 invaded Cuba trying to liberate it, but failed in its endeavor. It caused a great setback in all cities and towns of Cuba, when thousands of Cubans were arrested all over the Island, being labeled by the regime as counterrevolutionaries and the jails were filled with innocent people whose only crime was not sharing the ideas introduced by the system. Güines was affected by this failed invasion when hundreds of güineros were arrested and sent to Havana to different jails in the capital, without any formal charges or judicial process.
The Market Plaza, a centenary institution that offered jobs to hundreds of Güineros, located in a square block bound by San Julián, Valdés, Clemente Fernández and Almohalla Streets was demolished and a park was built in its location. The social institutions from Güines, so deeply rooted and with so much history, were eliminated. The Lyceum was turned into a library, the Spanish Society is a dance hall, The Beautiful Union (La Bella Unión) a sports center, Brage Yacht Club was converted into The River Club (Club El Río).
In 1964, Father Luis Casabón Sánchez was appointed as proprietary parish priest of Güines, remaining in his office until April 1972.
Our Mayabeque with its large flow was dammed before reaching Pedroso Rapids and the channels and ditches that crisscrossed all through the Villa and which gave wealth and fertility to our valley, went dry.
Be aware that the private educational institutions, lay and religious as well as the public ones, were, some confiscated without compensation and others, completely changed, and at the present time all of them give and teach the children and the young people the Marxist-Leninist doctrine which negates the existence of God, promotes the State as the superior being from which all the alleged benefits come from and eliminates all discussion and free interchange of ideas which could criticize in any form the Communist system as the ruling one.
San Julián School is now a Communist school; Kate Plumer Bryan Memorial School is also another Marxist-Leninist school; Our Lady of Charity School, another atheistic school; Saint Joseph of the Mountain Orphanage (Asilo San José de la Montaña) is a Communist basic secondary school.
Public educational institutions such as Güines High School is now a Communist Center of Basic Secondary. Superior Primary Luz y Caballero School is now in ruins and the elementary public schools, where so many talented, dedicated and cultured men and women from Güines, shone and spread the bread of learning among their students whom they cared and loved for, are some of them closed and other in ruins.
In 1972 Father Vicente Abreu Fernández was appointed proprietary parish priest of Güines, exercising his apostolate until the end of the decade.
The great majority of business and enterprises from Güines, which provided so many jobs to so many güineros and wealth and life to the Villa and surrounding areas, do not exist. Amistad (Friendship) sugar mill is now called Amistad con los Pueblos (Friendship With the Peoples) and its production is minimal compared with statistics before 1959. Providencia (Providence) sugar mill is now called Osvaldo Sánchez and also its production is erratic, due to the system's disorganization, the lack of fuel and spare parts and the workers' apathy who see themselves as being robbed and exploited by a system that claims to represent the worker, when in reality is the nomenclature and the high hierarchy of the system the ones that enjoy all the special treats, without suffering any rationing or hardships, while the people keep dying due to hunger and deprivations.
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Mayabeque Textile Company, Inc. is working sporadically. The canning factories that offered so many jobs to the people, such as Tejera Industrial y Comercial, S.A. (Tejera Industrial and Commercial, Inc.); Compañía de Fomento Industrial de Güines, S.A. (Güines Industrial Development Company, Inc.) with the well known brands of vegetable preserves for national consumption and export such as Rafel, Llobera, Santa Lucía, Del Río and El Morro; Conserva Angulo, S.A. (Angulo Cannery, Inc.); Empacadora Mayabeque, S.A. (Mayabeque Packing Company, Inc.) with its known brand Swift and so many others, do not exist.
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Güines public transportation system, so modern and efficient in the pseudo-republic as the Communists try to designate the era of advancement and progress before 1959, is completely destroyed. Güines bus routes, serving the public in a comfortable, efficient, clean and cheap fashion is not en existence anymore. In its place the rulers offer the people for public transportation the so called taxis which are nothing more than carts pulled by starving horses, traveling thru Güines' streets with an awful service, while the rulers and mayimbes (a Cuban word which means a member of the Communist nomenclature) travel in Mercedes, in Japanese and in Ladas cars, without using at all, the public transportation system.
The list of illnesses that the Communist system has established in our country is never ending and impossible to encompass in this article. One of the more obvious ones which shows a total discrimination against the Cuban people, is the creation of the dollarization system, where in general terms, those with access to Yankee imperialism currency can fulfill some of their basic needs while those without access to dollars, have to remain depriving themselves of the most elemental needs, creating deep, unfair and unequal social differences, contradicting the system's propagandists of a supposedly equalitarian system.
To resume, the Villa of Güines after more than half a century of Communism is a pathetic shadow of the vibrant and progressive town that we all knew before 1959.
In 1998 when Pope John Paul II visited Cuba, the Communist system relaxed a little bit the right to freely exercise your religious beliefs that from the beginning of the system was ferociously attacked and persecuted. As in every Marxist tactic, this change had its dialectic reason, due to the acknowledgment by the system, of the great resurgence of faith and religion in the people, on all denominations, increasing every year, which the system has been unable to suppress. Evidenced by churches filled with people, the allowing of processions within the churches and sometimes around the streets near the church, an increase in the celebrations of baptisms, religious marriages, first communions and other manifestations of popular fervor.
The parish priests of Güines have kept coming and more or less, the centenary parish church has kept functioning in our Villa. Father Fernando de la Vega replaced Father Vicente Abreu Fernández as parish priest of Güines at the end of 1979 for a short period of time, and Father Emilio López Núñez as proprietary replaced this priest since March 1982 until July 1987. Father Luis Alberto Formoso Núñez, as proprietary parish priest of Güines from 1987 to 1992, replaced the latter. In 1992, Father Rodolfo Lois is appointed as proprietary parish priest of Güines, performing his holy offices until the year 2000.
Translated by the staff of Círculo Güinero de Los Ángeles
Continue to: XXI Century - Communist Era (2001 to Date)