My grandmother said that what abounds does not harm and I am sure it is true. On more than one occasion I have referred to the need to protect and conserve monuments, historical sites, in short, both tangible and intangible heritage, since we are responsible for the fact that, in addition to maintaining the condition granted by UNESCO that a segment of our Historic Center was declared a World Heritage Site in 2008, we have to be able to pass it on to future generations.

Well, recalling a day in which the monuments and historical sites together with the museums have been the protagonist, I could not fail to mention in an article the pride I feel as a Camagüeyan to say that in my city there is a museum dedicated to the history of the railway, the only one of its kind in the country and which was also awarded the Provincial and National Restoration Prize

I have encouraged myself to insist on the issue of everyone’s concern and occupation, to conserve what we have, what can be restored with so much dedication, because it should be no secret to anyone that each brick, each slab, each glass that is placed In a property that is intervened, it has a lot of value.

Leal’s wisdom again…

And regarding the above, I always remember our dear Leal, when in one of his usual visits to our city, and in a talk he gave us, he told us:… to restore three things are needed: money, money and money… ., and what right was he, perhaps many of the citizens who inhabit this town do not know the monetary value of each work carried out by the Office of the Historian and other organizations and companies that with meticulous dedication take care of every detail of a work stays the same way, perhaps they do not know that behind each one of them, there are also many hours of dedication, sacrifice and dedication, for which we, all Camagüeyans, all people, who live, walk the streets, and we live in this land that was founded more than 500 years ago, we have to be more responsible, more cautious, more careful with what we have been given, because let’s remember that as that motto says, we have to be: …City that I live, city that I am.

Let us all congratulate ourselves for such an award, which to our pride is not the only one, since we already have others awarded in previous years, and in a special way, let us congratulate the Historian’s Office and its team, which have always proven to be an opportunity to our beautiful and unique province.

Translated by: Aileen Álvarez García