Convento de Belén, Calle Compostela, between Luz y Acosta, Old Havana, Cuba.
In 1854, Queen Isabella II of Spain issued a royal charter founding the "Colegio de Belén" in Havana. The school took its name from the building it occupied at its founding, the colonial convent and convalescent hospital of Our Lady of Belén. Over time, the school expanded through the acquisition of several nearby buildings in Havana. The resulting complex became known as "El Palacio de Educación" (The Palace of Education). "El Palacio" now houses the Instituto Técnico Militar (Military Technical Institute).
A meteorological observatory was established in 1857. A facility was built in 1896.[6] The education of students was assigned to the priests and brothers of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits).
The Colegio de Belén opened in Marianao in 1925, situated next door to the Tropicana Club, it was constructed on sixty acres of land that had been donated and was to be used as the main building of the Colegio de Belén, which had been opened since 1854 within the premises of the convent of the same name in Old Havana. Those premises had become unsuitable and badly located due to the change of atmosphere in the neighborhood and the growth of the city. The project was designed by the Cuban architectural firm of Morales & Cia (Leonardo Morales y Pedroso) in 1925 with an unlimited budget for designing a religious school, the Colegio de Belén, Havana.[7]
The result was a monumental pan-optical edifice[citation needed] with an extensive neoclassical façade perpendicular to the chapel and four large courtyards, recalling the building in Havana Vieja, with three stories of porticoed galleries to link nine radial pavilions. The appearance is of extreme monumentality which is supported both in the design resources and the unusual dimensions of the spaces. The structure is built from concrete-covered steel, the flooring and roof are monolithic reinforced concrete.[citation needed]
In 1961 the government of Fidel Castro (himself a graduate of Belen) confiscated all private and religious schools in Cuba. Castro expelled the Jesuits and declared the government of Cuba an atheist government.[8] Thousands of those dubbed "enemies of the revolution" were executed or imprisoned, and the school curriculum was reshaped by communist doctrine.[9]
In the United States
In 1961, the revolutionary regime confiscated the school's property and expelled the Jesuit faculty. The school was re-established in Miami the same year on the fourth floor of the Gesu Elementary School. The building no longer exists and is now downtown Miami's Gesu Church's parking lot. In 1962, a new building was acquired and the school moved to the new site on the corner of SW 8th Street and 7th Avenue.
Since 1981, Belen Jesuit sits on a 33-acre site in western Miami-Dade County. There are over 7,000 members of the Belen Alumni Association currently active.
Belen Jesuit is accredited by AdvanceED. The school is also affiliated with the National Catholic Educational Association and is a member of the Jesuit Schools Network and the Jesuit High School College Counselors Association.[10]
Observatory
The Fr. Benito Viñes, S.J. Observatory for Astronomy and Meteorology was built with donations from the Belen Jesuit Class of 1972 and is named the Fr. Benito Viñes, SJ Observatory. The observatory has an array of 11 telescopes, and Belen is the only middle/high school in South Florida equipped with a 16" telescope with a charge-coupled device (digital) camera for astrophotography. Weather forecasts from the facility are radioed daily to various cities in Florida. The observatory has grown and made popular under Fr. Pedro Cartaya, S.J.
Aquatic center
The Gian Zumpano Aquatic Center was completed on June 6, 2018 and is the home to the Belen Jesuit swimming team. This Olympic-sized swimming facility was built in honor of Belen alumnus Gian Zumpano from the class of 1986. Gian was the salutatorian of his class and died at the age of 22. The competition complex is the first known facility of its kind designed in the Jesuit tradition.[11]
Financial assistance
Belen Jesuit Preparatory School makes financial assistance available to all students who attend the school regardless of race, color, creed, disability, or national origin. The financial assistance program takes the form of hardship assistance. Hardship assistance is determined by financial need based upon the evaluation of a financial assistance application. Belen Jesuit does not award academic or athletic scholarships.
Belen's financial assistance program is made possible by contributions of friends and family of Belen. The school's three signature events - Annual Gala, Father Izquierdo Memorial Golf Tournament, and the Annual Fr. Dorta-Duque, SJ Memorial Tombola - help fund the financial assistance program.[citation needed]
Academics
Honors courses are offered as early as sixth grade. Advanced Placement courses are offered starting in ninth grade, and dual enrollment courses are offered starting in tenth grade. All Belen Jesuit students have the potential to graduate with as many as 13 Advanced Placement courses (over 20 offered), 10 dual enrollment courses, and 35 honors classes offered in social studies, math, English, science, and Spanish.
