CubaPLUS Magazine

Francisco “Pancho” Marty, an intelligent Catalan who devoted much of his life to the slave trade, did very well in Cuba, conducting business across several provinces and leaving behind, as part of the island’s history, a number of remarkable buildings.

Cuban history, in general, is filled with figures who are widely known and mentioned almost daily, and others who are far less remembered, yet who also shaped powerful chapters of public interest.

Such is the case of Don Francisco Marty y Torrens, born in Barcelona, whose properties have survived to this day.

The El Carmelo Coffee Plantation, now known as Finca Integral Pan de Azúcar, in Pinar del Río, is an extraordinary place, overflowing with history and lush nature across its vast lands.

It is crowned by large mamey colorado and Santo Domingo mamey trees, mangoes and richly fleshed guavas, tamarinds, papayas, mamoncillos, and many other fruit-bearing species.

A smooth, shimmering river runs through part of the estate, bringing freshness and humidity to these singular lands, lands that still seem reluctant to tell their full story.

Pancho Marty acquired this coffee plantation in 1855, recognizing that western Cuba offered strong guarantees for maintaining his clandestine slave-trading business. He bought it from the heirs of Carlos Pascual, a fellow countryman and wealthy merchant from Havana.

In these quiet surroundings, he continued his project of breeding and selling enslaved children, first teaching them trades in order to increase their market value.

Marty never stopped managing, alongside the plantation, his prosperous fishing businesses and the Tacón Market in Havana, built in 1835 with the support of General Miguel Tacón and the notorious slave trader Manuel Pastor, as documented in records of the time.

Tacón, together with Marty, Zulueta, Gómez, and Manuel Pastor, carried out some of the most scandalous slave-trading operations in Cuba. One example of the wealth accumulated by this group of oligarch slave traders was the construction of a more centrally located theater in Havana.

Marty, using laborers, prison workers, and materials supplied by the government, began the project on 6,176 square varas of land he had acquired from the royal treasury between 1836 and 1839.

The building was constructed under the direction of Don Antonio Mayo, master mason, and Don Miguel Nins y Pons, master carpenter, and its total cost reached two hundred thousand pesos fuertes. Completed in 1838, it was the largest theater of its time in Latin America. Today, the Gran Teatro de La Habana Alicia Alonso stands on that same site.

The Tacón Theatre was inaugurated with elegant masked balls on Sunday, February 28, 1838, and a few days later opened its dramatic program with the five-act play Don Juan de Austria.

By 1859, Marty owned several docks on La Cabaña Hill, in addition to houses, buildings, fish nurseries for commercial sale, the coffee plantation, and a large fleet of boats.

In 1864, the Cuban Serafín Sánchez described Marty by saying: “He was a consummate strategist and had the eyes of a lynx.”

In 1865, Vueltabajo once again became a witness to the business of slave traffickers, this time in the area known as Estero del Gato, while Marty continued his trade in fish and minors from El Carmelo coffee plantation in Pan de Azúcar.

But this story of shady business and illegal slave trading did not end gracefully. The illegal acts of such a distinguished public figure were brought to light, and the benevolent image he had falsely projected for years before Havana society collapsed completely.

Without a doubt, Marty could not withstand being caught in a scandal of this nature, one that exposed his true identity as a slave trader. He went through a judicial process that led to his death in Havana on May 29, 1866, leaving behind a great fortune.

The current owners of the lands that once belonged to Pancho Marty are a wonderful family with deep experience in rural life. They know all the legends surrounding the area. Several generations are represented in this singular home, where Enrique Ramos, popularly known as Juanito Piara, is the oldest member of the family.

They have lived there for more than twenty years and enjoy telling the stories tied to the place, such as those of the majá snakes, more than four meters long and as thick as a handspan in diameter, capable of killing a person with just two coils around them.

They also speak of the famous siguapa, a kind of large owl with feathered horns, said to throw stones at night and knock off your hat to frighten people and protect its young.

They also know about the old slave cemetery, which still remains very close to the house where the family lives. It dates back to the 19th century, with documentary evidence of the first enslaved burial recorded in 1858.

However, despite its great historical and archaeological importance, very few excavations have been carried out there, some of them by specialists from the Provincial Museum of History of Pinar del Río.

In the short time they were able to dedicate to archaeological work, they found three skulls, one of them with two molars plated in gold and with African features. It is known that there are burials from different periods.

The walls of the crematorium and one of the walls with a semicircular arch are still standing, and just before Hurricanes Gustav in 2002 and Ike in 2008, the entrance remained completely intact. But these powerful storms brought down a jagüey tree and a Santo Domingo mamey tree on top of it.

The remains of the walls are now scattered throughout the area, lying there as silent witnesses to countless secrets still waiting to be told.