Asphalt roads for Trinidad: a historical look from the pages of Actualidad (1934-1940)

Abstract

The press is an expression of a context, in a given space and time. Its study allows us to know the development of societies in the various social spheres that comprise it, hence its value as a historical source.
In support of the above, this article proposes to analyze, from the pages of the Actualidad newspaper, the construction project of the Trinidad-Sancti Spiritus highway. Likewise, other initiatives to build other highways motivated by economic interests are also revealed.
For this purpose, a review of the issues of the newspaper during the period 1934-1940 was carried out. Document analysis was the fundamental method applied in the work with the printed material. At the same time, the procedures of external and internal criticism of the sources were applied, as well as analytical and synthetic criticism. Key to the work with the information obtained were the historical-logical, analytical-synthetic and inductive-deductive methods.
It can be affirmed that the construction of the highway meant for the Trinitarians the way out of the economic, social and cultural stagnation in which the term was.
Key words: highway; newspaper Actualidad; press; Trinidad.