Granma Province

Granma Province
Province of Cuba
Country	Cuba
Capital	Bayamo
Area
• Total	8,376.79 km2 (3,234.30 sq mi)
Population (2010-12-31)
• Total	835,675
• Density	100/km2 (260/sq mi)
Time zone	EST (UTC-5)
Area code(s)	+53-023

Granma is one of the provinces of Cuba. Its capital is Bayamo. Other towns include Manzanillo (a port on the Gulf of Guacanayabo) and Pilón.

History

The province takes its name from the yacht Granma, used by Che Guevara and Fidel Castro to land in Cuba with 82 guerrillas on December 2nd, 1956; until 1976 the area formed part of the larger "Oriente Province". The American who sold the guerillas the secondhand yacht in Mexico apparently had named it "Granma" ("Granma", more usually "Grandma", is an affectionate term for a grandmother) after his grandmother. The name of the vessel became an icon for Cuban communism.

The province is full of reminders of the Cuban Revolution, and of the Cuban Wars of Independence; plaques in the mountain commemorate the 1959 struggle against Fulgencio Batista. Other sites, unmarked, include archaeological digs, the sites of several palenques, and the fortified hamlets of escaped slaves. In 2005 Hurricane Dennis destroyed the site of Castro's headquarters at La Plata. There are numerous abandoned gold, silver, and manganese mine sites.

Economy

The majority of the revenue comes from coffee grown in the mountainous regions of the province. During the coffee harvest soldiers may set up roadblocks to ensure the delivery of the coffee to the government and not to the black market.

Municipalities

Municipality	Population (2004)	Area (km²)	Location	Remarks
Bartolomé Masó	53,024	629
Bayamo	222,118	918		Provincial capital
Buey Arriba	31,327	452
Campechuela	46,092	577
Cauto Cristo	21,159	550
Guisa	50,923	596
Jiguaní	60,320	646
Manzanillo	130,789	498
Media Luna	35,330	376
Niquero	41,252	582
Pilón	29,751	462
Río Cauto	47,833	1,500
Yara	59,415	576

Source: Population from 2004 Census. Area from 1976 municipal re-distribution.

Demographics

In 2004, the province of Granma had a population of 829,333. With a total area of 8,375.49 km² (3,233.79 sq mi), the province had a population density of 99.0/km² (256/sq mi).

See also

• Oriente

External links

• (Spanish) Granma Portal