Manaca Iznaga

Today was another long travel day. We bade farewell to Trinidad early in the morning. I felt sad to leave this vibrant, colorful town as I would have liked to explore it in more depth. Today was the final day of our tour, and we were to drive back to Havana, with two stops en route - The Valley of the Sugar Mills and Che Guevara's memorial in Santa Clara.

The Valley of the Sugar Mills is located just east of Trinidad. There, we visited Manaca Iznaga plantation. The former plantation owner's house was relatively intact, as was a tower on the premises, and some former slave quarters (now used as residences). This tower was used to view the operations of the plantation, which was staffed by slaves. I thought of the tower as an evil panopticon - a vantage point from where those in power control the activities of the workers.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/manaca-igna…

I know it is irrational, but I didn't want to pay CUC 2.00 to climb the tower because I didn't want to imagine myself in the shoes of a slaveowner surveying his property (both territorial and human). Throughout my stay in Cuba, I wondered about race relations among the people there. On the surface, it seems good; I saw people of different races mingling and there is obviously a fair amount of interracial marriage. But, with race, appearances usually deceive no matter where you are. I guess race relations have been at the back of my mind lately because of recent developments in the various countries I have lived in - the US with a political regime that seeks to divide rather than unite, Brexit being driven by xenophobia, and Singapore's own Presidential (S)Election where the government amended the constitution on the (paper thin) pretext of maintaining racial harmony.
https://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Cari…Read more