Sunday, November 19, 1837. It was the birthday of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II of Spain. Amid the tropical drizzling that had started out since the wee hours of the morning and an unusual chilly temperature for Cuba, an excited crowd was swarming around the Garcini Stop in downtown Havana to watch the first locomotive haul a wagon with seventy topsy-turvy passengers aboard –who had paid 20 gold coins apiece for the rare trip- and a second wagon with goods. The journey was a 17-mile stretch between Havana and the town of Bejucal.

That was a historic day. Cuba had become the sixth country on earth, and the first Hispanic American and Caribbean nation –even before Spain- to have railroad tracks that would make way for one of the human inventions that benchmarked the 19th-century world economy: the locomotive.

As that train rolled in Cuba, locomotives had chugged their way in other five nations before: U.K. in 1825, France and Austria in 1828, the United States in 1830 and Germany in 1835.

Eight British-made locomotives were waiting for a chance to roll down Cuba's railroad tracks that were supposed to be enhanced in the future. The trains were dubbed Cuban, Havana, Commission, Villanueva, Herrera, Escobedo, Colon and Cervantes.

The above is just an attempt to try to portray the scene as witnessed by chroniclers and reporters at the time. Today, in the third millennium AD, the fact that the former Caribbean colony did the metropolis one better by eleven years still makes some people in Hispanic America raise eyebrows. The Mataro-Barcelona train line was opened in 1848 and many wonder why such apparent contradiction ever occurred in the first place.

Historian Oscar Zanetti says, “In order to cotton on to the historic and economic needs that made Cuba have the first railroad of Hispanic America and the Caribbean –even with the go-ahead of the Spanish Crown- we have to look back at the time when the Cuban archipelago was becoming the world's undisputed sugar-making leader.”

The raging independence of the Thirteen Colonies and the Haitian Revolution paved the way for Cuba to rapidly become the number-one sugar supplier in European and American markets. It goes without saying that this situation was pouring money into Spanish coffers.

But in 1826, France unveiled the first beet sugar industry and the process proved to be a whole lot cheaper than the West Indies sugarcane. As a result, the French competition made a dent in the Cuban economy.

Finding ways to cut costs in the sugar industry became a do-or-die dilemma for Cuban producers huddled at the Royal Economic Society of Country's Friends. Several attempts were made to no avail until they jumped to the conclusion that the coming of railroad to Cuba could well push costs down, especially in transporting the sweet produce from the hinterland plantations all the way to the seaports. Cuba needed that means of transportation twice as badly as Spain. So, nobody whined and nobody kicked the floor when the decision to install Hispanic America's first railroad on the island nation was finally made.

DRAWBACKS On April, 1835, American engineers Alfred Krugery and Benjamin H. Wright landed in Havana to oversee the building of the first railroad track following the approval of the so-called Fomento Board, the body in charge of the works.

As soon as the two men got cracking, Governor Miguel Tacon ordered all works to be stopped unless track directions were shifted. The military complained the tracks were going to be built too near a major fortress known as the Castle of Principe. The rift mothballed all efforts for a whole year.

The U.S. engineers had no other choice than abide by what the Governor said and the Fomento Board eventually changed the direction of tracks, even though the decision made the entire process pricier than initially estimated.

At the end of the day and after two months of toilsome labor to build the Havana-Bejucal tracks, all funds were gone. Designers then turned to British banker Alexander Robertson for a new loan, but this time up with higher interest rates in return.

In mid 1837, the building of train stations, warehouses and workshops picked up steam. British machinists and operators were hired, as well as track guards, warehouse caretakers and switchers. Finally and despite all tribulations, everything was finished right on schedule.

A BATTLE BETWEEN POISED INTERESTS The conclusion of railroad tracks between the nation's capital and the town of Bejucal, some 17 miles in the outskirts of Havana, laid bare a sordid squabble of economic interests between Great Britain and the fledgling power of the United States of America.

That rivalry was made evident in the following developments:

- Initial negotiations with Spanish Authorities included eight British-made locomotives that were later labeled as worthless by U.S. engineer Krugery. The English government, for its part, called the issue an instance of sabotage. - Using the British money, the two U.S. engineers bought a Baldwin locomotive made in America. - Regardless of all this, London managed to keep control over railroad tracks built in western Cuba. That relationship grew on for years as a result of the British Crown's ties with Cuban landowners, Spain's banking debt with England and the supply of sugar industry goods and machineries made in Great Britain. The first Hispanic American and Caribbean train pitted two powers against each other.

THE HARBINGERS The world's first steam locomotive was built in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland as far back as 1804 by English engineer Richard Trevithick. Following the initial success, different locomotive models and brands were made, especially for working in peat and coal mines. The outcomes, however, were low-key.

But in 1829, Great Britain unveiled a locomotive powerful enough to haul passenger and cargo wagons at the same time. On that same year, The Rocket –designed by engineer George Stephenson- won a contest sponsored by the Liverpool and Manchester Railway.

The new machine was mighty enough to pull three times its own weight at a speed of 12 miles an hour and haul a wagon full of passengers at a then neck-breaking speed of 24 miles an hour.

At the same time in the U.S. town of Honesdale (Pennsylvania) bathed by the waters of the Atlantic Ocean, the Stourbridge Lion –the first locomotive to ever steam its way in the Western Hemisphere- was being put through its iron paces.

Eight of those locomotives –they were originally built in England, though Americans started making them a few years later- were used in Cuba to span the first track-mounted paths.