The Sierra Maestra is a

mountain range A mountain range or hill range is a series of mountains or hills arranged in a line and connected by high ground. A mountain system or mountain belt is a group of mountain ranges with similarity in form, structure, and alignment that have ari ...

that runs westward across the south of the old

Oriente Province Oriente (, "East") was the easternmost province of Cuba until 1976. The term "Oriente" is still used to refer to the eastern part of the country, which currently is divided into five different provinces. Fidel and Raúl Castro were born in a s ...

in southeast

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribb ...

, rising abruptly from the coast. The range falls mainly within the

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 ...

and in

Granma Province 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 ...

s. Some view it as a series of connecting ranges (Vela, Santa Catalina, Quemado Grande, Daña Mariana), which join with others to the west.Niquero on guije.com
/ref>
/ref> At 1,974 m (6,476 ft),

Pico Turquino Pico Turquino (), sometimes erroneously spelled as Pico Torquino, is the List of countries by highest point, highest point in Cuba. It is located in the southeast part of the island, in the Sierra Maestra mountain range in the municipality of Guam ...

is the range's – and the country's – highest point. The area is rich in minerals, especially

copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pink ...

manganese Manganese is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Mn and atomic number 25. It is a hard, brittle, silvery metal, often found in minerals in combination with iron. Manganese is a transition metal with a multifaceted array of ...

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 ...

, and

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 ...

History

The Sierra Maestra has a long history of guerrilla warfare, starting with the resistance of the Taínos under

Guamá Guamá (died c. 1532) was a Taíno rebel chief who led a rebellion against Spanish rule in Cuba in the 1530s. Legend states that Guamá was first warned about the Spanish conquistador by Hatuey, a Taíno cacique from the island of Hispaniola. ...

(died 1532), the Cimarrón

Neo-Taíno nations At the time of first contact between Europe and the Americas, the indigenous peoples of the Caribbean included the Taíno of the northern Lesser Antilles, most of the Greater Antilles and the Bahamas, the Kalinago of the Lesser Antilles, the Cigua ...

escaped slave cultures, the

Ten Years' War The Ten Years' War ( es, Guerra de los Diez Años; 1868–1878), also known as the Great War () and the War of '68, was part of Cuba's fight for independence from Spain. The uprising was led by Cuban-born planters and other wealthy natives. O ...

(1868–1878) and the

Cuban War of Independence The Cuban War of Independence (), fought from 1895 to 1898, was the last of three liberation wars that Cuba fought against Spain, the other two being the Ten Years' War (1868–1878) and the Little War (1879–1880). The final three months ...

(1895–1898), and various minor conflicts such as the Race War of 1912, and the uprisings of

Antonio Guiteras Antonio Guiteras y Holmes (22 November 1906 – 8 May 1935) was a leading politician in Cuba during the 1930s. Biography He was born 22 November 1906 in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania, USA. He was a proponent of revolutionary socialism and participate ...

(died 1935) against

Gerardo Machado Gerardo Machado y Morales (28 September 1869 – 29 March 1939) was a general of the Cuban War of Independence and President of Cuba from 1925 to 1933. Machado entered the presidency with widespread popularity and support from the major polit ...

(President of Cuba from 1925 to 1933) and

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 ...

(President 1940–1944 and 1952–1959). After

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 ...

returned to Cuba in 1956 from exile in

Mexico Mexico (Spanish language, Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a List of sovereign states, country in the southern portion of North America. It is borders of Mexico, bordered to the north by the United States; to the so ...

, he and the few other survivors from the failed 1953 attack on Moncada Barracks hid in the Sierra Maestra. There they succeeded in expanding their

26th of July Movement The 26th of July Movement ( es, Movimiento 26 de Julio; M-26-7) was a Cuban vanguard revolutionary organization and later a political party led by Fidel Castro. The movement's name commemorates its 26 July 1953 attack on the army barracks on San ...

, starting a revolution throughout the region. They built up guerrilla columns, and in collaboration with other groups in the central provinces,

Escopeteros During the Cuban revolution, escopeteros were essential scouts and pickets from the Sierra Maestra and other mountain ranges to the plains. The "escopeteros" were responsible for semi-continuously holding terrain against smaller sized Batista pat ...

on the foot-hills and plains, and the urban resistance, eventually overthrew Batista on 1 January 1959.

Ornithology

Calls of the

ivory-billed woodpecker The ivory-billed woodpecker (''Campephilus principalis'') is a possibly extinct woodpecker that is native to the bottomland hardwood forests and temperate coniferous forests of the Southern United States and Cuba. Habitat destruction and hunting ...

