Central Caracas—Caracas Sugarmill
“Caracas brought in electric light in that area of Lajas. In the biggest mill in Cuba. The owners were millionaires, and that was why they bought the electricity. Their name was Terry. I don’t know where I was, up in a tree or on top of a roof. But I saw the lights of the Caracas mill, which were a marvel.”
-Esteban Montejo
Esteban worked in this area after leaving the Ariosa near Zulueta. Paradoxically, he spoke well of the notorious slaver and international capitalists Tomas Terry. Terry was the major hacendado of the area. He owned several mills and much land. Esteban remembers him as a cultured man who harbored the supremacist, colonialist ideas of the period but who established good relationships with the workers. He provided resources for the congos to establish two cabildos, one in Cruces and one in Lajas. Estaban visited them and remembers that a picture of Tomas Terry hung on the wall of the Cruces cabildo. The Central Caracas, owned by Terry, was one of the largest sugar mills in the world. The Central boasted the best technology imported from Europe in the 1860s.
Central Caracas
in Pictures