Belen Jesuit has been named one of the top U.S. Catholic high schools by the Newman Society[citation needed] and has also been ranked as a top all-boys Catholic school by Niche.[12]
Student life
Belen students have earned local, national, and international recognition through their accomplishments in the band program, Model United Nations, speech and debate, Mu Alpha Theta, robotics, chess, and various other clubs and honor societies.[citation needed]
The Ignatian Center for the Arts
The Ignatian Center for the Arts, inaugurated in October 2003, is the hub of the Humanities Department. The department includes the following academic areas: art, art history, drama, music, band, speech and debate and philosophy. Facilities include the 665-seat Ophelia & Juan Js. Roca Theater; the Olga & Carlos Saladrigas Art Gallery; the Leopoldo Nuñez Rehearsal Hall; seven classrooms and the theater's administrative office. The Saladrigas Gallery displays several professionally curated exhibits, which include an Archdiocesan high school young artists exhibit, a Belen community art show, and numerous other projects.
The Belen bands program has over 200 student musicians and was established in January 2005. There are three major band units in the school: the jazz band, the concert band and the drum line. The Belen jazz band has won first and second place awards in competitions at Disney World, the Miami-Dade Youth Fair and the Festival of Music in Washington, D.C., and Chicago. The bands have three annual concerts at the Roca Theater, while the drum line is a source of "mood and spirit" at pep rallies and athletic competitions. Sections of the bands do charity work during the Christmas season, performing in malls, assisted living facilities, and hospitals.
Drama classes use the Roca Theater for their performances. Belen presents two high school productions annually and a one production annually from the middle school. Student productions include classics like Death of a Salesman, Fuenteovejuna, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Godspell, A Few Good Men, West Side Story, Sound of Music, Little Shop of Horrors, Beauty and the Beast, The Outsiders, Moon Over Buffalo, Hunchback of Notre Dame and others. The Saladrigas Gallery, which is located adjacent to the theater, hosts both professional and student exhibits throughout the year.
Belen Jesuit competes in basketball, bowling, crew, cross country, football, golf, lacrosse, soccer, swimming, tennis, track and field, volleyball, water polo, and wrestling. Typically over 900 athletes participate on 47 teams.
• Boys swimming and diving: 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013
• Boys basketball: 2023
The Ramón Guiteras Memorial Library
The Ramón Guiteras Memorial Library is located on campus and serves the student body and faculty of Belen as well as the local community. The library holds over 60,000 volumes, 95,000 ebooks, and dozens of subscriptions to electronic databases. The library staff includes one professional librarian and four assistants.[13]
The library houses La Colección Cubana (The Cuban Collection), a special collection of Cuban books. La Colección Cubana consists of over 8,000 volumes written either on the subject of Cuba or penned by Cubans and Cuban-Americans. La Colección Cubana is open to the public and is the second-largest collection of Cuban books and other media outside of Cuba.[13]
Core values
The following three Latin phrases are common mottos for the Society of Jesus and are reflected in the teachings of the school's curriculum and community service.
Roberto Críspulo Goizueta Cantera was a Cuban-born American business executive who served as the chairman, president, and chief executive officer (CEO) of The Coca-Cola Company from August 1980 until his death in October 1997.
Little Havana is a neighborhood of Miami, Florida, United States. Home to many Cuban exiles, as well as many immigrants from Central and South America, Little Havana is named after Havana, the capital and largest city in Cuba.
Belen, Belén or Beleń may refer to:
The Agrupación Católica Universitaria is a prominent Christian life community (CVX-CLC) composed of professional Catholic men. It is based in Miami, Florida.
The Instituto Técnico Militar, originally designed as the Colegio de Belén, Havana, is located at 45th and 66th streets in Marianao, Havana, Cuba.
Roberto J. Suárez de Cárdenas was the Cuban born American President of The Miami Herald and Publisher (founder) of El Nuevo Herald.
Germán Pinelli was a Cuban journalist and actor.
