Holguín

Holguín is a municipality and city, the capital of the Cuban Province Holguín.

It was founded as San Isidoro de Holguín in 1545, and it is named after its founder García de Holguín, a Spanish military officer. Prior to 1976, Holguin was located in the province of Oriente.

There are several small city parks, most central the Calixto García in the downtown area. Close by one finds the galleries Centro Provincial de Arte and Bayado, a library, the club Casa de la Trova, the Martí cinema, the Theatre Eddy Suñol, the Province Museum La Periquera, a science museum, and a history museum. From the hill Loma de la Cruz, where a large crucifix is installed, which can be ascended by its 465 stairs, one can oversee the whole city.
Holguín has a baseball stadium. The Frank País International Airport (city code HOG) is connected to Havana and several other world destinations.
The municipality is divided into the barrios of Aguarás, Aguas Claras, Alcalá, Arroyo Blanco del Sur, Báguanos, Cabezuelas, Cacocún, Calderón, Camazán, Cauto del Cristo, Corralillo, Cruces de Purnio, Damián, Floro Pérez, Guabasiabo, Guayabal, Guirabo, Haticos del Purial, La Aguada, La Cuaba, La Palma, La Rioja, Las Calabazas, Managuaco, Melones, Norte, Omaja, Purnio, San Agustín, San Andrés, San Francisco, San Juan, San Lorenzo, Santa Rita, Sur, Tacámara, Tasajeras, Uñas, Uñitas, Velasco, Yareyal and Yayal.
The main secondary education institution is the University of Holguín.

The brewery Cerveceria Bucanero - a joint venture with Labatt of Canada - is based in the city. It makes three brands of beer (Bucanero, Cristal and Mayabe) sold in convertible pesos.
Near Holguin, the Villa El Quinque and the Villa El Cocal are world-renowned centers for addictions treatment, receiving patients from around the world. Argentine soccer star Diego Maradona was treated for his cocaine addiction there. Disfrutan de Playa Pesqueros, situada nada mas que a 40Km.

In 2004, the municipality of Holguín had a population of 326,740. With a total area of 666 km² (257.1 sq mi), it has a population density of 490.6/km² (1,270.6/sq mi).

Guantánamo

Guantánamo is a municipality and city in southeast Cuba and capital of Guantánamo Province.
Guantanamo is served by the Caimanera port. Producing sugarcane and cotton wool are traditional parts of the economy.

The municipality is mountainous in the north, where it overlays the Sierra Maestra (mountains), and borders the Windward Passage of the Caribbean Sea in the south. It is crossed by the Guantánamo, Yateras, Guaso, San Andrés and Sabanalamar rivers. The Guantánamo Bay is a natural harbour south of the city.
The municipality is divided into the barrios of Arroyo Hondo, Baitiquirí, Bano, Bayate, Caimanera, Camarones, Caridad, Corralillo, Cuatro Caminos, Filipinas, Glorieta, Gobierno, Guaso, Hospital, Indios, Isleta, Jaibo Abajo, Las Lajas, Macurijes, Mercado, Ocujal, Parroquia, Palma de San Juan, Rastro, Tiguabos and Vínculo.

About 15 km away from the city lies the Guantánamo Bay, a superior natural harbour which has been controlled by the United States as the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base since 1902, following a controversial unlimited lease of the harbour to the US.
The military base contains detention centers, currently used for "unlawful combatants" captured in the War on Terrorism. The detention centers consist of the temporary Camp X-Ray, which is now closed, and the permanent Camp Delta.

In 2004, the municipality of Guantánamo had a population of 244,603. With a total area of 741 km² (286.1 sq mi), it has a population density of 330.1/km² (855/sq mi).

Notable natives of Guantánamo include athletes Joel Casamayor, Yumileidi Cumbá, Jaime Jefferson, Yargelis Savigne, Dayron Robles, Luis Delís, and Cuban-American gymnast Annia Hatch; and cosmonaut Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez, the first Cuban cosmonaut and the first person from a country in the Western Hemisphere other than the United States to travel into earth orbit. He was also the first Hispanophone and first person of African ancestry in space.

Havana history - the founding of Havana

The current Havana area and its natural bay were first visited by Europeans during Sebastián de Ocampo's circumnavigation of the island, in 1509. Shortly thereafter, in 1510, the first Spanish colonists arrived from Hispaniola and began the conquest of Cuba.

