Trinidad - In a race against Oblivion Written by Peter Wesolowski
Photographed by Lusine Stepanian and Peter Wesolowski (black &
white)
“A Little Town where time once stood still.”
It is called a living museum, a jewel of a colonial town, a place
where time came to a stop once, and where it now stands still.
Nothing’s apparently changed in Trinidad in years, in fact,
in centuries – two or three to be precise. Things though
changed here in recent years (tourism becoming the old regime’s
new milk cow) – a façade has been changed on a building,
a hotel has been seemingly brought back to its former glory. And,
there are some new things here too – an air-conditioned
cigar store snug along a charming cobblestone street, a rum store,
both completely out of reach for locals, set up to serve tourists
who flock here from Cienfuegos, a sea resort and a neighboring
town. There are parts of Trinidad that are no doubt attractive
– restored, patched up - for the rest though, this town
is crumbling, it is decaying, or maybe, after all, it is timeless,
as it remains in a permanent state of neglect.
Founded in 1514 as the third Spanish settlement in Cuba and owing
supposedly to its central Caribbean location, La Villa de la Santisima
Trinidad, or in short Trinidad (though not to be confused with
Trinidad, the country off the shores of Venezuela), the town quickly
became a safe haven for pirates, smugglers - a seafaring riffraff.
It is said that Hernan Cortez, the future conqueror of Mexico,
assembled here his victorious army and there are, allegedly, documents
to prove it. Later, not all too surprisingly, Trinidad became
an important slave trading post receiving shiploads of Africans
and dispatching them to other Caribbean destinations. This practice
continued long after slavery had been abolished in all of Spain’s
colonies by the decree of his majesty the king.
The town prospered languidly, but it was not until the 1791 slave
rebellion in the neighboring Haiti, then a French colony, that
a number of rich French planters escaping certain death from the
hands of the insurgents, settled in Valle de los Ingenios, the
Valley of the Sugar Mills, on the town’s outskirts. In no
time at all, since then, Trinidad became the largest of all Caribbean
sugar cane producers and, in fact, by mid 19th century, it boasted
a production of sugar amounting to a third of total output of
Cuba, already a powerful sugar producing country among the great
many Spanish, British, French and Dutch colonies.
The local aristocracy thrived enormously, and the unprecedented
wealth shaped the townscape of Trinidad. The numerous villas,
haciendas and fincas which are scattered between
the town and the valley, house rich collections of antiquities,
various objets d’art on a par with those in other parts
of the world, Spain for instance, and are themselves true gems
of the colonial style. Today’s Museo Romantico
in Trinidad, once a home of a wealthy Brunet family from France,
features an impressive collection of Baccarat crystals, each piece
bearing the family coat-of-arms; a mother-of-pearl encrusted desk
brought here at likely enormous cost from the court of Vienna;
a Carrara marble bathtub - all purchased, and this is the frightening
part, with moneys raised through the illegal trade in African
slaves.
There are many more beautiful palacios - edifices, all
dating back the the 19th century when Trinidad’s prosperity
suddenly ended. During the Cuban war of independence, all the
sugar cane plantations were burned to the ground, and all slaves
were freed.
Since then, gradually, Trinidad, its wealth; Valle de los Ingenios
began to slip away, and then, in 1988 UNESCO declared it a World
Heritage site needing to be protected. This was unexpected, something
not included in Castro’s revolutionary agenda. Reluctant
to spend any funds on decaying buildings, and yet wanting to keep
appearances as the nation’s benefactor, protector of their
history and culture, Castro, for years, played a very ambiguous
part - promises, promises, great projects, in short, lots of fire,
very little roast, while Trinidad continued to rot and fall apart.
Criminal state of disrepair continues to reign here undisputed,
although the revolutionary government claims otherwise –
there are ambitious plans, but plans is where it all
ends. There are, for instance, rumors that Iglesia de la Popa
[Eremita de Nuetra Senora de la Candelaria de la Popa] –
once an impressive a church; now a ghastly shell only of a building
though still crowned with a baroque façade - needless to
say deplorably neglected – is soon to be a hotel. This,
once in effect, would afford its guests the most magnificent view
of Trinidad and the surrounding hills. Yet, for the time being
it is though a place where idle youth hang out, drink cheap alcohol
where the altar used to be, urinate.
Another ecclesiastical structure in ruins, at one time a prominent
church of Santa Ana, on the town’s outskirt, has however
no plans; there are no talks about it, nor rumors for no more
than a skeleton of belfry with a cast-iron bell still hanging
from the vault. Too bad; left as it is in the present state, it
will no doubt crumble; sink in the ground and, consequently, in
oblivion.
Since 1993, the fall of the Soviet empire, Cuba remained on its
own, and had to invest in her own resources – natural beauty
and history not to mention music, and thus Trinidad, once more,
got its yet another chance. Again, however, the economic failure
of the system that is rotten, corrupt, inadequate, made the restoration
projects ineffective and, if the surface is scratched, Trinidad
shows its true colors, a pathetic, alas, tragic state of neglect.
Despite all the regime’s clamor and its alleged trials
of the recent years, attempts to turn this distant backwater into
a tourist destination, little has changed for the better in Trinidad
as it continues to deteriorate; and, indeed, the town wallows
in a time warp as it continues to decay. It is hoped that time
stopped here and stands still, but, actually, time works against
Trinidad that needs to be saved and protected.
Speaking of still time, have you visited any other towns
in the world where time seems to have come to a halt? Share your
thoughts in the comments below.
While working on his first collection
of short stories, Peter Wesolowski travels,
photographs and broods on the affairs of the world - present
and past.
