CAMAGÜEY.- Los Pobres Street, in the city of Camagüey, goes from South to North through the urban center for 14 blocks. It starts at the right door of the church San Juan de Dios and ends in its convergence with Avellaneda Street after winding around. It is considered one of the longest in the city.
Back in its origin, in the 17th to the 18th centuries, it spread to a side of the Cavalry Barracks in La Vigía, (nowadays Provincial Museum Ignacio Agramonte), but once the main railroad was built, its course was interrupted to build a new street, Joaquín de Agüero
Its name is due to the numerous humble families that used to live there, although in 1897 the City hall made arrangements to name it officially Padre Olallo, in order to reminisce Olallo José Valdes (1820 – 1898), a religious man than was a member of the Brothers Hospitallers of San Juan de Dios, who, for 54 years, devoted himself to the attention and care of the sick in San Juan de Dios Hospital in Puerto Príncipe.
On this street there is the plaza Triana, a place of popular celebrations since the last century and a center for the meeting of African chapters; on one of this corners there is a house of architectural value because of the typology of its second floor with a corner room, unique in Camagüey; there are also some colonial houses with an elegant appearance that date from the 18th century. Likewise, the alleys Las Gonzales, Jaime and Neponuceno start from this street.
Among the personalities that lived on this streets, there are the brothers Fernando and José Ramón Betancourt Betancourt, lawyer and literary man, respectively; and the famous songwriter and pioneer of Cuban radio Luis Casas Romero.
- Translated by Elianna Díaz Mendieta