Conquistador Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar founded Havana on August 25, 1515 on the southern coast of the island, near the present town of Surgidero de Batabanó. Between 1514 and 1519, the city had at least two different establishments. All attempts to found a city on Cuba's south coast failed. The city's location was adjacent to a superb harbor at the entrance to the Gulf of Mexico, and with easy access to the Gulf Stream, the main ocean current that navigators followed when traveling from the Americas to Europe. This location led to Havana’s early development as the principal port of Spain's New World colonies. An early map of Cuba drawn in 1514 places the town at the mouth of the river Onicaxinal, also on the south coast of Cuba. Another establishment was La Chorrera, today in the neighbourhood of Puentes Grandes, next to the Almendares River.

The final establishment, commemorated by El Templete, was the sixth town founded by the Spanish on the island, called San Cristobal de la Habana by Pánfilo de Narváez: the name combines San Cristóbal, patron saint of Havana, and Habana, of obscure origin, possibly derived from Habaguanex, an Indian chief who controlled that area, as mentioned by Diego Velasquez in his report to the king of Spain. A legend relates that Habana was the name of Habaguanex's beautiful daughter, but no known historical source corroborates this version.

Havana moved to its current location next to what was then called Puerto de Carenas (literally, "Careening Bay"), in 1519. The quality of this natural bay, which now hosts Havana's harbor, warranted this change of location. Bartolomé de las Casas wrote:

...one of the ships, or both, had the need of careening, which is to renew or mend the parts that travel under the water, and to put tar and wax in them, and entered the port we now call Havana, and there they careened so the port was called de Carenas. This bay is very good and can host many ships, which I visited few years after the Discovery... few are in Spain, or elsewhere in the world, that are their equal...

Shortly after the founding of Cuba's first cities, the island served as little more than a base for the Conquista of other lands. Hernán Cortés organized his expedition to Mexico from here. Cuba, during the first years of the Discovery, provided no immediate wealth to the conquistadores, as it was poor in gold, silver and precious stones, and many of its settlers moved to the more promising lands of Mexico and South America that were being discovered and colonized at the time. The legends of Eldorado and the Seven Cities of Gold attracted many adventurers from Spain, and also from the adjacent colonies, leaving Havana and the rest of Cuba largely unpopulated.

Camagüey

Camagüey is a city and municipality in central Cuba and is the nation's third largest city. It is the capital of the Camagüey Province. After almost continuous attacks from pirates the original city (founded as Santa María del Puerto del Príncipe around 1515 on the northern coast) was moved inland in 1528. The new city was built with a confusing lay-out of winding alleys that made it easier to defend it from any raiders. There are many blind alleys and forked streets that lead to squares of different sizes. There is only one exit from the city; should pirates ever return and succeed in entering the city, the hope was that the local inhabitants would be able to entrap and kill them.

The symbol of the city of Camagüey is the clay pot or tinajón, used to capture rain water to be used later, keeping it fresh. Clay pots are literally everywhere, some as small as a hand, some large enough for two people to stand up in, either as monuments or for real use. Local legend has it that if you drink water from a girl's personal tinajón, you will fall in love with the girl and never leave her.The main secondary education institutions are the University of Camagüey & the Instituto Pedagójico de Camagüey.

In 2004, the municipality of Camagüey had a population of 324,921. With a total area of 1,106 km² (427 sq mi), it has a population density of 293.8/km² (760.9/sq mi).

Camagüey is the birthplace of Ignacio Agramonte (1841), an important figure of the Ten Years' War against Spain in 1868–1878. Agramonte drafted the first Cuban Constitution in 1869, and later, as a Major General, formed the fearsome Camagüey cavalry corps that had the Spaniards on the run. He died in combat in May 11, 1873; his body was burned in the city because the Spanish feared the rebels would attack the city to recover his body.

The outline of Ignacio Agramonte's horseback statue in the Park that bears his name is a symbol of Camagüey. It was set there in 1911, uncovered by his widow, Amalia Simoni.

The Plaza of the Revolution features a bronze Agramonte standing followed by his troops.

The city is also the birthplace of the Cuban national poet Nicolás Guillén.

Camagüey is also the hometown of volleyball player Mireya LuisThe old city layout resembles a real maze, with narrow, short streets always turning in a direction or another. After Henry Morgan burned the city in the 17th century, it was designed like a maze so attackers would find it hard to move around inside the city.

