1852 Matanzas Early Cuban Internal Passport (Colonial Travel Permit) for Tailor Alejandro Eliseo Santana, Signed by Cayetano Fornell
On offer is an original colonial travel authorization certificate issued in Matanzas, Cuba, on October 29, 1852, to Alejandro Eliseo Santana, a 32-year-old sastre (tailor), signed by Don Cayetano Fornel, Celador del barrio acting under the authority of the Excelentísimo Señor Gobernador y Capitán General.
This document served as an official “pase”, an internal passport allowing the bearer to travel from Matanzas to Nueva Bermeja, a rural district known for its sugar estates and mixed free-labor population.
The left column, labeled Filiación, gives a detailed physical description:
“estatura alto, edad 32 años, pelo y cejas castañas, ojos negros, nariz, boca y barba regulares.”
Santana is described as tall, brown-haired, dark-eyed, and of regular features—a standardized phrasing in police and identity registers of the period. The entry is marked GRATIS, suggesting the pass was issued free of charge, possibly as part of routine occupational movement for registered tradesmen.
Cuban colonial travel passes like this one were part of a bureaucratic system designed to control population movement, particularly of free people of color, artisans, and laborers, decades before the abolition of slavery in 1886. Every traveler had to be documented with physical traits, marital status, and occupation, and the pass had to be shown at checkpoints when moving between jurisdictions. Nueva Bermeja (today Unión de Reyes) was a key inland hub for the sugar economy of Matanzas Province, and this record offers a vivid example of mid-century surveillance practices within that system.
Beautifully preserved, this partly printed and partly manuscript document measures approx 8x6 inches. It bears Cayetano Fornel’s signature twice—once at the heading identifying him as Celador del barrio, and again at the bottom attesting to the authenticity of the pass (“libro el presente en Matanzas á 29 de Octubre de 1852”). Spanish language.
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