Holguín () is one of the

provinces of Cuba Administratively, Cuba is divided into 15 provinces and one special municipality (the Isla de la Juventud). The last modification was approved in August 2010 (by the Cuban National Assembly), splitting Havana province into two new provinces: Ar ...

, the third most populous after

Havana Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.

and

Santiago de Cuba Santiago de Cuba is the second-largest city in Cuba and the capital city of Santiago de Cuba Province. It lies in the southeastern area of the island, some southeast of the Cuban capital of Havana. The municipality extends over , and contains ...

. It lies in the southeast of the country. Its major cities include Holguín (the capital), Banes, Antilla, Mayarí, and Moa. The province has a population of slightly over one million people. Its territory exceeds , 25 percent of which is covered by forest.

History

Christopher Columbus Christopher Columbus * lij, Cristoffa C(or)ombo * es, link=no, Cristóbal Colón * pt, Cristóvão Colombo * ca, Cristòfor (or ) * la, Christophorus Columbus. (; born between 25 August and 31 October 1451, died 20 May 1506) was a ...

landed in what is believed to have been today's Holguín province on October 27, 1492. He declared that it was "the most beautiful land human eyes had ever seen". The Holguín province was established in 1978, when it was split from the Oriente region.

Economy

Like much of Cuba, Holguín's economy is based around

sugarcane Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of (often hybrid) tall, perennial grass (in the genus '' Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with stout, jointed, fibrous stalk ...

, though other crops such as

corn Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. The ...

and

coffee Coffee is a drink prepared from roasted coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content. It is the most popular hot drink in the world. Seeds of ...

, as well as

mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the econom ...

, are also large earners for the province. A large

nickel Nickel is a chemical element with symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel is a hard and ductile transition metal. Pure nickel is chemically reactive but large pieces are slow t ...

plus

cobalt Cobalt is a chemical element with the symbol Co and atomic number 27. As with nickel, cobalt is found in the Earth's crust only in a chemically combined form, save for small deposits found in alloys of natural meteoric iron. The free element, p ...

processing plant with shipping facilities was built in Moa, using foreign investment, much of it from

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...

Chromium Chromium is a chemical element with the symbol Cr and atomic number 24. It is the first element in group 6. It is a steely-grey, lustrous, hard, and brittle transition metal. Chromium metal is valued for its high corrosion resistance and hard ...

iron Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in ...

and

steel Steel is an alloy made up of iron with added carbon to improve its strength and fracture resistance compared to other forms of iron. Many other elements may be present or added. Stainless steels that are corrosion- and oxidation-resistan ...

plants dot the province as well.

Tourism Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring (disambiguation), touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tour (disambiguation), tours. Th ...

has only recently begun to be developed, offering beach resorts in the outskirts of the region, with a number of hotels around the

Guardalavaca Guardalavaca is a town in the Holguín Province of Cuba. It is a tourist location due to its white sandy beaches and warm waters. Guardalavaca beach is protected by a large coral reef and is visited by both local Cubans and tourists. Most Cuban w ...

area, Playa Esmeralda, Playa Yuraguanal, Playa Blanca, Playa Pesquero, and

Cayo Saetia Cayo or cayó may refer to: * ''Cayo'' (film), a 2005 Puerto Rican film starring Roselyn Sánchez * Cayo District, a district in the west of the nation of Belize ** San Ignacio, Belize, a town in the Cayo District (originally named "El Cayo") * C ...

. The

Cuchillas del Toa Cuchillas del Toa ( en, Ridges of Toa) is a Biosphere Reserve in Cuba. It is located in the eastern part of the country, mostly in the Guantánamo Province and reaching to the north into the Holguín Province. Most of the reserve is established i ...

Biosphere Reserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, or features of geological or ...

Sierra Cristal National Park Sierra Cristal National Park ( es, Parque Nacional Sierra Cristal) is a national park in Cuba. It is located in the municipalities of Mayarí and Sagua de Tánamo in southern Holguín Province. It was the first National Park created in Cuba in ...

and

Alejandro de Humboldt National Park Alejandro de Humboldt National Park ( es, Parque Nacional Alejandro de Humboldt) is a national park in the Cuban provinces of Holguín and Guantánamo. It is named after the German scientist Alexander von Humboldt who visited the island in 1800 ...

are partly located in the province.

