Sagua La Grande

Sagua la Grande straddles the Sagua river in the north central region of the Villa Clara province. The river, the second longest in Cuba (the Cauto is number one) used to be navigable in the 19th century. Back then, one could navigate it from its interior origins all the way to the coast, some thirty-two kilometers away. Isabela de Sagua, a postcard-ready fishing village, sits near its mouth, where the river flows into the Florida Straits. The word “Sagua” reportedly comes from “Cagua,” an indigenous term meaning “site of abundant water.” Sitiecito and the Maria Teresa Sugar Mill Tomas Ribalta, the owner of the Maria Teresa (today the Hector Rodriguez) , was Esteban’s first owner as well, even though Esteban was much too young to remember him. Ribalta had a reputation for being an “enlightened” slave owner. He build slave barracks (barrancones) using the architectural design of a panopticon prison. All doors led to a large courtyard; the flow of slaves in and out of the slave quarters controlled by one arching gate. “Like all children of slavery, I was born in an infirmary, where they’d take the pregnant black women to give birth.” The infirmary still stands.