La hora de los mameyes - The time of the mameyes
The mamey colorao , a type of sapote, is a wild fruit typical of the tropics and very popular with Cubans. Its red and juicy pulp is ideal for juices and smoothies. It is also eaten fresh, as a dessert, in syrup confectionery or preserved.
The tree, the sapote, is an attractive ornamental species, producing a beautiful and hard wood. Infusions of its seeds, when crushed, serve as insecticides to eliminate ticks in animals and humans, as well as other infections of the scalp.
The expression "la hora de los mameyes" originated in 1762, when Havana was taken by the English. It evokes a decisive or critical moment. According to the story, the militias, led by the Creole Pepe Antonio, defended the city with exemplary courage. This gave rise to the popular expression "hacer las cosas de a Pepe", which means to act with intransigence.
The English soldiers, dressed in a black and red-brown uniform similar to the colors of the mamey fruit, were nicknamed "mameyes" by the Cubans. At nine o'clock in the evening, when the cannon sounded, marking the closing of the walls and a kind of curfew, this moment was then called "the time of the mameyes".
Traditionally, this closure was commemorated by firing a salvo from a cannon from the fortress of San Carlos de la Cabaña, whose shot could be heard throughout the city. It is an unmissable event in Havana.
Today, the expression is still used to designate a decisive moment in difficult situations. In these times of monetary reform in Cuba, we can therefore affirm that "the hour of the Mameyes" has arrived.
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