The people of the capital of Cuba, one of the oldest cities in America, keep alive the tradition of going around that symbolic tree three times, in a Greco-Roman temple known as Templete, a few hours before November 16 and ask at the foot of its trunk for blessings and fortune for the city and its inhabitants.
The ceremony takes place in the place from where the town grew, according to the evidence of the then governor of the island, Francisco Cagigal, who ordered a plaque to be erected to perpetuate the fact that Francisco Dionisio Vives later perpetuated with the construction of the building that is part of of that founding tradition.
This building, like many others in the Historic District, speaks of the history and culture of an imperious city, of a particular beauty that prevails over time with the program of the Office of the City Historian, devised and promoted by Eusebio Loyal Spengler.
Thanks to his restoration and conservation work, the oldest area of the Cuban capital was declared a World Heritage Site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization in 1982, and also won the title Wonder City of the Modern World in 2016.
Here we are with you, Eusebio, together with the unfading work that you have carried out for more than half a century to ennoble the city and with it Cuba, said the tenured professor of the San Gerónimo University College, Félix Julio Alfonso, when remembering being inseparable from magnificent ritual, on its 500th anniversary.
Here we continue would be the version of those words three years later. Havana grows, lives, sings, dances, dreams, works in the homes, schools and health and recreation centers built for the benefit of its inhabitants, celebrates its 503rd birthday attached to tradition and embraced to expand its sociocultural work.
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