• Submitted by: manso
• Society
• 05 / 04 / 2011

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By Manuel Echevarría — This cabildo was legalized in the XX century under the name of Sociedad Luz Divina de Santa Barbara. Santa Barbara Cabildo, Cross-Cultural Evidence in S. S.

This cabildo was legalized in the 1950s of the XX century under the name of Sociedad Luz Divina de Santa Barbara.

The village of Sancti Spiritus was founded back in 1514 in the central territory of the Cuban island. Cattle raising was the major economic activity at the time. But sugar industry began to flourish in the XVII century which led to the increase of slave labor.

Form 1523 to 1873, nearly 1 300 000 African slaves were brought to the island. This event highly influenced the Cuban identity which assimilated the culture, the religion and the mythology of several people and ethnic groups, most of them coming from West Sub-Saharan Africa.

The largest slave crews in the territory were owned by the Valle Iznaga family in Mapos, Natividad, Guasimal, Paredes, Banao, Guayos and El Jíbaro towns. It was usual at the time that slaves were named after their masters that’s why the surname Valle became a linking element among the founders of the Iyesá Cabildo in Sancti Spiritus.

Sancti Spiritus’s journal El país released an article on December 4, 1849 saying that local black people carried their patron saint Santa Barbara from the church Jesus to the cabildo in Jesus Maria neighbourhood, where they used to gather and dance. This evidences the existence of the cabildo that early.

The cabildos that emerged throughout the island with the slave trade were in fact mutual aid and protection circles for ethnic groups, or territory of concentration or distribution of slaves.

But such associations also served to keep African rites, chants and dances alive, all of which were syncretized with the Christian religion. This practice was kind of catalyst for the cross-cultural process referred to by Fernando Ortiz when describing the contact between the two cultures.

Sancti Spirirtus’s Santa Barbara Cabildo was not very large indeed, nevertheless its traditions and customs prevailed in the territory. Older people have declared a first period of the cabildo before 1868, although it is said to had existed even earlier in the local town of Mapos. African María Salomé Valle and Octavio Carrillo -a Babalawo best known as taita Vale- worked at Mapos and they were both founders of the cabildo.

This cabildo was legalized in the 1950s of the XX century under the name of Sociedad Luz Divina de Santa Barbara. It had a three-chapter regulation with 22 articles and general and temporary provisions.

The structure by position no longer exists in the society but it has been proved that since the middle of the previous century to the present, a modification of the original elements has taken place. So, new behaviors are adopted which generate new traditions.

La Guayabera socio-cultural project is an example of what was just said. The cabildo is an entity that agglutinates a broad spectrum of religious and cultural profiles, so it promotes the cultivation of the spirit among neighborhood residents.

Manager of the project Helena Farfan talked of the many events that have been so far hosted by the cabildo such as plastic arts exhibitions, performances of singers and poets as well as activities for children and visits of guests.

Santa Barbara Cabildo found in Jesús Maria neighbourhood in the Cuban city of Sancti Spiritus is an important identity and patrimonial value that must be preserved.  


Source: www.escambray.cu/Eng/culture/cabildo110414334