Fifty-six years have passed and Contramaestre is grateful for Fidel’s gift. The Carlos Manuel de Céspedes dam was the gift of the hydraulic program for the benefit of the people.
It was the first work created by the Revolution, pregnant with an interesting and beautiful history, not at all simple and yes of many sacrifices, consecration.
There were hardly any specialists for the great reservoir, initially baptized as “El Mate”, but the severe damages of the Flora cyclone left a clear lesson for the intense rainfalls that flooded entire villages in eastern Cuba.
To build the natural lake as soon as possible was the word of order to control the rivers and face the drought, to benefit agricultural development plans and human settlements in need of the most vital liquid resource.
The country defied the technical backwardness and economic exploitation inherited from capitalism. Men and technicians were quickly trained to carry out the task and overcome poverty, misery and the uncontrollable onslaughts of the universe.
The construction turned into a school, experience, enthusiasm and courage were imposed with tenacity. It was the beginning of a hydraulic will that would extend to the whole country.
The work began on July 1, 1964 and was completed four years later. The total volume of the reservoir exceeded 200 million cubic meters and the total cost reached 20 million pesos, with the support of cranes, bulldozers, trucks and construction materials.
One thousand and fifty workers participated in the enormous construction, led by seven engineers. Six workers lost their lives as a result of accidents, who will never be forgotten, just like their founders, most of them deceased.
With proletarian sweat and blood the dam was built, a symbol of prowess, sacrifice, heroism and future.
A name had to be given to this reservoir. Precisely
1968 was the 100th anniversary of that day when Cubans took up arms to start the War of Independence, which lasted 10 years with beautiful pages of indescribable bravery.
Happily after 100 years Contramaestre made real an initial program of hydraulic will that Fidel put him for a man Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, as a just tribute to that patriot who began the struggles for our Independence, to open roads to this social progress.
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)
