Yara

With an Aboriginal name, almost five centuries of presence in Cuba’s history and remarkable social development, the town of Yara, in the eastern province of Granma, is fast gaining the admiration and respect of all that know it.

There are some missing details, but some researchers say that this was the place where the chief hander Hatuey was burned to death on the second of February 1512 by the Spanish. Similarly, it is argued that the region is among the possible sites where the town of San Salvador was founded in 1513, before it moved to the area of Bayamo.

In April 1604, a privateer captured the herd of Yara Fray Juan de las Cabezas Altamirano, the Bishop of Cuba, who had been expected to attend the illegal trade, and whose rescue was in the port of Manzanillo, giving rise to epic Mirror patience and was the first Cuban-themed literary work.

Yara in revolutionary struggles

The town was the scene of Yara on 11th October 1868. It was the first battle for independence on September 29th 1871 that was destroyed by insurgent fire, and on February 24th 1895 mambisas forces attacked the Spanish garrison.

During the war of national liberation (1956-1958), the town was the scene of guerrilla warfare and clandestine and contributed several fighters to the Rebel Army. In February 1959 the Commander in Chief Fidel Castro created on an experimental basis, the country’s first agricultural cooperative in the rural community of Yara Arriba.

Son of the region, Bartolome Maso (1830-1907), contributed to the construction of the theatre. Manzanillo was the second leader of the Grito de La Demajagua, who started the war for national independence, and was engaged in the so-called Little War (1879). With rank of Major-General he led the uprising of February 24th 1895 where the last president of the Republic of Cuba opposed the Platt Amendment and other U.S interference on the island

Yara before and after 1959

In 1958 there were 38 elementary schools, 52 thousand teachers and 650 students. There is one hospital, two clinics, an optical clinics and 62 family physicians, where only 45 years ago there was only a clinic and four doctors.

Economic and geographic data

Crossed by the river Yara, Ox and Jicotea, the township is 571 square miles and has 61 thousand inhabitants, with an economy sustained by rice, sugarcane, root crops, vegetables and a vegetable cannery.