The rehabilitation of Maceo Street is one of the largest interventions on an urban scale, which has been carried out in Camagüey city in recent years. The works included tasks in the two blocks that comprise the street and the squares that delimit its beginning and end.

The work was not prioritized only because of its location, the state of deterioration of its networks or the unfortunately image it portrayed, but also the importance of the old street of the merchants for the functioning of the city was taken into account.

“We cannot ignore what others did before. Maceo, the former Mercaderes Street, was already an important street, with its granite sidewalks, magnificent buildings, the two most important stores in the city: Ten Cent and Encanto. We cannot attribute to ourselves the virtues of Maceo. This street collapsed, the sidewalks deteriorated, there were incompatible uses in the artery, which demanded that a study had to be carried out and intervene constructively”, comments José Rodríguez Barreras, director of the Office of the Historian of Camagüey city.

A work that added efforts

Executing a work of such magnitude required the effort of many institutions in the province with the general coordination of the Office of the Historian of Camagüey city, and the full support of political and governmental authorities of the territory. In addition, it represented a great professional challenge for all those who participated in the work.

“In the citizenry there remained the opinion that in matters related to the revival of the urban image the works were started and not concluded. On this challenge, it was necessary to start a whole process that started from the popular consultations and from there organize a whole project that in my opinion was the largest developed to date in Camagüey. The great work is underfoot, because the replacement of all technical drainage and infrastructure networks was achieved.

“Citizens remained closely linked to the process until in some way it was considered pertinent to generate the concept of open work, in which people could patent each progress of the work. I remember that there were neighbors who came down every day to see if there were materials and how much progress had been made the day before,” adds Yosmel Díaz Pérez, general designer of the work.

Once the work was inaugurated, on April 14th, 2011, with the presence of the delegates who would participate in the sixth Party Congress, an important group of commercial and service entities were revitalized on Maceo Street, just as many years ago used to happen.

Eleven years after that event, the artery preserves its function as a relevant social and commercial space, always inhabited by the agile steps of men and women from Camagüey in their daily routines. Taking care of Maceo Street is part of the civic duty of protecting the city and one more way of honoring our memory.

Translated by: Aileen Álvarez García