La Casa de Beneficencia y Maternidad de La Habana, () was for 270 years Havana's repository of Havana's unwanted children. The House of Charity started during a time when Cuba was experiencing extreme poverty, unemployment, and corruption in the government. Corrupt leaders were plundering the public treasury and little attention was given to social assistance, health, education, or the protection of the poor: "los desamparados".
History
The Real Casa de Maternidad y Beneficencia emerged as a product of several transitions between "La Casa Cuna," the "Real Casa de Maternidad", and finally "La Casa de Beneficencia." It was not until 1794 during the government of Luis de las Casas that the Beneficencia was located in its final location in Barrio San Lazaro at the corners of San Lazaro and Belascoáin.
The Casa Cuna was founded in 1687 by Bishop Diego Evelino Hurtado de Compostela. His death left the orphanage unfinished due to lack of resources to carry out his efforts. His successor, Bishop Fray Gerónimo de Nosti y Valdés, took up his idea and restored the Casa Cuna in a building he built on the corner of Oficios and Muralla. It originally housed two hundred orphans.
In the year 1792, Don Luis de Peñalver, on the initiative of the Countess of Jaruco, the Marquises of Cárdenas de Monte Hermoso, the Marquis of Casa Peñalver and the Bishop of the Provinces of Louisiana and Florida, founded the "Real Casa de Beneficencia." It accepted only females, settling in a cavalry room of land located in front of the San Lázaro cove, which was an area known as the Betancourt Garden that the Bishop of Peñalver gave for this purpose. They offered to contribute 36 thousand pesos, requesting the governor to manage the royal approval and suggest the land in front of the Caleta de San Lázaro with a view to the sea and running waters.
Antonia María Menocal, a lady of Havana, left at the time of her death in 1830 a large legacy to be invested in charitable works. The executor assigned it to the creation of a Maternity House and for the preservation and education of children up to the age of six.
Marcial Dupierris in 1857 wrote: "The Real Casa de Beneficencia, which is also in the neighborhood of San Lazaro, is a large building, whose front faces the street Wide North, its side E. is on the road of Belascoaín, and extends to the S to face with the house of health of San Leopoldo, said Real establishment, is the refuge of the orphans of both secured . He is educated and supported until the age when he allows them to be applied to any kind of work. In one of the departments of their dependency there are the insane; in another the Cradle house—that is, in the spitting room. Those different departments are entrusted to the care of people who enjoy the best reputation. Of getting married, they receive a dowry of five hundred pesos that the house gives them, and when they are placed for the service of private homes, it is with the preceding report and recommendation of good reputation and morality of the people to whose care they are delivered."
La Casa de Maternidad was added to the Beneficiencia on the initiative of Spanish Governor Manuel Gutiérrez de la Concha, who administered the island from 1850 to 1852. La Casa de Beneficencia y Maternidad was administered by the Sociedad Económica de Amigos del País.
In 1914, the State assumed the institution which continued to survive on the alms and the service of the Daughters of Charity of Cuba.
The Hermanos Ameijeiras Hospital, the largest health facility in the country, was built in place of the former La Casa de Beneficencia.
Diego Evelino Hurtado de Compostela
Bishop Diego Evelino Hurtado Vélez (1638 in Santiago de Compostela, Spain - August 29, 1704 in Havana, Cuba) was the Bishop of Diocese of Santiago de Cuba (now the Archdiocese of Santiago de Cuba) and was known as Bishop Diego Evelino Hurtado de Compostela.
In 1687 he founded La Casa de Beneficencia y Maternidad de La Habana. On June 4, 1685, he was appointed Bishop of Santiago de Cuba by Pope Innocent XI and was ordained bishop on August 29, 1704, by Cardinal Savo Millini, Apostolic Nuncio to Spain. He donated his orchard in Havana for the building of Convent of Belén (later used as the Colegio de Belén). He died in Havana on August 29, 1704.