Regla () is one of the 15 municipalities or boroughs (''

municipio A ' () or ' () is an administrative division in several Hispanophone and Lusophone nations, respectively. It is often translated as "municipality." It comes from ''mūnicipium'' (), meaning a township. In English, a municipality often is define ...

s'' in Spanish) in the city of

Havana Havana (; ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

. It comprises the town of Regla, located at the bottom of Havana Bay in a former aborigine settlement named ''Guaicanamar'', Loma Modelo in a peninsula dividing Marimelena from Guasabacoa inlets, and the village of

Casablanca Casablanca (, ) is the largest city in Morocco and the country's economic and business centre. Located on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast of the Chaouia (Morocco), Chaouia plain in the central-western part of Morocco, the city has a populatio ...

located at the entry of the Havana Bay.

Overview

The town is a commercial and

industrial suburb An industrial suburb is a community, near a large city, with an industrial economy. These communities may be established as tax havens or as places where zoning promotes industry, or they may be industrial towns that become suburbs by urban ...

with

shipyards A shipyard, also called a dockyard or boatyard, is a place where ships are built and repaired. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Compared to shipyards, which are sometimes more involved ...

. The Galainela shipyard and the ENA drydock until recently operated as a joint venture with Curaçao CDM and the Navy's shipyard at Casablanca, docks including the TCH (Havana Container Terminal), the Ñico Lopez refinery, formerly an Esso (EXXON) Refinery popularly known as Belot Refinery due to the location, and a Shell (Shell Oil Company) Refinery built side by side with Belot; flour and wheat mills and aviation fuel depots.

History

It is known for its rich colonial history, being the home town of Chacón, Guaracheros de Regla and the traditional Virgen de Regla

Santería Santería (), also known as Regla de Ocha, Regla Lucumí, or Lucumí, is an African diaspora religions, Afro-Caribbean religion that developed in Cuba during the late 19th century. It arose amid a process of syncretism between the traditional ...

celebrations. It formed during the colonial period around the hermitage of Nuestra Señora de Regla (est. 1690) and was officially founded in 1687 (1765). In 1755 the population of Regla was 164; 789 in 1778; and 2,218 in 1810. Regla has a strong patriotic tradition being home to several patriots and personalities, among them Eduardo Facciolo, executed by the colonial Spanish government for conspiring for Cuban independence, and Miguel Coyula, who reached the rank of Lieutenant Colonel of the Cuban Liberation Army ( Mambi Army) in its fight against colonial Spain. It is an historic known fact the first speech with political pro-independence overtones given by National Apostle

José Martí José Julián Martí Pérez (; 28 January 1853 – 19 May 1895) was a Cuban nationalism, nationalist, poet, philosopher, essayist, journalist, translator, professor, and publisher, who is considered a Cuban national hero because of his role in ...

was delivered in the Lyceum of Regla. During the struggle against dictator

Fulgencio Batista Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar (born Rubén Zaldívar; January 16, 1901 – August 6, 1973) was a Cuban military officer and politician who played a dominant role in Cuban politics from his initial rise to power as part of the 1933 Revolt of t ...

, due to the strong opposition to Batista, the town was described as "sierra chiquita" (little mountain range) in allusion to the rebels in the Sierra Maestra range. The most conspicuous public action against Batista in town was led by Juan Alborna Salado, at the time 21 years old, head of the clandestine militias of the '' Movimiento 26 de Julio'' in town, in March 1958, when the local police killed another young man of Regla named Gilberto Monzon. The young men Leonardo Lopez, Filiberto Torres, Luis Lorenzo Gonzalez, Marcos Gonzalez, Manuel Lopez Guenaga, Elio Serrano, German Roche, Pedro Valdes, Jose Luis Cabrera and others seconded him. All of them belonged to the Movimiento 26 de Julio. Thousands of people took to the streets, with the burial of the young men being a centerpoint of a riot, and a crowd escorted the funerary car up to the cemetery at which Alborna and Luis Lorenzo Gonzalez spoke. Motorized police reinforcements took Regla and surrounded the cemetery and shot at close range. The police took prisoners, and many escaped, including Juan Alborna, but with a hand injury that was cured by his girlfriend Noemi Vidal. It was practically a popular uprising. But in 1960 Juan Alborna Salado became dissident.

Demographics

In 2022, the municipality of Regla had a population of 44,185. With an area of , it had a population density of . Regla is divided into Barrios or Colonias, including Reparto Modelo, La Colonia, La Loma and La Colina Lenin. It is also divided into three Consejos Populares (People's Council), the grassroots local government form in Cuba, namely Guaicanamar, comprising Regla downtown; Loma-Modelo, comprising Regla suburbs; and

, comprising the village of the same name and its surrounding area.

Twin towns

* Corsico, Italy, since 2003 *

Richmond, California Richmond is a city in western Contra Costa County, California, United States. The city was municipal corporation, incorporated on August 3, 1905, and has a Richmond, California, City Council, city council.

, USA'Forgotten Cities' Hope to Bridge Chasm Between U.S. and Cuba
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Almada Almada () is a city and a municipality in Portugal, located on the southern margin of the Tagus River, on the opposite side of the river from Lisbon. The two cities are connected by the 25 de Abril Bridge. The population of the municipality in 20 ...

, Portugal, since 2004

References

External links