Columbia American Cemetery. It is the most obvious and important trace of the existence of a North American community on the Isle of Youth , produced during a process of expansion of the US empire that crossed continental borders. It is an American garden-type holy field, without a single burial of Cubans, sui-generis in the Cuban and regional panorama, which due to its cultural, political, social, historical, architectural and artistic values that transcends the territorial context, has the status of National Monument.
Summary
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- 1 History
- 2 El campo santo
- 1 Declared a National Monument
- 3 Fuente
History
The first settler buried in the American cemetery was named Freeman Cooper, a German who entered Cuba from the United States. He was born on January 30, 1866 and after several years of work he died on November 30 , 1907 . His son Frank, an American by birth, administered the necropolis until 1976 , when he returned to his country. There also lie Mr. Pierce, president of the Isle of Pines Company, and Mr. Mills, owner of another major company.
From the military occupation of Cuba, after the Spanish-Cuban American War , the settlers began to disembark en masse in Isla de Pinos, in an immigration that, as in some provinces, was planted with the purpose of laying down the demographic bases to consummate, at some politically opportune moment, the annexation of Cuba to the United States.
The last known burial was that of citizen Stefania Koenig in 1981 .
the holy field
In an area of more than 17 square kilometers, divided into 135 lots, with capacity for 6 or 8 burials each, a total of more than 300 bodies are registered today, including farmers, miners, foresters, lumberjacks, teachers, merchants, hoteliers, journalists, doctors and Freemasons (270 US natives). All white, including the Mills family, owners of the Isla de Pinos Steamship Company, the Pearcys, important merchants, and others such as Mrs. H. Wheeler, a promoter of artistic and utilitarian ceramics in the 1920s.
The necropolis is structured by social status, architectural simplicity, the type of burial directly on the ground, the six-sided chapel and its orientation, the perimeter fence in which every seven balusters, a sphere appears as if alluding to the days when created the world according to the Bible .
Declared National Monument
Tarja declaring the US settlers’ cemetery on the Isle of Youth a National Monument.
On March 13, 2019, the cemetery of the settlers who emigrated from the United States to settle in that territory was declared a National Monument
