They say that people are not always where they were born, but where their dreams grew. That is why the architect Elizabeth Monteagudo Canto is from Camagüey by adoption and by spirit.

Her parents brought her from Santa Clara to live in Camagüey when she was barely two years old. She grew up here, and although she was able to return to her Villa Clara family, she assures that she loves this city, because she was involved with different projects and her work and family life has passed here; so it is hers too.

For her, walking through Agramonte Park is like being at home, because in several of the buildings erected around the site, her hands and many hours of sleeplessness and study contributed to restoring her image.

The executive tasks in the intervention of La Perla de Cuba, The Cultural Management Center, The House of Diversity and many others bear her mark.

The architect

After graduating from the University of Camagüey she went to work for a Housing services company, which no longer exists today; She stayed there for 10 years. Then, she came to the Provincial Restoration Company and, since 2019, she directs the Project Subdirectorate of the Office of the Historian (OHCC); She has already added 25 years within the institutional system.

Being part of the Office has always kept her studying, since she assures that each new project requires analysis and preparation, because just as happens in medicine, new materials and methods of restoration also emerge in architecture.

Before starting the work, it is necessary to analyze which ones can be applied to existing constructions. In the case of old buildings, it is prudent to recycle your own materials whenever possible, so that the result is as faithful as possible to the original building.

Elizabeth dreams each project from what exists of a building, sometimes from its ruins. She imagines it with the elegance it had when she opened its doors and tries to return its values very delicately. She especially remembers the intervention of the current House of Cultural Diversity, a work in which she participated as executor and which has received several awards for its restoration. The efforts of many were added to it and today it exhibits the beauty of its columns, floors and wall paintings.

An unforgettable project

It is difficult for her to choose among the many that she already adds to her worksheet, but an unforgettable experience was, without a doubt, her intervention in the Jaronú batey after the passage of Hurricane Irma, in 2017.

She remembers her first impression when a team from the Historian’s Office arrived at the site, a few hours after the meteorological event, and found so many houses without roofs, with broken roofs or with destroyed walls. She remembers that the sadness that invaded the inhabitants of that town was moving, she tells us.

Soon, professionals from different specialties got to work and were looking for solutions for this vernacular architecture, so uncommon in the country, which had very specific characteristics, such as its roofs hatched in pieces, with an inclination of 45 degrees; very difficult to restore.

Although the task was arduous, it was done, and in a record time of 4 months, the town flourished and once again showed off its special beauty; with wooden pediments in its homes, its church, the old administrator’s house, now converted into a hotel, and its beating heart: the Brazil sugar mill .

Her Dreams

For a dreamy architect, her most recurring wishes are to continue counting on her incredible team, for the youngest to remain cohesive, as they demonstrated in the works that decorated the city for the 510th anniversary, and for them to join her on the way to Revolution Square; next major investment to be undertaken by the Office of the Historian.

From a woman on the job, with big dreams for an eternal city, this tribute goes to all the architects of Cuba.

Translated by: Aileen Álvarez García