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three successive US military interventions (the last of which, in 1917, saw US troops stationed in the Oriente until 1923), things started to turn sour. Despite its ongoing influence as a cultural and musical powerhouse, Santiago began to earn a slightly less respectable reputation as a center for rebellion and strife, and it was here on July 26, 1953, that Fidel Castro and his companions launched an assault on the Moncada Barracks (see boxed text,). This was the start of a number of events that changed the course of Cuban history. At his trial in Santiago, Castro made his famous History Will Absolve Me speech, which became the basic platform of the Cuban Revolution.

On November 30, 1956, the people of Santiago de Cuba rose up in rebellion against Batista’s troops in a futile attempt to distract attention from the landing of Castro’s guerrillas on the western shores of Oriente. Although not initially successful, an underground movement led by Frank and Josué País quickly established a secret supply line that ran vital armaments up to the fighters in the Oriente’s Sierra Maestra. Despite the murder of the País brothers and many others in 1957–58, the struggle continued unabated, and it was in Santiago de Cuba, on the evening of January 1, 1959, that Castro first appeared publicly to declare the success of the Revolution. All these events have earned Santiago the title ‘Hero City of the Republic of Cuba.’

Santiago continued to grow rapidly in the years that followed the Revolution, as new housing was provided for impoverished workers in outlying suburban districts. Further progress was made in the early 1990s when a construction boom gifted the city a new theater, a train station and a five-star Meliá hotel.

Parks & Reserves

Parque Baconao, east of the city of Santiago, is one of only two areas in Cuba (the other is Parque Nacional Alejandro de Humboldt) that has a double Unesco listing. It’s a Unesco Biosphere Reserve and a part of it is also a Unesco World Heritage Site, known as the ‘Archaeological Landscape of the First Coffee Plantations in the Southeast of Cuba.’ In the west the area around Pico Turquino is part of the Gran Parque Nacional Sierra Maestra (the rest is in Granma province; Click here).

Getting There & Around

Getting to the provincial capital from outside the province is easy with regular Víazul and fast train links to Havana and all points in between. The rest of the province is frustratingly poorly served, especially along the coast. Links west from Santiago, particularly beyond Chivirico, are notoriously bad. Heading east into Parque Baconao you will be relying largely on rental cars, bikes or taxis.

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SANTIAGO DE CUBA

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Santiago de Cuba is the island’s second-largest city and a glittering cultural capital in its own right. Anyone with even a passing interest in Cuban literature, music, architecture, politics or ethnology should spend at least a day or two kicking through the myriad assorted attractions here.

Enlivened by a cosmopolitan mix of Afro-Caribbean culture and situated closer to Haiti and the Dominican Republic than to Havana, Santiago’s influences tend to come as much from the east as from the west, a factor that has been crucial in shaping the city’s distinct identity. Nowhere else in Cuba will you find such a colorful combination of people or such a resounding sense of historical destiny. Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar made the city his second capital, Fidel Castro used it to launch his embryonic nationalist Revolution, Don Facundo Bacardí based his first-ever rum factory here, and just about every Cuban music genre from salsa to son first emanated from somewhere in these dusty, rhythmic and sensuous streets.

Setting-wise Santiago could rival any of the world’s great urban centers. Caught dramatically between the indomitable Sierra Maestra and the azure Caribbean, the city’s casco histórico (historical center) retains a time-worn and slightly neglected air that’s vaguely reminiscent of Barbados, Salvador in Brazil, or New Orleans.

Santiago