Maffo Foundation

Contramaetre, Nov. 26.- The date on which the town of Maffo was founded aroused controversy and the journalist Arnoldo Fernández began a thorough research to find the truth about the possible 200th anniversary of this district, that is to say, to check if the foundation really took place on November 26, 1819.

The journalist followed the correct route to achieve the goal. He interviewed several prestigious historians with extensive experience in the matter, such as Ismael Pupo, who was team leader of the first version of the history of the Contramaestre municipality, but he could not define the date in question. So it was time to move on.

The dissatisfaction led the journalist to Milagros Sánchez, historian of the colonial period in the municipality of Contramaestre, whose response increased the uncertainty, according to the data that arrived to her from historians of Jiguaní, the first references of Maffo date from 1858, and its foundation is registered in 1880, thus Maffo would not reach 200 years.

Fernández, moved by his persistence and longing to find the truth, came to the young historian Alexander Martínez, from the Ministry of Culture of the Contramaestre, who has been researching Maffo’s history for 10 years.

Finally the journalist found the correct information, when the historian Martínez affirms that Maffo’s founding date is November 19, 1819, according to data obtained in parishes, archives of Santiago de Cuba, Bayamo, the National Archives, and the historian Olga Portuondo.

Written by Radio Grito de Baire