Enrique San Pedro, S.J. was a Cuban-born prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as the fourth bishop of the Diocese of Brownsville in Texas from 1991 until his death in 1994 and previously as an auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Galveston-Houston from 1986 to 1991.
Francisco Aruca was a Cuban American radio host and businessman. Aruca in 1979 founded Marazul Tours, the largest travel agency that provides travel service from the United States to Cuba. He was also a radio host on Miami's "Radio Progreso", WOCN (1450). Aruca was the only child of Francisco Gonzalez and Lilia Aruca. He graduated from the Colegio de Belen in 1959. He later received his B.A. in Economics from Georgetown University and his M.A. from Catholic University.
Luis Enrique Aguilar Leon, J.D., Ph.D. was a Cuban journalist, professor and historian. He was a professor to Bill Clinton and a classmate of Fidel Castro.
Miguel Angel Suárez Fernández was a Cuban lawyer and politician. He served as the Cuban Foreign Minister in 1951.
The following is a timeline of the history of Havana, Cuba.
The early life of Cuban dictator and politician Fidel Castro spans the first 26 years of his life, from 1926 to 1952. Born in Birán, Oriente Province, Castro was the illegitimate son of Ángel Castro y Argiz, a wealthy farmer and landowner, and his mistress Lina Ruz González. First educated by a tutor in Santiago de Cuba, Fidel Castro then attended two boarding schools before being sent to El Colegio de Belén, a school run by Jesuits in Havana. In 1945 he began studying law at the University of Havana, where he first became politically conscious, becoming a staunch anti-imperialist and critic of United States involvement in the Caribbean. Involved in student politics, he was affiliated to Eduardo Chibás and his Partido Ortodoxo, achieving publicity as a vocal critic of the pro-U.S. administration of President Ramón Grau and his Partido Auténtico.
Simón Sarasola (1871–Dec/12/1947) was a Spanish meteorologist and Jesuit priest. He was president of the Belen Jesuit Preparatory School at Havana, and director of the National Meteorological Observatory. After the opening of Panama Canal (1914), he founded the Montserrat Observatory in Cienfuegos, southern Cuba. He moved to Bogotá (Colombia) in 1921, where participated in the creation of the weather observatory of Colegio Nacional de San Bartolomé in Bogotá and the reorganization of a national meteorological service. In 1923 established the first seismograph in Colombia. He co-founded the Geophysical Institute of the Colombian Andes with J. E. Ramírez in 1941.
Manuel Antonio Dorta-Duque was a Cuban politician, lawyer, writer, university professor, and signator of the 1940 Constitution of Cuba. He was National Chief of the Order of Knights of Columbus and Rector of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences in Havana. He was named Defender of the Catholic Faith in Cuba, and on July 27, 1950 Pope Pius XII granted him the Pro-Ecclesia et Pontiff distinction for his efforts. He was a benefactor and generous donor to the Catholic Church, and helped build the Iglesia Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria, dedicated to the Virgen from the Island of Tenerife, Canary Islands, where his ancestral roots can be found. In 2008, this cathedral was named a UNESCO World Heritage site.
The Colegio de Belén is a private religious school in Marianao, Havana, located between 45th and 66th streets, next door to the Tropicana nightclub,. It was designed in 1925 by the architect Leonardo Morales y Pedroso and his brother the engineer Luis Morales y Pedroso of the firm Morales y Compañía Arquitectos.
The Arco de Belén was built by Pedro Medina in 1775 and was part of the Convent and Church of Nuestra Señora de Belén located on Calle Acosta in Havana. It is a short tunnel that characterizes the location.
Pedro Hernandez Dominguez is a Cuban American artist primarily known for his sculptures in wood and stone as well as paper medium works. Since beginning his art career in the 1950s, he has been primarily active in Cuba, the United States, and Europe. He is among the significant contributing artists to the establishment of Cuban art in South Florida during the 20th century. His artwork has gained recognition for his awards, use in public art, coverage in media and published Cuban art literature, as well as international exhibitions. Hernandez is included in the permanent collection of the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de La Habana, the Museum of Geometric and MADI Art, the City of Hialeah, and the Miami-Dade Public Library System.
↑ "Home". Belen Jesuit Preparatory School. Retrieved 2020-05-06. 500 SW 127th Avenue, Miami, FL 33184 - The address states "Miami, FL" but it is actually in the unincorporated Tamiami CDP.
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