Homage to Cuban Engineer Francisco de Albear
Engineering Professionals receive the 2016 National and Provincial Life and Work Prize during the Day of the Cuban Engineer
By Inés María Miranda inesm@enet.cu
The Day of the Cuban Engineer was established on January 11, 1946 to pay homage, on his birthday, to Francisco de Albear y Fernández de Lara, the most prominent of the Cuban professionals in that specialty, who was born in Havana, and was the creator, among other important works, of the Havana aqueduct named after him, and which after the enlargement and development of Havana City, is still supplying water by gravity to more than the 15 percent of the population in the capital in the same way as it was created in the 19th century,.
The Albear aqueduct, the Zanja Real and the Fernando VII aqueduct are the three ancient channels in Havana City, declared as National Monuments for the importance they had for supplying water to the city. The Albear aqueduct, considered as a masterpiece of world engineering, and which was awarded the Gold Medal at the Universal Exhibition in Paris, 1878, because of its efficiency, technical, esthetic, ecological, and plumbing details, is still amazing at present and is an invitation to current professionals for developing works and projects that will be distinguished for their efficiency and saving of power, among other qualities.
The celebration of the bicentenary of Francisco de Albear took place on January 11, 2016, since he was born in 1816 in the Castillo de los Tres Reyes del Morro, where his father was the Governor.
Francisco de Albear, graduated in Engineering with excellent results in Spain, participated in more than 80 different works, including projects, constructions and reconstructing works. He also participated in the installing of the first telegraphic lines in Cuba, the Cuban Central Road Project and the National Railroad. In addition, he developed the topographic works for the plan of Havana with such precision that only that for the construction of the underground in Havana carried out in the 1980’s could surpass it.
The projects and works where Albear had participation, besides the different responsibilities that he carried out, were very important. However, his most outstanding work, which allowed him to become well-known internationally, is his ¨Project for the Conveyance of the Waters of Vento springs to Havana,” presented in 1856, being completed only some years after his death on October 23, 1887.
Every January 11, the day of his birthday and established as the Day of the Cuban Engineer, the Cuban people pay homage to his technical mastery, dedication and perseverance, which are gathered together in his monumental masterpiece: the Havana aqueduct, named after him, and one of the seven wonders of Cuban Engineering.
And this day was chosen as the framework to pay recognition to those engineers who like him, chose Engineering, and are prominent in the construction, research and teaching of this specialty.
On this occasion, the four Engineering Societies of the National Union of Architects and Engineers of the Construction in Cuba (UNAICC) nominated 12 specialists following the proposal from the base organizations, and later, the verdict of a prestigious jury made up by the winners of the previous awards, and four of them were the winners of the 2016 National Life and Work Prize.
Domingo Guzmán Estrada Roche: 2016 National Life and Work in Havana, by the Civil Engineering Society of the UNAICC.
Domingo Guzmán Estrada Roche, graduated in 1952 from Havana University, nominated by the Civil Engineering Society, is the winner of the Prize in Havana.
The presentation of the National Prize, the highest distinction granted by the Association of Architects and Construction Engineers in Cuba, took place in the Revolution Square in Holguin on January 11. Likewise, five professionals will receive the provincial prize granted by three of the four engineering societies, on January 15 at the UNAIC Centre in Vedado, Havana. And on the occasion of the Day of the Cuban Engineer, a floral offering was placed at the base of the statue of Francisco de Albear y Fernández de Lara, erected in the small Monzerrate Plaza in Old Havana.
Translated by ESTI