Our Region

San's Revenge _ Fan _ Con

The religious syncretism of the Santa Gertrudis batey made possible the birth of a temple house where San-Fan-Con was worshiped, at the end of the 19th century. At the beginning of the 20th century the image of the saint was attended by the Chinese José Quián. Mr. Campanería, owner of the plant that detested this cult, verbally threatened José with expelling him from his factory and from the batey, if he did not desecrate the image of San -Fan-Con. To do this, he ordered the Chinese Pacific to paint his eyes black of the saint. In doing so, he became blind and could never attend to him again.

The residents of that time say that, San Fan Con launched a curse on the town to leave it without its fundamental source of employment, and this was the case in 1928 when the plant made its last harvest when it was abandoned by a North American company, and received from the Gerardo Machado's government refusal to be operated by the State. The lives of the residents became more difficult: some migrated to the province of Camagüey to work in the Cunagua (now Bolivia) and Jaronú (now Brazil) plants, and others moved to the workforce of the neighboring central Álava.

After José Quián's misfortune, a lady nicknamed Marina 50 was the one who took care of the temple house. All San Fan Con devotees perform a ritual in the middle of the old barracks every January 1st; there a jug of water is spilled, the saint is offered food before sunrise, they ask him for good things for themselves and their relatives, and they thank him for his blessing and miraculous powers.

Add comment