Santiago de Cuba - City of Cuba

Santiago de Cuba is the capital city of Santiago de Cuba Province in the south-eastern area of the island nation of Cuba.Historically Santiago de Cuba has long been the second most important city on the island after Havana, and still remains the second largest. It is on a bay connected to the Caribbean Sea and is an important sea port.

Santiago de Cuba was founded by Spanish conquistador Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar on June 28, 1514.

The city experienced an influx of French immigrants in the late 18th century and early 19th century, many coming from Haiti after the Haitian slave revolt of 1791. This added to the city's eclectic cultural mix, already rich with Spanish and African culture.

It was also the location where Spanish troops faced their main defeat at San Juan Hill on July 1, 1898, during the Spanish-American War. Spain later surrendered to the United States after the destruction of its Atlantic fleet just outside Santiago's harbor.

Cuban poet, writer, and national hero, José Martí, is buried in Cementerio Santa Efigenia.

Santiago was also the home of the revolutionary hero, Frank Pais. On July 26, 1953, the Cuban Revolution began with an ill-prepared armed attack on the Moncada Barracks by small contingent of rebels led by Fidel Castro. Shortly after this disastrous incident, País began talking with students and young working people informally, drawing around him what became an extremely effective urban revolutionary alliance. This developed into highly organized cells coordinating a large scale urban resistance that became instrumental in the success of the Cuban Revolution.

Until a rearrangement of province boundaries in 1976, Santiago de Cuba was the capital of Cuba's Oriente Province, which included the present day provinces of Holguín, Las Tunas, Guantánamo, Granma and Santiago de Cuba.