Defending our culture

Christopher Columbus and Havana

The Christopher Columbus Cemetery in Havana is one of the most prominent works of catholic funerary art in America, during the second half of the 19th Century. Undoubtedly, it is the vastest urban site of those worldwide with the name honoring the Great Genovese Admiral.
After he died in Valladolid on May 20th, 1506 –the 500th anniversary of his death was recalled this year- his body did not rest in peace. On the contrary, it toured a string of nations, inhumations and exhumations: in Spain (from 1506 to 1537 or 1540), Dominican Republic (Santo Domingo, 1537 or 1540 to ¿1795?), Cuba (Havana, from 1796 to 1898) and back to Spain (Seville, ¿from 1898 to the present?).
We can know about details of that curious destiny and very dubious authenticity of remains taken to our capital from Santo Domingo more than two centuries ago, through a valuable article by Havana historian, Dr. Eusebio Leal Spengler, entitled “Tracing Admiral Christopher Columbus,” (Revista Universidad de La Habana, number 236, pp 7-27).
Spanish and Dominicans experts are still discussing assessments from 1877, when pieces of the body and ashes were discovered in the area where Christopher Colon and his son Diego were at the Metropolitan Cathedral in Santo Domingo. Then, whose body was taken to Havana in 1796? Results of a DNA test proposed by a Spanish researcher are likely to put an end to that old discussion. According to Dr. Leal, Santo Domingo Archbishop Fernando Portillo Torres suggested to bury the corpse of the first admiral in Havana, a city founded –for the third time- together with the bay of the same name.
The colonial capital was reinforced with new military facilities, once it was back to Spanish hands in 1763, eleven months after it surrendered to the English on August 13th, 1762. The Havana Cathedral –its building, in construction, had been the church of the Jesuits, an order that was expelled from the Island in 1767, was built after the establishment of the diocese of Havana. Up to that moment, the diocese a2nd the cathedral of Santiago de Cuba were the only ones in the nation, and that one, from its foundation, was dependable on the Santo Domingo Metropolitan Cathedral.
The government and people in Havana received the coffin containing the body of the worldwide-dubbed “Discoverer of America” on January 19th, 1796. It was transferred to Havana based on a cession from the Spanish section of Santo Domingo to France, under the Treaty of Basel, signed by Manuel Godoy and Napoleon in mid-1795, and on one more reason, given black General Toussaint Louverture´s military pressure on Spaniards to abide by that accord.
By then, Santo Domingo witnessed the revolutionary process led by slaves in 1791 –concluding after less than a decade- with the foundation of the Republic of Haiti, the first black republic of the world.
Catholic Father Jose Agustin Caballero y Rodriguez de la Barrera (Havana, 1762-1835), also a teacher and philosopher, described the Great Admiral as the symbol of the highest virtues of that time in favor of scientific and cultural progress (euro centrism).The ethical thinking prevailed in the “Funeral Sermon to laud His Excellency, Mr. Christopher Columbus, First Admiral, Viceroy and Governor-General of West Indies, his Discoverer and Conqueror.” That praise was published by Estevan Joseph Boloña´s Printers, preceding a “Dedication to the Very Illustrious City Hall of Havana,” written by Father Caballero. Two letters to appreciate that articulate oratory piece sent by the Veraguas Duke, one of Colon´s descendants; these were published in the Havana´s Papel Periodico (newspaper) in May 1796.
In a certain extent, the distinguished Havana celebrities sought and expected that science and art, combined with a flourishing economy, contribute to the future growth of their motherland. Slave sugar cane plantations had fostered economic boom by the 1790s; that ensured the prosperity of slave dealing and African slavery in Cuba. As a matter of fact, the new sugar businessmen in Havana had not distanced too much from the mercantilist purposes that pushed Colon´s expeditions into our land.
During the 20th Century, many publications, literary and historiography works that extolled Colon´s braveness and wisdom as “Discoverer” of Cuba –an island he explored in his first and second voyages- and of the Continent ungratefully called America. Some people held his symbolic presence in Havana as the oldest and most important heritage Cubans possessed, and regretted that his illustrious memory were honored with a modest gravestone at the Cathedral. In 1853, General of the Army and Political Governor Don Juan Manuel de la Pezuela y Cevallos Escalera, Marquis of la Pezuela, suggested to build a monumental cemetery to replace Havana´s General Cemetery (also known as Espada Cemetery, because his main founder had been a bishop with that surname in Havana in 1806; it was shut down in 1878). Pezuela added the name of Christopher Columbus to the above-mentioned funeral project.
However, it was not until 1867 (R.O September 19th) that the ground for the new graveyard was bought. By the way, they cost 40,867 pesos (gold). The Board of Cemeteries held the contest to select the architectonic project in 1870. Calixto Aureliano de Loira y Cardoso (El Ferrol, Galicia 1840-Havana, 1872), who lived in Havana since he was six-year old, and earned an Architecture Degree at the San Fernando Academy in Madrid, was awarded the prize by an exacting jury including military engineer Francisco de Albear y Fernandez de Lara, the brightest and wisest of his time in Havana. Loira died very young –at the age of 32- and Eugenio Rayneri Sorrentino, an efficient builder with a degree at the same Spanish academy, replaced him as chief of the project.
The construction of the Christopher Columbus Cemetery was officially opened on October 30th, 1871, right in the area where the Peace Gate or North Gate, would be erected, and closed in 1886. The highest military officers and ecclesiastic officials of the Spanish government attended the opening of that remarkable event. However, General of the Army and Political Governor Blas Villate de la Hera, Count of Valmaseda, was not present. He was in the eastern territories, heading his troops in fighting against Cuban independence fighters who had launched the Ten-Year War on October 10th, 1868.
The area where the cemetery was built, initially occupied; it was extended northeast in the second decade of the twentieth century. The Peace or North Gate, the main access to the burial ground, is an imposing Romanesque-Byzantine arch of triumph made of local limestone. It is divided in three entrances: the central one, characterized by its height for the entry of funerals and two side gates, for visitors; the iron-gates end in spearheads, closing spaces, with three soaked C (CCC) standing for the name of this cemetery.
It was finished in 1902 with three sculptures (Faith, Hope and Charity) and two medallions, one in each side of the wall, representing the Crucifixion and the miracle of resurrection Jose Vilalta Saavedra (Havana, 1865, ¿Italy, 1912?), first Cuban sculptor of great shapes, sculptured the three figures out of white marble of Carrara.
The construction of a cenotaph was also planned to keep Colon´s remains at the square name after him, between the Northern Gate and the Central Chapel of the burial ground. But neither the construction of the cenotaph and the new transfer were materialized. Only the very distinguished name and surnames of the prominent navigator were left on the gravestone.
After the Independence War (1895-1998), US troops were occupying Havana, the deep recess used as a tomb to keep the sacred body was opened on September 26th, 1898 to take them again to Seville on December 12th of that year.
It is yet to find out if it is true that the remains of the courageous seaman who astonishingly said this is the most beautiful land human eyes have ever seen!, departed from the port of Havana.
Nonetheless, we can assure his undertaking and courageous spirit accompanied our city for over hundreds of years, and it is still flying over it, in a Carpenter-like style of the true wonderful, in wings of The Harp and the Shadow.

posted by Lilith @ 6:48 AM