Local History Limonar Municipality

Subscribe to DeepL Pro to edit this document. Visit www.DeepL.com/Pro for more information. Local History Limonar Municipality General characteristics of the municipality. The territory occupied by the municipality of Limonar borders on Matanzas and Cárdenas to the north, Jovellanos to the east, Pedro Betancourt and Unión de Reyes to the south, and Unión de Reyes, Matanzas and Madruga to the west, in the province of Mayabeque. It occupies 3,8 % of the territory of the province of Matanzas. It has a territorial extension of 449,07 Km2. Its population is 26704 inhabitants, 13262 females and 13442 males. The main population settlements are: Limonar (municipal capital), Horacio Rodríguez, Fructuoso Rodríguez, Triumvirate, Santa Ana, Jesús María, Las Marías and San Francisco. The territory is located at 220 57' 04'' north latitude and 810 25' 38'' west longitude and is formed topographically by a relief that goes from flat to hillock. The predominant soils are of the clayey type, derived from the limestone rocks of the upper Cretaceous. Among the deepest soils are the famous black soils of the Guamacaro valley of the palmarito type. In the northern elevations of the Guamacaro valley and in the Las Nieves savannah the vegetation is that of cuabal, typical of the shallow serpentine soils where the cana palm abounds. The soil is mainly red ferrallitic in 70% and some brown, where there is a wide range of vegetation and their lands are devoted primarily to the production of small fruits, vegetables, grains, fruit trees and livestock development. The predominant climate is warm, the average annual temperature is 25-300 and in the cold months it is 210 C. The average rainfall is between 1100 and 1300 millimeters. Among the most significant elevations of the territory are the Sierra de Guamacaro, to the northeast of Limonar, which marks the limit of the fertile valley of the same name and reaches up to 251 meters (on the hill of Botino). To the east-southeast are the picturesque elevations known as the hills of Domingo Alonso, which reach their peak at San Juan Bautista, at 245 meters. To the southeast is the Sierra de Limones, a mountain range that extends from Las Nieves to Limones, known as the lomas de Sitio Vianda, in whose eastern portion is the highest elevation in the municipality at 253 meters. To the west of the municipality on the border with Madruga, are the elevations of some importance known by the Mogote, whose highest point reaches 216 meters. The south-western portion (closer to the municipal capital), presents a series of hills through which flows the Canímar River, which is the most extensive and abundant, which has as its main tributaries the Las Mozas River, which comes from the eastern slope of the Sierra de Caobas and the Yaití or Limones Grandes, which is born in the Sierra de Santana de los Caballeros. To the northeast, in the Sierra de Guamacaro, the Moreto or Guamacaro River has its source, which flows into the Canimar River, in the place known as El Tumbadero, and which was a river port for the shipment of sugar during the colonial period. There are other rivers such as the Mariposa, Charco Largo, La Palma and San Juan, which crosses territories to the west of the municipality. The North American writer Samuel Hazard, who visited the country in the middle of the 19th century, impressed by the beauty of the place wrote: ¨Cerca of Matanzas, on the road to Bemba, is the small and beautiful town of Limonar, one of the most pleasant places on the island, very suitable for those with delicate health, because of its pure air and vigorizante¨. * *Hazard,Samuel. Pen and pencil vat. Cultural SA. Havana, 1928p. 136 II Pre-Columbian stage According to the map drawn up by José María de la Torre in 1841, which shows the territorial areas in which the different tribes were formed. Guamacaro is located in the chiefdom of Sabana or Sabaneque and to a lesser extent, also in the chiefdom of Cubanacán. The primitive man located in the lands of Limon developed in the Paleolithic, in the Mesolithic stage. Among the Cuban aboriginal communities is the proto-archic man, considered the oldest in the country. It has been determined that this primitive man inhabited the banks of the Canímar, Moreto and Yaití rivers. The geographical environment influenced the establishment and development of these communities that lived for thousands of years in these regions, mainly in the places surrounding the Canímar River, whose course slid faster and more impetuously than other river currents. In this place the proto-archic man, found the suitable conditions for the subsistence, being the hunt his fundamental activity. In our municipality the mark of the aboriginal cultural contribution