Cueva de Sao Corona

Cueva del Cubano Libre - Cueva El Cubano Libre

Useful Information

Location:	Cueto. (20.4868585, -75.8958425)
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Classification:	Karst cave
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Address:	Cueva de Sao Corona.
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

1868	newspaper El Cubano Libre first published by Carlos Manuel de Céspedes under the direction of the poet Joaquín Palma.
1869	after the loss of the city Bayamo the printing press was rescued and moved to the Cueva de Sao Corona.
27-MAR-1980	declared a National Monument by resolution of the National Monuments Commission.

Description

The Cueva de Sao Corona is well known under the name Cueva El Cubano Libre (Cave of El Cubano Libre) because the El Cubano Libre newspaper was printed in this cave. This was the first independent newspaper published in Cuba at the beginning of the War of 1868. Do not mix it up with the newspaper of the same name which was established by Che Guevara during the Cuban Revolution. The name The Free Cuban has obvious benefits for any kind of freedom fighter.

The Spanish occupied Cuba and the indigenous Taíno were virtually wiped out by infectious diseases, to which they had no natural resistance, and by the harsh conditions of the repressive colonial subjugation. For their large-scale sugarcane plantations they needed slaves, and by the mid-18th century, there were 50,000 slaves on the island. The rebellion of 1868 led by sugar planter Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, who freed his slaves to fight with him for an independent Cuba. One of the first things he did was to install a newspaper, so he could publish his theories and decrees. When the insurgents lost the city Bayamo, they set it on fire in a gesture of patriotic love, before it fell into Spanish hands. During the evacuation, the printing press was rescued and moved to the Cueva de Sao Corona.

An archaeological excavation in the cave revealed remains from the time when the newspaper was printed here. They are on display in the La Periquera Provincial Museum.

The cave has a rather huge main passage. In the middle part the passage widens, but at the end it becomes quite narrow. There are numerous openings to the surface, where light enters the cave.