Santiago de Cuba’s Historic Archive Bridges the Gap between the Past, the Present
Santiago de Cuba’s Provincial Historic Archive was founded on June 1, 1964, following the creation of the National one. The Archive’s first seat was the first floor of the Eastern University. In April 1969, it was moved to 302 Heredia on the corner of Carnicería.
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In 1971 it was established at the former City Hall and, in 1978, it was taken back to Carnicería where it was based until the authorities definitely transferred it to Vivac, the former jail of Santiago de Cuba, at Aguilera, No 131, corner of Padre Pico. The building was declared National Monument in 1998.
The archive includes nearly 2,878 dossiers, a chronology that ranges from 1813 to 1966. The testaments of Marta Cabrales, Perucho Figueredo, Antonio Maceo, Carlos Manuel de Céspedes and Emilio Bacardí, outstanding figures in the history of Cuba, as well as Francisco Antomarchí’s, Napoleon Bonaparte’s doctor in Santa Elena, make up its heritage.
It also features 3,270 Notarial Registry Funds, which refer to such legal processes as sales of slaves and properties, testaments, power of attorney.
Santiago de Cuba’s Circuit Court Fund is priceless because of its chronology and content, and it’s described as the oldest one as it dates back from 1714 and registers the French migration that began in the 18th century.
On the other hand, the Registry Office (1885-1970) treasures registers of births, marriages, deaths and citizens. Among these documents there are references of boldface names like Federico Capdevila, Pujals de Quesada, Federico Pérez Garbó, composer Miguel Matamoros, the Arnaz y Lachatagnerais family.
The Photographic Library stores documents that date from 1890 to 1965, with pictures of Santiago de Cuba city, excursions carried out by the Humboldt group, Bacardí family and the Hispanic-Cuban-American war.
Likewise, there are Personal Funds of Ñico Saquito, General Francisco Leyte Vidal, General Francisco Argilagos, lawyer Francisco Dellundé and Alicia Alonso’s ballet professor, Nicolai Yavroski.
The historian of the city, Olga Portuondo Zúñiga, recently donated the original manuscript of the book entitled “Cuba: Constitution & Liberalism (1808-1841)”, a text that reflects the political life at the easternmost region of the country, published by Editorial Oriente in 2008 and winner of the Social Sciences Critic Award in 2009.
Mrs. Portuondo also gave documents related to some of her studies, photocopies of books reviewed at India Archive, objects that belonged to her family and the first typewriter she used for her scientific work.
All of these pieces of information are available to the public from Mondays to Fridays, 8:00 am - 12:00 pm and 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm. The specialists provided highly professional service to national and international clients by means of cutting-edge information technologies.
Santiago de Cuba’s Historic Archive is a portal between past and present, and actor Jose Pascual (Pini) organizes cultural meetings on the third Friday of each month, entitled “Dusting Off”, which is an option aimed at the spiritual enrichment of the community where the building is based, as well as all the people of Santiago.
