CAMAGÜEY.- The first automobiles that run through our city arrived by mid 1905, although according to some chronicles, around 1902 there was an artifact driven by a steam engine running through our streets, its tires were solid and chain traction.

Among the pioneer drivers of these vehicles is the landowner Don José Mendoza, Dr. Manuel Ramón Silva, with cars of the brand Oldsmobile.

The true impulse of car industry in Camagüey started from 1912 with the arrival of half a dozen cars and one or two loading trucks. The main brands were Autocar, Studebaker, Gargo, Essel, and Ford T “mustache Ford”, that was a low cost automobile produced by Ford Motor Company of Henry Ford from 1908 to 1927.

It was about those years that a resourceful American opened the first garage of the city, located on the streets Francisquito and Jesús María, place where later on would be built the huge bunkhouse Las Tres Banderas.

Later, with the increase of the number of vehicles, in 1918 it was opened the second garage, located on Avellaneda, between Francisquito and San José, although at the time the most important one was the Universal Garage, on Santa Rosa Street, next to the Social theater, building that, although damaged, maintains the original lines of its facade.

In 1923 arrived the first fire truck, but since it moved so slowly, the fire fighters used it very few times. The first jeeps (General Purpose Card) were imported by the Americans in 1947 during the airport construction works, as well as the great Dodge trucks, of six and ten wheels.

• Translated by Elianna Díaz Mendieta