San Isidro de los Destiladeros

Valle de los Ingenios, Trinidad, Cuba
1828
Sugar mills were an industrial force in the Trapiche region of Cuba beginning in the late-eighteenth century. San Isidro, near the city of Trinidad on the Caribbean Sea coast, was a typical sugar plantation, operated with slave labor. For generations, the local economy was sustained by a network of such mills. Sugar production ceased at San Isidro around 1890 and its fields were used to grow a variety of crops. Remnants of this thriving and historically underappreciated industrial heritage survive: an impressive owner's house, three-story tower, cistern, main sugar factory, ancillary buildings, and dikes. Almost all are in ruins or in imminent danger of collapse. While nature continues to subsume the buildings, another threat comes from future tourism. Without adequate upkeep and restoration of San Isidro, the buildings are vulnerable to vandalism and the effects of too many people visiting an ill-equipped site. Plans have been proposed for making the plantation house into a museum, reestablishing the landscape, and employing locals for restoration work. Lobbying efforts continue to include San Isidro in UNESCO's World Heritage Site designation for Trinidad.