The historic honor to Finlay
One of the first stays of Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar in Camagüey city occurred when he was a young man. He had just suffered a slight accident while working as a railway employee. Transferred to the General Hospital of Camagüey near the railway loading platform, in the Vapor Square, Batista received medical assistance from Dr. Justo Lamar Roura.
It was his first approach to the square that decades later received a remodeling to house the bust that Camagüey would dedicate to the discoverer of the yellow fever transmitter agent, Dr. Carlos Juan Finlay Barrés (1833-1915).
The responsibility for the artistic work fell on the sculptor Fernando Boada; while its unveiling occurred on December 3rd, 1944, in an act in which several speakers spoke, especially Dr. Francisco Martínez de la Cruz – who clarified what was related to Finlay’s birthplace, in the house indicated with the No. 5 on Cristo Street; and he was one of those who strongly opposed the name change of Finlay Avenue to Fulgencio Batista Avenue. The bust meant a tribute to Cuban medicine.
Batista charged for the bust of Finlay
On April 2nd, 1937, Batista returned. A caravan of vehicles followed him to the improvised stand on Mártires Avenue, in La Vigía neighborhood – where corporations and political parties greeted the President of the Republic, Federico Laredo Brú.
At the Camagüey Hotel, Batista had an opportunistic conversation with the bourgeois business community and even addressed those present: “[…] the people of Cuba cannot obtain a free and sovereign homeland due to their geographical and economic situation […]” , which was assumed to keep the Island subservient to the United States.
On January 7th, 1944, already being President of the Republic, Batista arrived in Camagüey. His supporters welcomed him on Libertad Avenue, after touring the Mártires Avenue accompanied by the National Army, three jeeps of United States soldiers and Marine Corps forces.
In addition, he visited the Fire Station, the Palace of Justice and the General Hospital, on whose side the bust of Dr. Finlay would be placed, in the square that would bear his name. But Batista did not notice the park’s construction work, nor the gardening and trees.
On July 10th, 1949, he returned to Camagüey in the DC-4 twin engine of the Yankee-run Cuban Aviation Company. The caravan of cars at the vanguard of Batista’s convertible took Finlay Avenue. Once in Finlay Park, after being flattered by his hosts, he took the microphones to attack the ruler, Dr. Carlos Prío, specifying that the objective of his party (PAU) was: “[…] to rescue true democracy and give the Cuban people, a regime of equality, decorum, justice and freedom with the necessary guarantees for the life and tranquility of all citizens.
He then returned to Columbia. And he returns to Camagüey on February 28th, 1954, under a persistent drizzle. From the airport he went along Finlay Avenue to the Park of the same name. That night he waited for the rain to stop in the doorway of the General Hospital -careful not to damage his Dril-100 suit-, but without turning his gaze towards the bust of Dr. Finlay, who was surrounded by well-armed police and military.
Taking the microphones, he said: “Under the sun and in the rain, by night and by day, we will always be fighting for Cuba and for the People… Thus he blurted out to those gathered before the formally indifferent look of Dr. Finlay, who seemed to show contempt for the “partner” of the Yankees who concealed his scientific discovery. Fireworks and rocket explosions cut off Batista’s words. He left and never came back.
Translated by: Aileen Álvarez García