Gibara Gibara () is a town and municipality of the Province of Holguín in the Republic of Cuba. Gibara is the fourth largest town by population and the ninth by area in Holguín. History The main town was founded on January 16, 1817. It is also known ...

is a little visited historical port located west of the main

resorts A resort (North American English) is a self-contained commercial establishment that tries to provide most of a vacationer's wants, such as food, drink, swimming, lodging, sports, entertainment, and shopping, on the premises. The term ''resort' ...

. Recently a large number of tourists are being reported to have had visited the city and its rich culture and beauty. Direct flights to

and

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

from Holguin airport limit transfer time to around 1 hour to most resorts on the Costa Holguinera.

Canadians Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

and

Europeans Europeans are the focus of European ethnology, the field of anthropology related to the various ethnic groups that reside in the states of Europe. Groups may be defined by common genetic ancestry, common language, or both. Pan and Pfeil (20 ...

share the

coral Corals are marine invertebrates within the class Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact colonies of many identical individual polyps. Coral species include the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and se ...

beaches with

Cubans Cubans ( es, Cubanos) are people born in Cuba and people with Cuban citizenship. Cuba is a multi-ethnic nation, home to people of different ethnic, religious and national backgrounds. Racial and ethnic groups Census The population of Cuba ...

Municipalities

Holguín is divided into 14

municipalities A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the ...

: :''Source: Population from 2004'' ''and 2012 Census.'' ''Area from 1976 municipal re-distribution.''

Demographics

In 2004, the province of Holguin had a population of 1,029,083. With a total area of , the province had a population density of . Per the 2012 census, the population was 1,035,072, and a similar population density of .

Notable people

Fulgencio Batista Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar (; ; born Rubén Zaldívar, January 16, 1901 – August 6, 1973) was a Cuban military officer and politician who served as the elected president of Cuba from 1940 to 1944 and as its U.S.-backed military dictator ...

, last president and military dictator of the ''Republican'' era (1902-1959) *

Fidel Castro Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (; ; 13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban revolutionary and politician who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and president from 1976 to 20 ...

, former President of Cuba *

Raúl Castro Raúl Modesto Castro Ruz (; ; born 3 June 1931) is a retired Cuban politician and general who served as the first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba, the most senior position in the one-party communist state, from 2011 to 2021, succee ...

, former President of Cuba * Rolando Masferrer, politician and business man *

Aroldis Chapman Albertín Aroldis Chapman de la Cruz (; born February 28, 1988) is a Cuban-born American professional baseball relief pitcher who is a free agent. He has played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Cincinnati Reds, New York Yankees and C ...

, left-handed pitcher for the

New York Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. They are one ...

* Frank Fernández, pianist *

Calixto García Calixto García Íñiguez (August 4, 1839 – December 11, 1898) was a Cuban general in three Cuban uprisings, part of the Cuban War for Independence: the Ten Years' War, the Little War, and the War of 1895, itself sometimes called the Cuban ...

, General in the three liberation wars of Cuba *

Mario Kindelán Mario César Kindelán Mesa (born August 10, 1971), best known as Mario Kindelán, is a Cuban former amateur boxer. He is a two-time Olympic gold medalist, having competed in the lightweight division at the 2000 and 2004 events. His cousin is ...

two times lightweight boxing Olympic champion in 2000 and 2004 * Faustino Oramas, musician *

Marcos A. Rodriguez Marcos A. Rodriguez (born 22 July 1958) is a Cuban-American entrepreneur, movie producer, businessperson and investor. He is the founder and CEO of numerous American media outlets including KLTY, KUUR, an FM radio station serving the Carbondale, ...

, entrepreneur and broadcaster * Manuel Galban, musician; guitar, pianist and arranger

References

External links

Holguín.cu

Holguin Cuba

Ciudad de Holguín
{{DEFAULTSORT:Holguin Province Provinces of Cuba States and territories established in 1978 1978 establishments in Cuba