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For
a Dialogue in Late Afternoon
 By Juan
Morales Agüero
Picture: Norge
Santiesteban
Translated by Ernesto Gutiérrez Pino
Zone of daily upset, site for dating among lovers, it’s not better place
for a dialogue in late afternoon, Maceo Park , which is one the best
public places to take refuge in our city. Which inhabitant from Las
Tunas has not seated to rest at any of its granite benches or has passed
throughout it while he is doing some urgent necessities of his work?
The place in which is located this intimate and recurrent installation
on the open air, it was only a ground during the mandate of the XIX
century. It was at the last stage of the life of that century when the
first constructions began to be built around it. It was called by that
time Plaza Cristina(Cristina Square), to make honor to a Spanish
sovereign with the same name.
At the beginning of 1900, there were not seen many residentiary
properties around the square. Nevertheless, a time after, the zone
quickly began to be populated and an intensive commercial and cultural
activity began to appear. Products of deferent types were sold there,
the growing of the independent worker’s business and the renting of
small grounds by the circus to settle down the canvas full of clowns and
animals and trapeze performers helped to make this square popular.
The good location of the former Plaza Cristina made possible that it
notoriously granted privilege by the economic growing of the city. After
Vicente Garcia Park, by that time named Plaza de Armas, Plaza Cristina
was the site of the best possibilities in this direction. The
influential people from Las Tunas of that time raised camps around it,
knowing that there will be a great vein for them. Of course, the
development of the city has those incentives by that time. For so many
nostalgic motives, today Maceo Park is a place of one thousand
remembrances.
At the end of the first decade of the last century, it acquired the name
of Maceo Park, as a way to remember for ever a brave and a valorous
figure of our wars for the independence. This park became in a very
popular place where the citizen from Las Tunas used to go and still go
to talk about different kinds of affairs. There it was built a monument
to honor the mothers, which is named Monumento a las Madres( Mother’s
Monument).
Students from the nearest public schools never ignored the connotation
that Maceo Park had and they helped to create an environment of green
foliage around it. To do this they began to celebrate what they called
Dia del Arbol( Day of the Tree). Occasion in which they planted a tree
that generaly used to be a little laurel, some of them still alive
nowadays.
Today, Maceo Park is an important part of the historic downtown of the
city. There are important institutions round it, such as the Direction
of Education in the Province, the Tabacco Factory, the Headquarters of
the National Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba in the province, the
Marriage Palace, and some stores and workshops.
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