Elia: 100 years of history
- Written by Yanet Lago Lemus/Translated by Daisel Lozada Fernandez
- Published in Opinion
On February 28th, 2016, Colombia Sugar Mill, formerly "Elia", inscribed in its pages the centenary of its foundation. The history of this locality is closely linked to the memories of the town of Guaimaro, a district from which this population was a settlement, since 1925, with the economic-political and social integration in which the Municipality of Guaimaro was created, in the province of Camagüey.
Emergence of Elia Sugar Mill...
At the end of October 1913, the representatives of the Braga family arrived in the remote southern region of Camagüey with the dream of building a sugar factory. The shareholder commission headed by Aurelio Portuondo, puts his intentions in the estate called the "Jia", of feasible location, by the proximity of the river Tana.
Their owners, the Escarrá spouses, donated 84 hectares of land for the construction of the mill, in exchange for being named as the host: Elia.
The construction and location of the industry, begun in '1914' and completed a year later, would be backed by four large estates that dominated the largest productive areas of the zone.
On February 28th, 1916 the harvest begins. With the first sweet smells coming out of the machines at premiere, job offers and hopes for the sparse population grew. Many emigrated to the area and in a short time the place was occupied by workers who built rustic ranches in small plots delivered by the Rionda brothers.
The Batey is erected with wooden houses and covered with French tile where the owners, administrative staff and chiefs of the mill lived. The first street of the town named "De Los Cocos" would be born. Elia would not only be that mill, but a whole town.
Strike of the Remolt
At the end of World War I the price of sugar rises, reaching in 1920 its highest value of 22.5 cents a pound.
Due to the restriction of sugar and the overthrow of the Machado regime, in '1933' milling stopped at the Elia mill. Hundreds of families are left homeless without their main job offer.
13 years passed when the population suffered shortages and hunger. In 1944, mill workers and their families and sugar leaders marched and strike for 23 days at the park and the Guáimaro City Hall to demand a restart of the mill. This counted on the support and the oratory of Jesus Menéndez.
The figures of Lázaro Peña, Carlos Rafael Rodríguez and Juan Marinello leaders of the labor movement, meet with the people and a second decree is published where the owners are forced to restart industrial activities. The firmness of the claimants determined its reopening to the following year showing the strength of proletarian unity.
