SANTA CLARA, Cuba.- On September 8, 1885, the day of the Patron Saint of Cuba, the date was set to open the doors of the most extraordinary building that would occupy until today the vicinity of the central square of Santa Clara. “La Caridad” had been the theater dreamed of by the kind lady Marta Abreu Estevez from one of his visits to Paris and spent a considerable sum of his fortune on the acquisition of the privileged enclave, all to help the city’s poor and for the benefit of public education.
In just fourteen months the ancient building was ready and became part of the trilogy of the main Cuban theaters of the 19th century along with the Terry from Cienfuegos and the Sauto de Matanzas. It was built on the site previously occupied by the Hermitage of Candelaria, the town’s first temple, and in an area that the people knew as “holy land” because it was almost entirely occupied by charitable foundations. In order to obtain the reference site, Marta Abreu compensated the Town Hall with the construction of other facilities, including the Fire Station on Gloria Street where the traditional festivals would take place.
The night after the official inauguration, “La Benefactora” was led into the coliseum through a carpet of natural flowers and followed by a civic procession where she was given a 21-carat polished gold medal on behalf of the people of Villaclara as a thank you for such a gift, the most important of her social project. The newspaper Perseverance He reported that the theatre was completely full of the “cultured society of the time” and that it “presented a magical, surprising and fascinating aspect.”
The newspaper report adds that on September 8 and 9, hundreds of people arrived to “see and admire the splendid work of Mrs. Abreu” from nearby towns such as Sagua la Grande, Cienfuegos and Sancti Spíritus, which at that time belonged to the central province.
The La Caridad Theatre is a monumental building and it is almost incredible that it was completed in such a short period of time. The Literary Sheet issued on the day of its inauguration describes it as 30 metres wide and 47 metres deep, founded on serpentine rocks and supported by an iron frame. It is, without a doubt, the most significant architectural element in the centre of Santa Clara.
In 2020, major repair work began on “La Caridad” (the third in the last forty years), a period that has seemed like an eternity not only for lovers of the city’s already meager cultural life, but also for the groups that performed there or had fixed groups for which they received a certain remuneration. After being interrupted, many shows and concerts have been relocated to the hot “Camilo Cienfuegos” cinema or to alternative centers with limited attendance.
In fact, shortly after the first restoration work began, a controversy on social networks Regarding the closure of the popular bar-cafeteria La Marquesina, located on the left side, a meeting point for Santa Clara residents and tourists, and which many considered “intangible heritage”. Artists who frequent the place were wondering, above all, about the fate of the septet “Los Gimez”, who entertained the nights of this bar for more than a decade and whose members are over 70 years old.
The truth is that with the disappearance of La Marquesina, the park was stripped of the only frequented and open-air corner that the city circuit had. According to official spokesmen at the time, the space will be used for “historical research” and converted into a kind of museum with posters, photographs and documents allegorical to the building. On the other side, on the wall steeper than those of Santa Clara They call it “boardwalk”a café similar to the now defunct Marquesina will then be opened. However, all these projects seem to be quite far away in time.
When is the theater coming?
The Teatro La Caridad turns 139 years old on September 8, but it is closed to the public and there is no prediction of when the work will be completed; or at least the local media with access to official sources do not dare to openly speculate. A note published on the radio station’s website CMHW He acknowledges, in fact, that the intervention is progressing “without a deadline for delivery.”
In all this time, the people of Santa Clara have seen climbers repairing their roof, scaffolding on their façade and the removal of the iconic lyre attached to their century-old fronton. Although they had painted their exterior walls, perhaps in part so that their disuse would not be too noticeable, they had to scrape them again due to the multiple graffiti and printed promotions that were pasted on their walls.
Prior to this repair, the theater had been repaired in the 1980s and then from 2006 to 2009, but it seems that the work was not thorough enough. A 2018 publication by the local channel Telecubanacán attests that the building had too many problems inside and that the lack of continuous maintenance was evident: its parts had leaks, rotten wood and termites, in addition to technical difficulties with the stage, sound and lighting system.
That same year, it was announced that it would undergo the aforementioned “major repairs” that have been delayed until today, according to the specialists involved, due to the lack of prior systematic care. Although it is not permitted to enter the theatre to take photographs, it is known from social media posts that there is still a platform in the centre of the stalls that was placed there primarily to remove the famous mural paintings from the ceiling. It is one of the most superb works of theatres built at the time, a pictorial ensemble commissioned by the Filipino artist Camilo Salaya, who belonged to the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando in Madrid.
The magnificent ensemble represents famous figures of the Spanish scene such as Tirso de Molina or La Avellaneda in eight medallions surrounding a polygon in the centre of which appear the allegories of Genius, History and Fame, situated on the Island of Cuba. These pieces, which are valued at millions of dollars, were in danger because the roof was suffering from “deterioration in the structural elements”, according to those involved in their construction. clearance for which reason they were entrusted to the National Monuments Office, without yet returning to Santa Clara.
A source close to the process said on condition of anonymity that, although many knowledgeable people and heritage specialists have been committed to moving forward, resources and materials have not always been available: “The expenses have been in the millions and right now very little is being done within the facility itself.” A comment from the own Facebook page del Teatro confirms that it has been very expensive to repair it “and even more so in these times.”
In comments on this social network in response to citizens’ doubts about the imminent possibility of its opening, the institution answers that “the delay does not matter, the important thing is to rescue it” because “we cannot afford to hand over an incomplete or poorly done work.” For the people of Santa Clara, the completion of the works has seemed like the birth of triplets and so far the exact date on which it can be completed is unknown. One more year, two…? Will this be the longest major repair in its history? Everything indicates that this will not be the last anniversary that Marta Abreu’s “La Caridad” remains behind closed doors.
