The City of the Waterpots since the last years of the last century, is the protagonist of a significant change in the urban landscape. Various public spaces and buildings, today show the result of a process of restoration, rehabilitation, and use changes; for the sake of the city and its inhabitants.

These transformations were conceived by the Office of the Historian of the city, at the hands of the Provincial Company of Restoration and Conservation, an entity subordinate to the Office since its foundation, which celebrates its 23rd anniversary in December. With the eyes of its founders, let’s take this tour in time.

In the pleasant courtyard of its headquarters, located on Pobre Street, we spoke with three of its founders, who are still wearing overalls and ready to continue working for their beloved Camagüey.

The founders

Tomás Lewis Meek is head of the executing brigade, he tells us that, during those 23 years at the service of the institution, he has spent almost his entire working life, being at the service of his beloved land makes him proud, when he walks through the city and sees that in its best buildings was his hand and labor; That is priceless, he says excitedly, he has participated in the remodeling of almost all public spaces and buildings in the city, but the work of Agramonte Park was special for him.

Now his brigade works on the expansion of the Railway Museum, which will be the platform for Diesel locomotives, an open space that will tell us the story of that stage on rails, there we saw Lewis along with his colleagues, preparing with picks and shovels, what will be the railway line of the open-air museum.

The Carpenter

For Aurelio Zaragoza Roble, each work proposes a challenge, because the value of the wood of each property that is intervened is different, but the restoration of the Santa Cecilia Convention Center, put him to innovate, since the frames, the large doors and his unusual designs gave him a lot of work and care.

For Zaragoza, as they call him in the group, work is synonym of happiness and when he finishes a work, he says that, at the same time, he is used to stopping by to look at every detail with a critical eye. That is why he calls on his countrymen to put a lot of love in the care of each restored building.

Feminine touch

A Marti phrase says that “there is no beautiful work that does not have the hands of a woman”, therefore, taking as a premise the enhancement of the heritage, the effort and dedication of the workers of the Restoration Company respond to a discipline and quality, of which is in charge of enforcing, Ivette Pérez, her Human Resources specialist.

For Ivette, the company is her home, since it has been her only workplace since the foundation, there, she has experienced fortunes and misadventures; words are not enough for her to express her feelings towards the embellished and preserved city, after a pause her eyes are filled with light and some tears appeared, to reiterate that 23 years are almost a life in favor of heritage.

The continuity of its social objective

The young man, Adrián Ramírez Jacomino, is a continuation of that legacy, as a restorer mason graduate of the Francisco Sánchez Betancourt School and Trades, he simply remembers how hard they worked to rebuild the Jaronú batey, an experience that contributed a lot to his profession.

He do not hide his pride of belonging to the family of restaurateurs for three years, the ideas overwhelm him and it is difficult for him to put it into words … but finally the voice comes out behind his mask and with a lively look he says that he was born in this beautiful city, and for that, he loves her so much and it makes him happy to see how his Camagüey gets prettier every day with his work.

Recognition

The courage of these workers was rewarded on different occasions, that is why they received the Flag of Labor Prowess for the intervention of the Agramonte Park and on several occasions they have risen with the status of National Vanguard.

Thanks to their work, the House of Cultural Diversity and the Batey Jaronú received, among other distinctions, the National Restoration Prize awarded by the National Heritage Council.

The love for the city of Camagüey is the driving force behind so much dedication by the Restoration Company workers during these 23 years, its specialists on site and under long hours return to the half-millennial city, that air of old and modernity, that make it magical, attractive and eternal. Congratulations on your work and may you continue to achieve successes under the look of its founders.

Translated by: Aileen Álvarez García