Camagüey has its own international airport, Ignacio Agramonte International Airport. Most tourists going or leaving to the Beach of Santa Lucía do so through the airport.

Although it is not the only grammar school in the City, The Preuniversitario or sometimes called "vocational school" IPVCE - Preuniversitario Institute of Sciences Maximo Gomez Baez, is the largest of its kind in the province of Camaguey.

To become part of their enrolment must conduct a college entrance exam to complete the preparation of the Basic Secondary Education, (7 th to 9 th grade).

During the 3 years following receive intensive preparation for the next test of entry to University.

The center is so extensive that receives the category of city school.

Their students, during the period of 3 years (10th to 12th grade), are influenced not only in academia but rather create bonds of brotherhood that accompany a lifetime.

This centre is homologous to other existing in the rest of the country's provinces, and certainly forms bonds of friendship that endures for a lifetime, but on the other hand, separate the formation of a teenager in the family.

In Camagüey (city), for example there are very few possibilities of making high school from externally. With the exception of several schools for athletes (such as ESPA, EIDE & Manuel Fajardo) and The School of Art, and the Military School (better known as Camilitos) the only other option is the IPVCE or pre-university in Sierra de Cubitas (over 100 km from the city), located in the country site, in which students must perform agricultural work such as collecting oranges.

In November 2007 opens IPVCE.org, website dedicated to collecting and alumni of this institution purports to be the meeting point of all vocational transiting through the network.

Santiago de Cuba

Santiago de Cuba is the capital city of Santiago de Cuba Province in the south-eastern area of the island nation of Cuba, some 540 miles (869 km) east south-east of the Cuban capital of Havana.

The municipality extends over 1,023.8 square kilometers (395 sq mi), and contains the communities of El Caney, Guilera, Antonio Maceo, Bravo, Castillo Duany, Leyte Vidal and Moncada.

Historically Santiago de Cuba has long been the second most important city on the island after Havana, and still remains the second largest. It is on a bay connected to the Caribbean Sea and is an important sea port. In 2004 the city of Santiago de Cuba had a population of about 494,337 people

Santiago de Cuba was founded by Spanish conquistador Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar on June 28, 1514. In 1516 the settlement was destroyed by fire, and was immediately rebuilt. This was the starting point of the expeditions led by Juan de Grijalba and Hernán Cortés to the coasts of Mexico in 1518, and in 1538 by Hernando de Soto's expedition to Florida. The first cathedral was built in the city in 1528. From 1522 until 1589 Santiago was the capital of the Spanish colony of Cuba.

The city was plundered by French forces in 1553, and by British forces under Christopher Myngs in 1662.

On June 12, 1766, the city was almost destroyed by an earthquake.

The city experienced an influx of French immigrants in the late 18th century and early 19th century, many coming from Haiti after the Haitian slave revolt of 1791. This added to the city's eclectic cultural mix, already rich with Spanish and African culture.

It was also the location where Spanish troops faced their main defeat at San Juan Hill on July 1, 1898, during the Spanish-American War. Spain later surrendered to the United States after the destruction of its Atlantic fleet just outside Santiago's harbor.

Cuban poet, writer, and national hero, José Martí, is buried in Cementerio Santa Efigenia.

Santiago was also the home of the revolutionary hero, Frank Pais. On July 26, 1953, the Cuban Revolution began with an ill-prepared armed attack on the Moncada Barracks by small contingent of rebels led by Fidel Castro. Shortly after this disastrous incident, País began talking with students and young working people informally, drawing around him what became an extremely effective urban revolutionary alliance. This developed into highly organized cells coordinating a large scale urban resistance that became instrumental in the success of the Cuban Revolution.

País' group prepared carefully, accruing weapons, collecting money, collecting medical supplies. They published a cheap newsletter that reported news that criticized the government, attempting to counter Batista's censorship.

In the summer of 1955, País’ organization merged with Castro's July 26 Movement. País became the leader of the new organization in Oriente province.

On 1 January 1959, Fidel Castro proclaimed the victory of the Cuban Revolution from a balcony on Santiago de Cuba's city hall.

Until a rearrangement of province boundaries in 1976, Santiago de Cuba was the capital of Cuba's Oriente Province, which included the present day provinces of Holguín, Las Tunas, Guantánamo, Granma and Santiago de Cuba.

The local citadel of San Pedro de la Roca is inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List as "the most complete, best-preserved example of Spanish-American military architecture, based on Italian and Renaissance design principles".

