Santa Clara, Cuba


Santa Clara is the capital city of the Cuban province of Villa Clara. It is centrally located in the province and Cuba at-large. Santa Clara is the 5th largest Cuban city by population, with a population of nearly 250,000.

History

Santa Clara was founded by 175 people on July 15, 1689. 138 of them represented two large families already living in the area, which owned land next to the new city. The other 37 came from seven other families, and included a priest and a governor, all originating in the coastal city of San Juan de los Remedios.
The population of Remedios was torn between the option of leaving their city, constantly besieged by pirate attacks, or staying in place. While most finally decided to stay, 37 persons traveled south to the interior. On June 1, 1689 they arrived at a hill where they joined two other families already present at the site. According to tradition, a mass was celebrated under a tamarind tree and the city of Santa Clara was founded. Since then, the place under the tree has been known as Loma del Carmen. A second-generation church was built in a park along the plaza. A monument commemorating the event is surrounded by a fourth-generation tamarind tree.
The settlement was originally called Cayo Nuevo, then Dos Cayos, Villa Nueva de Santa Clara, Pueblo Nuevo de Antón Díaz, Villa Clara, and finally Santa Clara.
Construction of the city began not far from Loma del Carmen. Following the Spanish standards, a perfect squared layout with a central plaza was developed. The first buildings erected were the cabildo and a modest palm tree church. This latter building was replaced in 1725 with a brick one. It remained at the center of the Parque Vidal as Catedral de Santa Clara de Asís until August 22, 1923. It was torn down so that the plaza could be expanded, and a new church built nearby. This decision by the mayor is still criticized nearly a century later. Although the church was not of the finest architecture, it was one of the oldest colonial structures in the city and a part of its fabric. After the expropriation by the mayor and city council, religious officials complained and the court awarded 77,850 pesos in fines as a settlement to the Church. It was a considerable sum that would represent millions of pesos today.
Soon after the city was founded, a theater, a chamber of commerce, meeting clubs, public libraries and dance halls were erected as well. Positioned nearly in the center of the country, the city became a popular traveler's stop and a prominent transport hub, both from the east to the west, and the north to the south. These conditions supported its steady growth. By the 19th century, Santa Clara was bigger and more populated than the rest of the nearby towns, including what was once Remedios. As a necessary stop between Havana and the east of the country, the city gained the title of capital of Las Villas province.

Marta Abreu de Estévez

Two well-known figures are associated with Santa Clara: Marta Abreu de Estévez, a beloved native daughter known as "the Benefactress of the City," and Ernesto Che Guevara, political activist and leader of the Cuban Revolution. Guevara is buried here, where he waged the final battle of the revolution that toppled the Fulgencio Batista government in 1958.
Marta Abreu is notable for the numerous projects she and her family promoted through their philanthropy, intended to enhance the life of all citizens of Santa Clara. Marta Abreu and her husband Luis Estévez, who became the first Vice President of the young republic in 1902, were well-known sympathizers and contributors to the Cuban rebels' cause during the War of Cuban Independence against Spain.
Abreu's legacy includes institutions all over the city: an electric plant building, several schools, an asylum, public laundry stations by the Belico River, the fire station a block off the Parque Vidal, and the train station near Loma del Carmen.
The most notable building is the Teatro La Caridad. The theater can be seen from one of the corners of the Parque Vidal. Abreu was the project's sole financial sponsor. She personally supervised the design and construction of the theater. Although it is not as grandiose as the Teatro Tomás Terry in Cienfuegos city, the proceeds of the theater have been designated to support two schools which Abreu founded for poor children of the city. The schools, one for girls and one for boys, were located just behind the theater. La Caridad Theater is one of the seven major theaters still standing from the colonial era in Cuba. It offers exquisite architecture and an amazing interior. Abreu also donated her own palace to the city; it was used as a Provincial Government Palace and later adapted for use as a public library. Today, it houses the Biblioteca Martí, also located on the Parque Vidal. It is an example of fine Neo-Classical architecture, and has highly decorated interiors. Santa Clara's University is named after Abreu. She is buried in the Colón cemetery of Havana.

Battle of Santa Clara

Santa Clara was the site in late 1958 of the last battle in the Cuban Revolution. Two guerrilla columns attacked the city, one led by Ernesto Che Guevara and the other by Camilo Cienfuegos. Guevara's column first captured the garrison at Fomento. Using a bulldozer, Guevara's soldiers destroyed railroad tracks and derailed a train full of troops and supplies sent by Batista. At the same time, Cienfuegos's column defeated an army garrison at the Battle of Yaguajay not far from town. On December 31, 1958, the combined forces of Guevara and Cienfuegos attacked Santa Clara. The battle was chaotic; the defenders demoralized. Some fought; others surrendered without a shot. By the afternoon, the city was captured. This victory for Castro's troops is seen as the decisive moment in the Cuban Revolution, as Batista fled Cuba less than 12 hours later.

Geography

Located on a plain below a hillside, in the middle of the surrounding province, Santa Clara is 71.5 km from the Caribbean Sea and 51.7 km from the Atlantic Ocean. The municipality borders with the municipalities of Cifuentes, Camajuaní, Placetas, Manicaragua and Ranchuelo.
The city is divided into several wards :

Demographics

In 2004, the municipality of Santa Clara had a population of 237,581. With a total area of, it had a population density of.

Attractions

In Santa Clara's center is a park taking up an entire square block. In the park there is a statue of Marta Abreu, a person much loved by the people of Santa Clara. Bordering the park is the Santa Clara Libre, "Gran Hotel," Teatro de La Caridad, the Plaza del Mercado Central, the former City Hall and the Colonia Española de Santa Clara center of dance, exhibiting the most attractive and unique traditional customs of hinterland Cuba.
Parque Vidal is probably one of the most quintessentially Cuban places in Cuba. During the afternoons, people visit the park to meet others. Although not widely practiced in recent times, the custom was to walk around and around the park. The women walk the inner part of the park, while the men walk along the outer side. Another lost custom is for locals to set up a platform and perform improvisations with their guitars on late Sunday afternoons. They dressed for that day with their Guayaberas and highly polished shoes.
Santa Clara is home to a mausoleum which houses the remains of Che Guevara and sixteen of his fellow combatants killed in 1967 during the Bolivia campaign. There is also a reconstruction of Guevara derailing the train during the Battle of Santa Clara.
Prior to 1 January 1977, Santa Clara was located in Las Villas Province. On that date, as part of a general administrative reordering of Cuba's provinces, Las Villas province was reordered into the provinces of Villa Clara, Cienfuegos, and Sancti Spíritus. Santa Clara is in the province now known as Villa Clara.
Other local landmarks include:
Santa Clara is crossed by the Carretera Central highway and by the A1 motorway. A ring road serving the city is directly linked to the motorway. Its main railway station is part of the principal line of the country, the Havana-Santa Clara-Camagüey-Santiago. "Abel Santamaría", located 11 km to the north, is the city airport, serving flights to the United States, Italy, Canada, France and Poland, along with domestic and other flights.

Education

Santa Clara is home to the University "Marta Abreu" of Las Villas, composed of a conglomerate of faculties:
The university offers bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees and boasts the graduation of 35,000 engineers, licensees, architects, medics, and veterinarians, of which 1,000 are foreigners from 47 countries. Additionally, it has educated more than 310 doctors and more than 1600 magisters. The university collaborates with institutions from Germany, Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, France, Spain, Peru, Mexico and Venezuela.

Notable people

Twin towns — Sister cities

Santa Clara is twinned with: