[NYTr] The Maine: The Most Debated Monument in Cuba Date: Tue, 18 Sep 2007 22:53:30 -0500 (CDT) Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit CubaNow - Sep 17, 2007 http://www.cubanow.net/global/loader.php?&secc=5&item=3341&c=2 The Maine: The Most Debated Monument in Cuba By Luis Sexto Cubanow.- The most debated monument of its time and of the coming decades is the one dedicated to the victimes of the Maine. For Cubans, the explosion of the American Navy battleship at the port of Havana on February 15, 1898, was the beginning of an evident American intervention in the war the Cubans were fighting against Spain in order to be independent. But, contrary to their public goals, it only served to frustrate the independence aspirations of the Cuban independence fighters. To understand it, itbs necessary to recall that once the intervention was over, the Cuban Constitution was legally limited due to the so called Platt Amendment. It allowed the United States to say the final word with regard to the national economy and politics. Itbs understandable that most or, at least, a considerable part of the Cuban population have kept their patriotic sensibility hurt since 1902. For many years, some believed that the Maine had been the outcome of a diplomatic intrigue that included a self-coup. In 1998, Cuban publishing house Editora PolC-tica published a book written by historian Gustavo Placer Cervera in which the author updated the tragic episode and presented the outcome of the latest researches carried out by American experts and historians on the cause of the explosion. Experts admit it might have occured inside the battleship as a result, perhaps, of an accidental fire or a spontaneous coal spark; or maybe due to a mine used to sabotage by the Spanish fundamentalism, a hypothesis the expansitonist and militarist circles accepted since the first moment as the only feasible one bkeep in mind that McKinley had proposed Madrid the purchase of Cuba. Perhaps, the real cause will never be known and the event become an enigma of the American history. But one conclusion is certain: the blowing-up of the Maine was used as a pretext by the White House to declare a war the most bellicose groups and Hearstbs and Pulitzerbs newspapers had been preparing. The monument, approved by a presidential decree in 1913 and erected in 1925, still exists, standing on its platform, across the sea and near the Hotel Nacional, showing cannons and shipsb chains where a bronze plaque has the names of the 288 victims. The Revolution bwhich reconquered the stolen sovereignty and national wealth- did not demolish the monument. It has respected the memory of the dead sailors. But, in 1960, it pulled down the eagle which in an aggressive position topped the monument. Pablo Picasso, acoording to what was published by the press then, promised to sculpt a dove of peace to replace the big predatory bird. But he either forgot it or had no time. A dove is what the monument to the victimes of the Maine lacks for nobody misses the eagle. However, the existence of busts, monuments and buldings to pay tribute to the American citizens whose actions contributed to the relations of friendship and cooperation between the two peoples in a proces of mutual cultural influence is a common thing in Havana and other Cuban cities. The passer-by that goes for a walk in the park dedicated to the most prolific and famous Cuban educator, JosC) de la Luz y Caballero, accross the entrance channel of the bay of Havana, recognizes the busts of American educators Mattew Hanna and Alexis E. Frye. They balong with Cubans Esteban Borrero EchevarrC-a and Eduardo Yero BuduC)n- designed the educational system in Cuba once Spain took home the remains of the colonial regimen and left its sequel of backwardness and disorder. Towards the center of the old city, in the Parque de la Fraternidad Americana, a bust of Abraham Lincoln is among those dedicated to the Spanish American heroes and other famous personalities of the political, literary and scientific worlds such as VC-ctor Hugo and Luis Pasteur. The name of Lincoln is also the name of a sugar mill in Artemisa, a municipality of Havana province, and of several schools of the national education system. Another sugar mill, in Villa Clara province, is called George Washington. Populous streets of the Cuban capital are also named after the father of the American independence. Six of the most important cities of the country buntil 1976 they were the capitals of the six Cuban provinces that constituted the former political and administrative regions- have kept the buildings of secondary schools and provincial courts built in the first decades of the XX century. They are characterized by the neoclassic style that lends the solemnity and seriousness that distinguishes study and justice. Their durability in the townscape is a tribute to mister Newton who, during the second military intervention of the United States in Cuba, between 1906 and 1909, run the department of civil construction of the government. Newton reintroduced classicism in Cuba and formed several disciples as experts of other academic styles with which the Cuban architecture, with almost no experts until that moment, put an end to certain poor models like Art Noveau which, based on what historian Emilio Roig said, spread fantasies, exaggerations and extravagances. Even when some of those buildings were built after his stay in Cuba, his designers followed the ideas and proposals of the creative American architect. Some of these buildings, renovated today, such as high school No.1, today called JosC) MartC-, in the capital, still show a fortunate period of the national architecture. * ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us Our main website: http://www.blythe.org List Archives: http://blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/ Subscribe: http://blythe-systems.com/mailman/listinfo/nytr =================================================================