Perhaps the most spiritual place in Cuba is the copper town. This is where a great collection of traditions and beliefs of the Cuban people come together, combined with a spectacular landscape marked by the traces of the old mine from the colonial era.
With the pretext of recording a documentary about poetry and spirituality, Santiaguera began our trip. After an hour of road travel through the mountains that surround the city and its surroundings we finally arrived.
The town was colorful, like almost all towns. But already from his surroundings you could feel that strong energy that surrounded him. By housing the most important Catholic temple in Cuba and at the same time the representation of the most symbolic Afro-Cuban religion.
This time we would not go to see the figure of the Virgin of Copper, patron saint of the people of Cuba, but we would follow the route of the maroon, to see the monument erected to honor the bravery of the slaves who worked for years and escaped from the mines. copper.
Just before starting to climb the hundreds of steps, a plaque reminded us of the symbolism of that ascent. Because yes, any place worth seeing in Santiago was at the top of a hill.
Halfway to the top we found one of the first locations to film, the remains of what was the copper mine where a man extracted copper stones with a small hammer to sell them to tourists for whatever they wanted to give him. In this same place we found a cave that crossed the mountain, but not dug by nature but by the ancestral force of slave hands. The landscape spoke for itself, we were on damaged, but beautiful land.
When we finally reached the tip of the mountain, we were greeted by the blue color of the lake, which was nothing more than a colbaza mine that over time filled with water and took on that dazzling color due to the minerals at the bottom. A few steps higher, finally, was the bighorn.
The representation of a spirit that according to the locals still haunted that place, acting as a spiritual guide for visitors. In the distance you could also see the impressive Copper Church that houses one of the most adored virgins on the continent. Without a doubt that summit represented the cultural syncretism of Cubans, rather Latinos in general.
The way back was perhaps more exhausting, but with what we had seen and felt, it was definitely worth it.