Cuba Declares National Monument to American Cemetery

In the special Isle of Youth municipality, in western Cuba, the cemetery of those who migrated from the United States to settle in that territory was declared a National Monument on Wednesday.

In a brief act the declaration was made official, with which the Isle of Youth has five cultural institutions deserving of the category, among them the Presidio Modelo and the El Abra estate, sites linked to relevant personalities of Cuban history, such as the leader of the revolution, Fidel Castro, and the national hero, Jose Marti.

The migration from U.S. territory occurred from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, taking as a context the signing, on December 10, 1898, of the Treaty of Paris, by which Washington justified the usurpation of the then Isle of Pines, an action legitimized in the Platt Amendment, appendix to the Cuban Constitution of 1901.

The settlers formed several settlements, including San Pedro, McKinley, and Columbia, and created their own cemetery.

The new National Monument responds to its historical, anthropological, cultural and architectural values, and was made official on commemorating the 94th anniversary of the validation of Cuba's current Isle of Youth, through the Hay-Quesada Treaty.