The Baconao Park was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage Biosphere Reserve List in 1987.

In 2004, the municipality of Santiago de Cuba had a population of 494,337. With a total area of 1,024 km² (395.4 sq mi), it has a population density of 482.8/km² (1,250.4/sq mi).

Pre-Columbian Cuba

Guanajatabeyes

The earliest inhabitants of Cuba were the Guanajatabey people, who migrated to the island from the forests of the South American mainland as long ago as 5300 BC. The Guanajatabeyes, who numbered about 100,000, were hunters, gatherers, and farmers. They were to cultivate cohiba (tobacco), a crop upon which the island's economy would one day depend. Spanish conquistador Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar later observed that the Guanajatabeyes were "without houses or towns and eating only the meat they are able to find in the forests as well as turtles and fish." Though the Guanajatabeyes are now considered to be a distinct population, early anthropologists and historians mistakenly believed that they were the Ciboney people who occupied areas throughout the Antilles islands of the Caribbean. More recently, researchers have speculated that the Guanajatabeyes may have migrated from the south of the United States, evidenced by similarities of artifacts found in both regions. Some studies ascribe a role to these original inhabitants in the extinction of the islands' megafauna, including condors, giant owls, and eventually ground sloths.

Further evidence suggests that the Guanajatabeyes were driven to the west of the island by the arrival of two subsequent waves of migrants, the Taíno and Ciboney. These groups are sometimes referred to as neo-Taíno nations. The new arrivals had migrated north along the Caribbean island chain from the Orinoco delta in Venezuela. These two groups were prehistoric cultures in a time period during which humans created tools from stone, yet they were familiar with gold (caona) and copper alloys (guanín).

Taíno and Ciboney cultures

The Taíno and Ciboney were part of a cultural group commonly called the Arawak, which extended far into South America. Initially the new arrivals inhabited the eastern area of Baracoa before expanding across the island. Traveling Dominican clergyman and writer Bartolome de las Casas estimated that the Cuban population of the neo-Taíno people had reached 200,000 by the time of the late fifteenth century. The Taíno cultivated the yucca root, harvested it and baked it to produce cassava bread. They also grew cotton and tobacco, and ate maize and sweet potatoes. According to Las Casas, they had "everything they needed for living; they had many crops, well arranged".

Varadero

Varadero is a resort town in the province of Matanzas, Cuba, and one of the largest resort areas in the Caribbean. Varadero is also called Playa Azul, meaning "blue beach" in Spanish.

It is situated on the Hicacos Peninsula, between the Bay of Cárdenas and the Straits of Florida, some 140 km east of Havana, at the eastern end of the Via Blanca highway. The peninsula is only 1.2 km wide at its widest point and is separated from the island of Cuba by the Kawama Channel. This spit of land however extends more than 20 kilometers from the mainland in a northeasterly direction and its tip, Punta Hicacos, is the northernmost point of the island of Cuba. At the northeastern end of the peninsula there is a nature reserve with virgin forests and beaches. The Hicacos Point Natural Park is a 3.12 km² (1.2 sq mi) ecological preserve established in 1974. It contains the 250 m (820 ft) long Cave of Ambrosio, Mangón Lake (home to 31 species of birds and 24 species of reptiles) and the ruins of the La Calavera (The Skull) Salt Works (one of the first salt works to be constructed by the Spanish in the New World). The cays developed off shore, such as Cayo Piedras and Cayo Cruz del Padre are the western most part of the Sabana-Camaguey Archipelago.

Juan Gualberto Gómez Airport, situated west of the peninsula, is Varadero's airport. It is the second-most-important airport of the island after José Martí Airport in Havana, and serves international and domestic flights.

The first mention of Varadero was in 1555. The place was first used as a dry dock (Spanish: varadero) and the salt mines of the peninsula (closed in 1961) supplied most of the Spanish Latin America Fleet since 1587. However, the foundation date of Varadero as city was only on December 5, 1887, when ten families from the city of Cárdenas obtained a permission to build their vacation homes between today's 42nd and 48th Street.

It was established as a municipality (Spanish: municipio) at the administrative re-distribution of July 3, 1976 from territories previously part of Cárdenas.

