Provincial Museum Vicente García

To get there, observe a piece of a plane whose explosion is guessed and hurts as if the metal were speaking, see in photos the young faces of the victims and some of their belongings, is to feel more human and to remember the terrorist attack on flight CU-455. Seventy-three lives extinguished in full bloom that October 6, 1976. We are talking about the Mártires de Barbados memorial museum (Martyrs of Barbados).

Las Tunas celebrates the International Day for Monuments and Sites.Las Tunas, Cuba.- In that place, we find stories like that of Nancy Uranga Romagoza, an athlete on the fencing team and one of the victims that fateful day. That Pan American and Central American youth champion was passionate about airplanes, so she collected postcards of them. What an irony of life, dying on a plane at just 22 years old, and to make it worse when that happened she was pregnant with her first child, she just didn't say it so they wouldn't stop her from competing.

She could not enjoy the triumph harvested in Venezuela in her land, she could not reap other awards with her foil, she could not see her child born and grow, and she could not even see the photos of her wedding, which occurred in Camagüey eight months before.

Today is the International Day for Monuments and Sites. Stories like Nancy's are treasured in venues like this; visiting them not only contributes to the homage, it is also a way to go back to the past and learn more about our history, a part of ourselves.

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International Day for Monuments and Sites 2021 - Complex Pasts: Diverse Futures

In the province, as a matter of fact, this year about 80 commemorative constructions celebrate their anniversary (sinks, busts, tombstones, buildings ..., which are in the ranges of 60 to 90 years after their installation), according to Vicente Álvarez Morell, a specialist in Organization of Cultural Activity, of the Office of Monuments and Historic Sites.

Las Tunas celebrates the International Day for Monuments and Sites.This list includes the busts of Martí and of the mothers who are in central areas of Delicias and Puerto Padre; that of Spanish military Federico Capdevila (which is located in the historic center of the main city), the plaques that name Francisco Varona and Joaquín Agüero streets; as well as the building that occupies the Mayor General Vicente García provincial museum, which will be 100 years old in October.

For this reason, from April 10 to May 18, International Museum Day, informative capsules about these dates, the places of homage, allegorical exhibitions, and other related materials are disseminated. This year, the theme is entitled "Complex Pasts: Diverse Futures," and celebrations are mostly held online, although some are face-to-face, but with few audiences.

Among the activities promoted by the provincial museum this month were two temporary exhibitions; one of bonsai and other plants (together with the Nicolás Guillén Foundation and the Art and Nature project, directed by Wilner Rondón), and other in greeting to the 60th anniversary of the victory of Playa Girón, with the participation of combatants of that feat. Also, the Master of Science Maricela Vázquez Rodríguez, a specialist from that institution, spoke on the center's Facebook page about the history of the property, close to its centenary.

The Major General Vicente García memorial museum recently inaugurated an exhibition of museum pieces that have been protected in that National Monument for 25 years and in San Miguel del Rompe, with the same category for more than 20 calendars; as well as treasured in the Infantry Barracks also known as the “Twenty-eight Columns,” a Local Monument since 1980.

The story must be close because it is referred to people who died to bring light to the Homeland. Monuments and historical sites also speak.

San Miguel del Rompe, National Monument

Remains of the Infantry Barracks also known as the “Twenty-eight Columns,” Local Monument