has been left through names, such as Caneymar, known as Canímar, which meant ¨¨Templo from Mar¨¨, Guamacaro, Yaití, Moreto and other geographical features or places that bear the mark of our first inhabitants. III Colonial Stage The fertility of the Guamacarense soil, as well as its proximity to the Bay of Yucayo (Matanzas) must have awakened the greed of the colonists, if we consider that the first known land grant in the country was granted on March 4, 1558 to Inés de Gamboa, widow of the conqueror Diego Velázquez, granting her the herd of Caneymar, so that she could promote the raising of livestock. On August 5, 1663, the corral Laguna de Palos was given to Doña Petronila Recio, which was adjacent to Limones Chicos and the Caneymar herd; for the breeding of large livestock. In 1747 these lands belonged to the Countess of Buena Vista Braulia Carrillo de Albornoz and her brother-in-law Don Mateo Soubervilley. At the beginning of the 19th century these lands became the property of the Marquise Jústiz de Santa Ana. The existence of an incipient population in Guamacaro's lands, since the 17th century, is revealed in the request of transfer of the seat of its corral Caneymar that formulated in 1672 the Ensign Cristóbal de Poveda for that place, to avoid the attacks of the filibusters. This way, numerous large and small cattle ranches appeared in this jurisdiction, among them; Caneymar of Philipe del Castillo, Cahobas of Francisco Sequeira, Limones (site) of Agustín Fernández, Limones (corral) of Cristóbal Frómeta, Limones Chicos of Joseph Solís and Laguna de Palos of Ambrosio Sotolongo. In February 1805, Bishop Espada visited the church of Guamacaro and in his notes on the visit, Fr. Hipólito Sánchez Rangel noted, ¨... We followed the path here, which was already very flat and very beautiful because of the many mountains that offered a variety of fruit trees, including the lemon. For this reason they call a site of the king where the commander of Cortés and I had lunch, El Limonal¨. On May 17, 1807, the church of Guamacaro was authorized for El Limonal, under the patronage of San Cipriano and the Purísima Concepción, patron saint of the village, whose day of remembrance is celebrated on December 8. In 1800, the Marqueza Jústiz de Santa Ana, owner of the Laguna de Palos hacienda, had given up a plot of land to promote the town, which was distributed in plots of land where five pesos were paid annually to the church. In this way, a certain number of settlers who lived in the hacienda began to gather in the area, giving rise to the formation of a small town called Limonar. Its name is attributed to the lemon plantations that the French colonists had in the place. The date of foundation is taken as 28 October 1808, as there is a document drawn up by the parish priest of Limonar, dated 15 July of that year, where he reports that the church of Limonar was being built, according to the plan made by the engineer Miguel Dubroc. It is from that date onwards that we begin to talk about Guamacaro, as a judicial district and Limonar as the head of the same. In the second half of the 17th century, the Spanish government changed the administrative territorial organization, dividing them into smaller structures at the head of which were the captains or pedophile lieutenants. In 1812 the party of Guamacaro includes the following territories: Sumidero, San José, Sabanilla, Lagunillas, Pendejeras, Camarioca and Siguapa. In 1827 Guamacaro did not have a city hall, it was recognized as the only authority to the captain judge who was helped by the lieutenants who were in charge of each of the quarters that made up the territory that at that time were five: San Jose, La Sierra, Caobas, Limonar and Sabanilla. According to Estaban Pichardo's map, it stands out that in 1838, Guamacaro, belongs to the jurisdiction of the city of Matanzas, which included the rural neighborhoods of Santa Ana and Guamacaro, among others. At this stage the game in Guamacaro was governed by a pediatric judge with the name of party captain, helped by a lieutenant. The game was divided into quarters, with other subordinates called the corporal. The military jurisdiction was presided over by the Arms Command and the Maritime Command was represented by a sea mayor, both with a seat in Limonar. In 1843 a political-administrative division was applied, making modifications to the jurisdictions of the parties, leaving the Guamacaro party made up of the Sumidero, La Sierra, Caobas, Limonar, Guamacaro, Canímar, San Miguel and Coliseo quarters and Sabanilla del Encomendador was broken up. The captaincy was second class, being based in the town of Limonar. In 1865, Don Miguel Nodal was captain of the party.

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