It have being 284 years since the first uprising of slaves and workers who came in Minas del Cobre, near the city of Santiago de Cuba and saved in its important memories moments that occurred since the founding of the seventh Cuban village site, to our days.
It was July 24, 1731 when they decided, through insurrection, demand their rights to the Spanish authorities. They were motivated by the legacy of its predecessors: African and Indian slaves who worked there until the seventeenth century when mining activity ceased to be of economic interest.
Given the obligation to work in defense works for Spanish Colony and the violation of their rights, many of the slaves revolted and joined the runaway Maroons in nearby hills.
It was then the colonial power ceded to their requests, but only in 1801 their rights were legalized and were recognized as free men and landowners.
The Royal Order was read and accepted by the relevant authorities before the image of the Virgin of Charity, making the town was the first in the island where freedom of slaves was proclaimed 80 years before the formal abolition was decreed of slavery.
The sculpture of Santiago Alberto Lescay, Cimarron Memorial, erected there from July 7, 1997, recognizes the unsung hero of this epic, and does so from the top of a hill, very close to the Shrine of Cobre.
This work is part of the UNESCO project Slave Route, which in 2012 was declared a National Monument Cobre Cultural Landscape.
The phenomenon of slavery present in the largest Antillean island for years, left a deep imprint on society to this day from the hand of traditions, customs and rituals of religion.
For connoisseurs, the monument is seen as a point of reflection on the scale and value that at all times has the resistance and rebellion, against the actions of oppression and injustice.