Los Parados cafeteria and restaurant. Colonial style construction that is located in Sancti Spíritus on Calle Independencia # 1 and 3, south (Real # 50).
History
When María de León y de Quesada married the sergeant major Juan Pérez de Castañeda, she received a plot of dowry. When the marriage died in 1697 , their children inherited it; but the one dedicated to the priesthood, Juan José de Castañeda de León, remained as absolute owner. Years later, in 1740 , he declared in his will that there was a house of guano and horcones.
His heirs sold the modest house of tile and forked walls to another priest, Lic. Jerónimo José Ramírez Aquino, senior sacristan and of the third order of San Francisco. Perhaps the most striking feature of the house was its portal, which served to avoid the annoying sun and the impertinent rains; but less favorable were his taxes: 68 pesos to the Holy Greater Parish Church, 250 pesos that Catalina de Soto established and 500 pesos that Francisco Baracaldo had founded and that his wife María Carrasco made.
It is interesting to add that the priest owned possession pesos in the Caimeabo, Jatibonico herds and in southern lands (what is now El Jíbaro and La Sierpe); as well as a tile and 9 slaves.
The historian Segundo Marín García narrated that at the end of the 19th century , the Spanish Pancho Carús set up a commercial establishment there. The peninsular was a well-known enemy of everything that was Cuban, to the point that, as a result of the Zanjón Pact, he put in the Plaza del Recreo (today Parque Serafín Sánchez ) a corral of pigs, which he fed with abundant corn and compared them with the Cubans.
He also encouraged the presence of sparrows in the plaza, as they were a symbol of fundamentalism.
The building
The portal was removed in 1915 to widen the street, since cars were circulating in the city at that time. Also at the beginning of the 20th century , the property changed ownership and was named El Jardín Cubano, de Rivas y Cía .; then, El Cosmopolita, by José Poll and, later, Los Parados, always with a gastronomic use.
Currently, light food and soft drinks are sold in the corner of the property; the rest works as a restaurant.
