In conversation on “Controversia 1514-1515. La fundación de las primeras Villas de la isla de Cuba,” the presentation of his book “Santa María del Puerto del Príncipe. Document of the 16th and 18th centuries”, recognized with the 2022 Cuban Academy of Sciences Award, led the public to new questions on the subject of a settlement that flourished in Punta del Guincho, in the north of the region.
After taking as reference, among other researches, the Collection of Unpublished Documents of the General Archive of the Indies (AGI), the researcher makes an analysis of the emergence of the former Villa del Puerto del Príncipe, in her article: Response to Mario Valdés Navia on the dilemma of the fourth villa.
“(…) the Real Cédula de Valbuena of October 1514 which is a response to the Letter of Relation sent to the king by Diego Velazquez on April 1, 1514, does not mention any specific villa as you state, it does not allude at all to Sancti Spíritus nor to any other villa, it only says: “Tengoos en servicio los tres pueblos nuevos a mas de la villa de la Asunción que habiades hecho (…)”.
“Therefore, the famous fourth town could have been any of the three towns that remained to be established (except for Santiago, whose foundation date is perfectly documented),” Gómez assures in the publication.
“The lack of knowledge of this document in Dr. Pichardo’s (Hortensia Pichardo) 1986 book is one of the elements that undermines her hypothesis about the foundation of Puerto Principe in 1515, since it is a scientific fact that in October 1514 there were four villages founded,” reads the article by the Camagüey scholar.
In an exchange with the press, the specialist of the Office of the Historian of the City of Camagüey, refers that “Velázquez informed by means of letters, and the King answered him by means of letters”.
In addition, the doctor in Sciences refers: “Of all of them, the two are not there. The first couple is there, which is the letter of April 1st where Velázquez describes the foundation of the first three, and the king’s answer to Velázquez that tells him that four are the first towns founded, and it is there where the first incongruence begins”.
And the scholar goes on to say: “but the letter is truncated, because there may also be another letter that we do not know.
“I think that reference in that Royal Charter was also to the Villa and not to the Port, because it said that they were coming to the Port of the Prince to seek help, to give news, and only one seeks help, news and support in a place where he knows there are people, and it is inhabited.
“I arrive at a certainty, and it is that on August 1, 1514, the six towns were founded, except Santiago de Cuba. And whether it was the fourth, the fifth or the sixth is the least important thing, but that the year assumed by tradition is true”.
He even certifies his thesis with his own article “Respuesta a Mario Valdés Navia” on the dilemma of the fourth villa.
“It is evident that if in October there were four villas founded and the two new ones reported in August are added, on this date there were already six villas founded, among which Santa María del Puerto del Príncipe would necessarily have to be. Therefore, this is not conjecture, it is a certainty, a scientific fact”.
Replete with a rich history that has been key even in the formation of Cuba’s national identity, today this city that links the center with the east of the Antilles is one of the sacred spaces from the social to the cultural, a site whose urban center was declared a World Heritage Site.
In February 2024, as has been the tradition for decades, the local inhabitants will celebrate a new birthday of the city, distinguished by its colonial architecture, its winding streets, its reddish roofs, cobblestones, and its own people, protagonist of traditions and bearer of its culture, admired and recognized by the most diverse visitors and tourism lovers.
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