There are several different versions about the origin of the province's name, which is Spanish for "massacres". The priest Bartolomé de las Casas makes reference in his chronicles to an event taking place in the bay of Guanimar in 1509: the aboriginals of the zone attacked and slaughtered a group of Spaniards who were sailing […]
Province located in the western region of Cuba. It has an extension of 11 802,5 sq km (4557 sq mi) and an estimated population of 639 257 inhabitants (1996). The province ranks second in extension and ninth in population. The province is divided into 14 municipalities and its capital city is Matanzas. Plains ocupy 80% […]
This region was named Nueva Filipinas (New Philippines) about half of the decade of 1770 and it was not until 1778 that the region acquired its definitive name. The economical development of this region was mostly based on the tobacco crops. That is the reason why the population from the westernmost region of the province […]
Westernmost province of the island of Cuba. It limits to the north with the Gulf of Mexico, to the east with the province of La Habana, to the south with the Caribbean Sea, and to the west with the Yucatan Channel. It has an extension of 10 904,01 sq km (4210 sq mi) and an […]
In 1512, after two previous settlements, the town of San Cristóbal de La Habana was finally established by Carenas port and thus, in 1519, was officially founded in a place where, according to testimonies of the time, a great silk-cotton tree stood and where the first Cabildo (chapter) of the City of Havana was celebrated. […]
Havana City has an extension of 727,4 sq km (280,8 sq mi) and an approximate population of 2 188 828 inhabitants (1996). It ranks first among the country's cities regarding population. Havana's street arrangement is complex: reticular with dense narrow streets towards the oldest sections, mostly the colonial part declared World Heritage, and more organized […]
Coming from the very heart of the American continent, from the Orinoco-Amazonas region, arrived the first inhabitants of the island. They called themselves Tainan and were more developed than the other two aborigines settlements: Guanahatabeyes and Siboneyes. Tainans were harvest people and hunters, their population was over 100 000 inhabitants. On October 27,1492 Admiral Christopher […]
Cuba, the largest of the Antilles, is an archipelago consisting of a main island named Cuba, the Isle of Youth and about 4,195 keys and islets. Its elongated and narrow shape propitiates circulation of trade winds from the Atlantic, which cool its tropical, humid climate. Only one fourth of the land is mountainous being its […]
