The Ghost of
the White Horse
By Juan Emilio Batista
Cruz
Translated by Ernesto Gutiérrez Pino
Las Tunas city, capital of the province with
similar name is located about 700 kilometers to
the east of Havana and it was recognized during
the Mediatized Republic by a famous legend based
on the supposed night appearance of an Indian
without head mounted on an energetic white horse.
l know the story since I was very young and
also the assertion that the ghost’s appearances
announced some misfortune for the community. The
galloping of a horse at the nights and in the
dawns was enough to wait for the coming day with
fear, with the security that a mournful event
would come to darken the life of the Tuneros (residents
from Las Tunas).
The accident of more spread which was
attributed to the passing of the Indian without
head happened on July 12, 1945, when the main
train coming from Havana and going to Santiago
de Cuba, had a mechanical problem in its system
of controls and it derailed near the current
Libertad Sawmill, by that time property of the
Limas, one of the wealthiest families in the
town.
That event that stirred up the society of Las
Tunas and that it transcended to the whole
country, it caused more than 30 deads and a
similar number of wounded people, who were
rescued from a mixture of iron, wood, and human
corpses, in which the railroad cars became when
they rushed against the steam locomotive that
pulled them.
The causes were clear, but the hundreds of
residents that gathered around the place of the
catastrophe listened a comment that, immediately,
traveled for the whole region: ‘’the White Horse
passed by the city, something serious had to
occur."
The legend became patrimony of the city and
it passed from one generation to another up to
our days, although at the present time very few
persons remember to the Indian beheaded in its
white horse; in fact it was a folkloric element,
and in my opinion, a sample of the inculture
that characterized, not only this region, but
the whole country as well.
The improvement of the cultural level of the
people after the revolutionary triumph in 1959
allowed a reasoning about the true causes of the
events and nowadays the new generations
practically don't know that story.
The legend always refused itself, because it
was assured that who saw the appearance, he
perished immediately. Then, if who observed it
died at once, how could he count it?
I consider that in the time of my childhood
and adolescence, there in the 50´s, the belief
was sustained because dozens of horsemen
trafficked on the streets in the dawn of the
small city: salespersons of milk, vegetables,
fruits, and of other products, in addition to
night-watchers or in love persons willing to
wake up their lovers with a sweet serenade.
In such a way, any early rising horseman
could be considered the famous Indian without
head. All feared to die and they were not able
to lean out to a window, but if a transcendental
fact happened, there was always somebody ready
to confirm the fateful passing of the appearance.
I don't believe that with the passing of time
the Ghost has passed to retirement and I am sure
that it never rode on the streets of my city.
The Indian without head mounted on an white
steed only existed in the imagination of the
residents of Las Tunas since the XIX century. It
was only a myth and nothing else.
