November 19, 1837On this date, Cuba became the fourth country in the world to introduce rail transport, as it was previously used by the United States, England and France, countries that surpassed the small Caribbean archipelago from an economic point of view. In the first stage, the train did not reach Güines, as planned, but in Bejucal, about thirty kilometers from Havana. A year later the project was completed. It carries cargo and passengers. The labor borrowed was English, as were the machines and vehicles, but the construction engineers were American. Beginning in 1838, English technology was replaced by North American technology. &Small Circle;
November 19, 1888He revealed himself as a child prodigy when he taught himself the sport that would bring him fame, at the age of four and a half, and at the age of 13 he was already crowned Cuban Champion. His rich biography goes beyond the possibilities of these lines, but we can mention some events that mark milestones, such as his world records in simultaneous game sessions in the first decade of the 20th century in the United States and his resounding victory over the champion of that country, Frank J. Marshall, with a score of 8 to 1, with 14 boards. &Small Circle;
November 19, 1933 Juan Marinello describes the writer and philosopher Enrique José Varona as “a man on a journey, situated between the last legs of liberal thought and the first American concerns enlightened by dialectical materialism.” For the prestigious Marxist intellectual, Varona was “a careful republican thinker, a man of broad and insightful culture, who interpreted his last days in the anti-imperialist thought of his time.” He was born in Port-au-Prince on April 13, 1849.