Varadero is first and foremost a tourist resort town, boasting more than 20 km of white sandy beaches. Tourism grew in the early 1930s as Irénée du Pont Nemours, an American millionaire, built his estate on the peninsula. But the first tourists visited Varadero as early as the 1870s, and for years it was considered an elite resort. When in 1910 started the annual rowing regatta, five years later the first Hotel, named Varadero and later Club Nautico, was build. The first hotel boom started in the 1950s. After the Cuban Revolution in 1959, the beach's many mansions were expropriated from their rich owners. As a symbol for the new integrated tourism for Cubans and foreign visitors of all social classes, the Park of the 8000 cubicles (Parque de las 8000 Taquillas) was build in 1960. The visitors could leave their belongings in the basement of the park, had access to sanitary installations and gastronomic services at the first floor, and could rent bath articles and swimsuits. At the Park the marginated parts of the population, including women, found a paid work. The surroundings of the Park became the center of the city. Between the 1960s and 1980s Varadero transformed itself into a cultural centre. During those years the central park (8000 Taquillas) (located between 44th and 46th Street) saw countless concerts, festivals and sporting events. Many famous and infamous people have stayed in Varadero, like Mafia boss Al Capone.The 1990s brought the start of another hotel building campaign, mostly in the 4 and 5 star segment. Many of the hotels are operated or co-owned by foreign businesses like Melia, Barcelo, TRYP, etc. (France's Club Med used to have a property but has since left Varadero.) Parallel to the opening to the international tourism, the local population got more and more supplanted from the communal and economic key positions that were staffed with cadres from other parts of Cuba. As a consequence, Varadero has lost a lot of its social and cutltural life and its traditions. The central park, the cinema and various cultural meeting places were neglected in favor of a hotel-centred all-inclusive-tourism and finally closed. Unique events like the Internation Carnival, an initative of Cubans and Foreigners started in the 1980s, were also liquidated.

Its most valued resource; the beach, has added natural attractions such as the caves and rasp, and a rosary of virgin keys easily accessed. Unfortunately those natural resources today show a lack of care and maintenance and have already lost a lot of ecologic value and attraction. Nevertheless these riches of natural scenery overshadow Varedero's status as the most northern portion of the territory, and other attractions of cultural, historical and environmental character in the vicinity like the cities of Matanzas and Cárdenas, the Peninsula of Zapata and the resort of San Miguel de los Baños. The concept of the Convention Center Plaza America thought as a destination for congresses and to attract tourism has mostly failed. Varadero, which is a free port, possesses conditions for scuba diving, deep-sea fishing, yachting and other water sports.

Varadero receives about 500,000 visitors per year.

As of 2007, Varadero is primarily visited by European, Latin American and Canadian tourists. The number of U.S. tourists visiting Varadero, although increasing, has been limited because of the restrictions that make it illegal for U.S. citizens to visit Cuba as tourist.

Unlike many other Cuban tourism centers, Cubans can visit Varadero even if the all-inclusive-policy restricts the free access to most of the hotels.

In 2007, the municipality of Varadero had a population of about 20,000 between the Hicacos peninsula (7,000) and the two incorporated localities of Santa Marta and Boca de Camarioca. With a total area of 32 km² (12.4 sq mi), it has a population density of 771.3/km² (1,997.7/sq mi).

Havana

La Habana, officially Ciudad de La Habana, is the capital city, major port, and leading commercial centre of Cuba. The city is one of the 14 Cuban provinces. The city/province has 2.1 million inhabitants, and the urban area over 2.6 million, making Havana the largest city in both Cuba and the Caribbean region. The city extends mostly westward and southward from the bay, which is entered through a narrow inlet and which divides into three main harbours: Marimelena, Guasabacoa, and Atarés. The sluggish Almendares River traverses the city from south to north, entering the Straits of Florida a few miles west of the bay.

King Philip II of Spain granted Havana the title of City in 1592 and a royal decree in 1634 recognized its importance by officially designated as the "Key to the New World and Rampart of the West Indies". Havana's coat of arms carries this inscription. The Spaniards began building fortifications, and in 1553 they transferred the governor's residence to Havana from Santiago de Cuba on the eastern end of the island, thus making Havana the de facto capital. The importance of harbour fortifications was early recognized as English, French, and Dutch sea marauders attacked the city in the 16th century. The sinking of the U.S. battleship Maine in Havana's harbor in 1898 was the immediate cause of the Spanish-American War.

Nowadays Havana is the center of the Cuban government, and various ministries and headquarters of businesses are based there.