, now possibly extinct, were reported but not confirmed in the Sierra Maestra in 1998.

References

;Notes ;Sources * Achenbach, Joel and Peter Essic (photographer) 2006 The next big one and special supplement (map): Earthquake risk Zones. Nation Geographic 209(4, April), 120–147 and map. * Anderson, Jon Lee 1997. Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life. Bantam Press, or Grove Press, * AP Latin America January 22, 2005 Ship Begins Sound Wave Research Off Yucatan * Braddock, Daniel M. 1958 Revolutionary Activity in Western Oriente Province. Despatch From the Embassy in Cuba to the Department of State. No. 656 Havana, February 18, 1958 http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/cable/cable-2-18-58.htm * Carney, Bob revised July 11, 2005 Explorations: Gulf of Mexico: Background Geological Setting. Louisiana State University National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration , U.S. Department of Commerce http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/02mexico/background/geology/geology.html * Castellanos Garcia, Gerardo 1927. "Tierras y Glorias de Oriente (Calixto Garcia Iñiguez)" Editorial Hermes Havana p. 155. * Castro Medel, Osviel and Aldo Daniel Naranjo 2003 (accessed 3-21-06) 490 aniversario Ciudad India y Rebelde (Bayamo). La Demajagua https://web.archive.org/web/20051023220835/http://www.lademajagua.co.cu/infgran778.htm * Cazanas X. ; Barrabi H. ; Melgarejo J.C. ; Luna J.A. 1998. El deposito volcanogenico de Cu-Zn-Pb-Au El Cobre, Cuba Oriental: Estructura y mineralogía The Cu-Zn-Pb-Au volcanogenic deposit El Cobre, Western Cuba (sic): Structure and mineralogy Source: Acta Geológica Hispánica 33 (1–4). 277–333. * Cazanas X.; Escusa A.; Cuba S.; Melgarejo J.C.; Alfonso P.1998 Un modelo de deposito vulcanogenico de manganeso del arco volcanico Paleogeno de Cuba: El ejemplo de la region Cristo-Ponupo-Los Chivos A model of manganese volcanogenic deposit from the Paleogene volcanic island arc of Cuba: The case of the Cristo-Ponupo-Los Chivos region ,Acta Geológica Hispánica 33 (1–4) 239–276 * Cazanas X.; Lewis J.; Melgarejo J.C.; Proenza J.A.; Mattietti Kysar G. 1998 Rocas volcanicas de las series Inferior y Media del Grupo El Cobre en la Sierra Maestra (Cuba Oriental): Volcanismo generado en un arco de islas tholeiitico Volcanic rocks from the lower and intermediate series of the El Cobre Group, Sierra Maestra, Eastern Cuba: A case of island arc tholeiites Source: Acta Geológica Hispánica 33 (1–4) 57–74 * Chiappy-Jhones C., Rico-Gray V.; Gama L.; and Giddings L. 2001 Floristic affinities between the Yucatán peninsula and some karstic areas of Cuba. Journal of Biogeography 28 (4) 535–542 * Duarte Oropesa, José 1989 Historiología Cubana. Ediciones Universal Miami Vol 1. , All volumes * Enamorado, Calixto 1917 Tiempos. Heroicos Persecucion. Rambla, Bauza and Company, Havana. * Guevara, Ernesto Che 1958 (re-accessed 22 March 2006) Pino del Agua, II. Che Guevara http://chehasta.narod.ru/pda2.htm. * James, Daniel 2001 Che Guevara. Cooper Square Press. New York * Kueny, J.A. 1998 An assessment of protected karst landscapes in the Caribbean Caribbean Geography 9 (.2). 87–100. * Lescaille Durand, Lisván 2003 (accessed 3-22-06) Puede ser el cacique Guamá. Cuba Una identità in movimento https://web.archive.org/web/20070519175949/http://freeweb.supereva.com/carlo260/guama.html?p * Marrero, Levi 1981 5th edition "Geografia de Cuba" La Moderna Poesia, Coral Gables Florida. * Maso, Calixto C. 1998 Historia De Cuba. Ediciones Universal. 3rd Edition Miami * McGuire, Bill 2005 Global disaster paves way for global thinking. Geographical,. 77 (3) 14–18. * Mora, Pedro 2003 (re accessed 22 March 2006) Aniversario 45 de Pino del Agua II. Importante golpe de la guerrilla. Verde Olivo https://web.archive.org/web/20030826173750/http://www.venceremos.cubaweb.cu/Textos/importante_golpe_dela_guerrilla_verde_olivo.htm * Morán Arce, Lucas 1980 La revolución cubana, 1953–1959: Una versión rebelde. Imprenta Universitaria, Universidad Católica de Puerto Rico. Ponce, Puerto Rico. ISBN B0000EDAW9 * MVC 2005 Investiga Cuba restos de meteorite Notimex. El Universal Viernes 11 de noviembre de 2005 El Universal Online, México. https://web.archive.org/web/20051125004751/http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/articulos/26483.html * Naranjo Tamayo, Aldo Daniel and Luis Carlos Palacios Leyva 2004 (Accessed 3-21-06) San Salvador de Bayamo: Proceso fundacional de la segunda villa cubana San Salvador de Bayamo. La Demajagua 3 de noviembre de 2004 https://web.archive.org/web/20071114063001/http://www.lademajagua.co.cu/bayamo.htm * Goreau, P. D. E. 1983 Tectonic Evolution of the North Central Caribbean Plate Margin. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Massachusetts.; Massachusetts Inst. of Tech., Cambridge. Sponsor: National Science Foundation, Washington, D.C.. September 1983. 248p. Report: WHOI-83-34 * Rojas-Consuegra, R. 2005 Paleobiogeografía de los Rudistas (Moluscos Cretácicos) reportados en el territorio cubano. I Convención Cubana de Ciencias de la Tierra. GEOCIENCIAS’ 2005. Memorias, Trabajos y Resúmenes. Centro Nacional de Información Geológica. IGP. La Habana. CD ROM. 2005. GEO08-P6: 1–15. . * Rojas-Consuegra, R. 2005 Estratigrafía, Tafonomía y Paleoecología de los Rudistas (Moluscos Cretácicos) en el territorio cubano. I Convención Cubana de Ciencias de la Tierra. GEOCIENCIAS’ 2005. Memorias, Trabajos y Resúmenes. Centro Nacional de Información Geológica. IGP. La Habana. CD ROM. 2005. GEO08-2: 1–36. . * Rojas-Consuegra, R., M. A. Iturralde-Vinent, C. Díaz-Otero y D. García-Delgado 2005 Significación paleogeográfica de la brecha basal del Límite K/T en Loma Dos Hermanas (Loma Capiro), en Santa Clara, provincia de Villa Clara. I Convención Cubana de Ciencias de la Tierra. GEOCIENCIAS’ 2005. Memorias, Trabajos y Resúmenes. Centro Nacional de Información Geológica. IGP. La Habana. CD ROM. 2005. GEO08-P7: 1–9. * La Rosa Corzo, Gabino (translated by Mary Todd)

