HISTORIA de grandes acontecimientos. En el centenario, pusieron en lo mas alto de Cuba al Apostol. 1953. En el Año del Centenario del natalicio de José Martí, en 1953, se organizaron en Cuba numerosas actividades para celebrar esa histórica fecha. Exposiciones, encuentros culturales, y conferencias sobre la vida y la obra de nuestro Apóstol, se realizaron en todo el país. Por este motivo la joven maestra Emérita Segredo Carreño, integrante de la Asociación de Antiguos Alumnos del Seminario Martiano, propuso en una reunión que el homenaje de esa institución fuera el de colocar un busto de Martí en el lugar más alto de nuestra Patria, en el Pico Turquino. «Cuba coloca al Apóstol en su lugar… More
On the centenary, they put Apostle at the top of Cuba. 1953. In the Centenary Year of the birth of José Mart í in 1953, numerous activities were organized in Cuba to celebrate that historic date. Exhibitions, cultural encounters, and lectures on the life and work of our Apostle, were held across the country. For this reason the young teacher Emerita Segredo Carre ñoo, member of the Association of Former Students of the Martiano Seminar, proposed in a meeting that the tribute of that institution was to place a bust of Mart í in the highest place of our homeland, in the Turquino Peak. ′′ Cuba places the Apostle in its highest place, materially, and morally points out that from there it will always be vigilante, as a living and exemplary beacon of light, to point the right path to the generations of Cubans «. Gonzalo de Quesada and Miranda, who was the director of the Martiana Fragua, and presided over the Association, welcomed and supported the initiative. She contacted sculptor Jilma Madera and asked her to make a bust identical to the one she donated to that institution and displayed in one of her halls. When Maria Mantilla visited Havana in 1953 to participate in Mart í’s tribute, Gonzalo de Quesada took Jilma to meet her. Maria toured the Martiana Fragua, showed her the bust and revealed to her that work was being done on the project to place it in the Turquino Peak. The project’s implementation received technical cooperation from the National Institute of Archaeology (INA), which was presided over Roberto Perez de Acevedo, and from the father of Celia Sanchez Manduley, Dr. Manuel Sanchez Silveira, then INA delegate in Oriente. ′′ Sanchez Silveira’s involvement was instrumental as he took care of executing the idea of bringing Mart í’s bust to the Sierra. Since then a frequent correspondence with him was established to paragraph 80 of Manzanillo, because Sanchez Silveira was several times in Ocujal with a view to resolving everything regarding the installation of the bust, which we send by rail to Manzanillo, after send the plans as well as the funds to pay the salaries to the peasants he hired to do the job «. The replica that Jilma modeled Marti’s bust to place at the Turquino Peak was smaller, melted in bronze, about 163 pounds in weight to ease her ascent. The architect of the Martiana Fragua, Antonio Luis Sanchez, made the plans of the monument, following a study he conducted, taking into account the inclement of time at that height. It is possible that the above mentioned was considered when the pedestal was lifted, with rustic stones from the mountain itself, so that other materials would not have to climb to that height for its construction. The task of transferring cement, water, and other elements, besides the bust in parihuelas, was done by twelve men who had to draw narrow and dangerous trillos amid adverse weather conditions. In a bus on the Santiago-Havana line departed the Martian group on May 17 They arrived in Santiago de Cuba the next day, which they dedicated to touring historic sights in that city. On the morning of the 19th anniversary of the fall of the Master, the Martian group performed an honor guard at the Mausoleum of Santa Iphigenia that guard his remains. Doctor Manuel Sanchez Silveira was in charge of the expedition that included her daughter, Celia Sanchez Manduley; sculptor Jilma Madera; and sisters Emérita and Cila Segredo Carre ñoo. Also part of the group were Dr Roberto Pérez de Acevedo, president of the National Institute of Archaeology (INA); Hannibal T Diaz; Jes Jesúss Fern ánndez Lamas and his son Jesus Fern ánndez Garc íaa; Francisco Dominguez; Ram ónn Mart ínn; Gerardo Houget Mu ñooz; Orlando E. Pita Aragon and Arnaldo Cobo Bonz zónn, among others.
Dr. Manuel Sanchez Silveira, placing the official record of the expedition in the urn that existed at the Turquino Peak. Also featured in the photo Jilma Madera, Hannibal T Diaz and Celia Sanchez. Later everyone embarked on the schooner Glenda, which enfiled eastward, bordering the coast until late night and under a torrential downpour to Turquino’s Ocujal, where the manager of the sawmill was waiting for them. Early morning the group departed in a truck from the sawmill to Arroyo Naranjo. Then began the fatigous and dangerous rise to Babiney’s High, 1 meters high, then reached Altos de Cardero at 1 meters. They later arrived at the Cave del Aura, which the peasants called Camp Mart í, at 1 meters, where they made night. Three unknown individuals who had sailed on the same boat from Santiago de Cuba to Ocujal, intended to join the group on the rise, which was tajantly rejected. However, individuals showed up at camp Mart í, one of them injured in one foot. The sculptor recounts that Sanchez Silveira tended to the wounded. At dawn on May 21, they restarted the rise. They walked in Indian lines, along a narrow path of stupid weeds with the thrill of reaching the top of the Turquino. The morning was cold but sunny, when they finally reached the summit firm. They had reached the Royal Peak of Turquino, 1 meters above sea level. They immediately started working to finish the foundation of the monument, the two meters more added to it, at the height of the Turquino Peak and placing the tarja. At 12 p.m. on an impromptu asta, with a branch of a tree, the Cuban flag was hoisted and the bust of Mart í proceeded to reveal. The solemn act was presided over by Dr. Manuel Sanchez Silveira and Hannibal T. Diaz. The flowers donated by the Martian Groups of Santiago de Cuba were then deposited, and Sanchez Silveira uttered a few short but emotional words. ·