Baseball receives Cuban Cultural Heritage status

Matanzas, October 19 (RHC/PL)-- Baseball receives the status of Cultural Heritage of Cuba at the Palmar de Junco Stadium in Matanzas on Tuesday, in a ceremony that will be loaded with symbolism, patriotism and art.

In the sports facility, located in the neighborhood of Pueblo Nuevo of the homonymous provincial capital city, the first official game of the modality was held in the country, an event that took place on December 27, 1874.

That historic game was played between a team from Havana and the hosts, and took place under the rules that existed at the time, with both teams in uniform, with referee and scorer, and the news was published in the newspapers La Aurora del Yumurí, Matanzas, and El Artista, of the Cuban capital.

The old field, declared a National Monument and the oldest active in the world, houses the Matanzas Baseball Hall of Fame, founded in 2016.

From that year to date, the committee of experts has exalted about fifty personalities linked to the sport of balls and strikes, including athletes, managers, historians, writers, commentators and journalists.

There are two facts about baseball in Matanzas that cannot be ignored: the incorporation of dozens of local players in the fight for independence, including the national champion Matanzas, 1892-1893 and 1894-1895, who joined the battlefields against Spanish colonialism.

The other significant event is the presence of the musician and composer Miguel Failde, creator of the danzón, the island's national dance, because together with his orchestra they entertained the games that took place in Palmar de Junco.

Precisely this Tuesday, the group that bears the name of the brilliant creator, directed by his great-great-grandson Ethiel, flutist, arranger and defender of the dance genre conceived by his predecessors, will perform on the day of recognition.

For the people of Matanzas, it is a true joy and honor that the solemn act of declaration takes place in our Palmar de Junco stadium,' Francisco Soriano, radio commentator and narrator, told Prensa Latina.

This October 19 we will have an event of great patriotic content. An important recognition to the favorite sport of Cubans and to the city of Matanzas, initiator in the country of this social phenomenon that is baseball, which just a week ago turned 328 years old', he stressed.

Clean up batter (Close-up) by Cuban painter Reinerio Tamayo