988 Year 988 ( CMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * Fall – Emperor Basil II, supported by a contingent of 6,000 Varangia ...

2003 Runaway Slave Settlements in Cuba: Resistance and Repression University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill * Rousset, Ricardo V. 1918. Historial de Cuba. Libreria Cervantes, Havana, Vol. 3 pp. 137–153. * Scotese, Christopher R. 1999. Evolution of the Caribbean Sea (100 mya – Present) Collision of Cuba with Florida Platform and Opening of the Cayman Trough. PALEOMAP Project http://www.scotese.com/caribanim.htm * Sigurdsson H.; Bralower T.; King J.; Kelley S.; Leckie R.M.; Carey S. 2000 History of circum-Caribbean explosive volcanism: 40Ar/39Ar dating of tephra layers Source: Proceedings of the Ocean Drilling Program: Scientific Results 165, 299–314. * Takayama H.; Iturralde-Vinent M.A.; Oji T.; Tajika E.; Kiyokawa S.; Garcia D.; Okada H.; Hasegawa T.; Toyoda K.; Tada R.; Matsui T. 2000 Origin of the Penalver Formation in northwestern Cuba and its relation to K/T boundary impact event Sedimentary Geology 135 (1–4) 295–320. * Whitmarsh, Isabel. 1969. Bayatiquirí Tierra de Alegría, Paz y Amor. Leyenda de la Familia Ciargos de Luna. Libro Primero. Guarenas, Venezuela.

External links

Cuba's Revolutionary Mountains
by Zoë Barnes, ''The Sunday Times'', March 15, 2009
Music in the Sierra Maestra
{{Authority control Maestra Geography of Santiago de Cuba Province Geography of Guantánamo Province Geography of Granma Province

History

Ornithology

See also

References

External links