Manicaragua () is a municipality and mountain town in the

Villa Clara Province Villa Clara is one of the provinces of Cuba. It is located in the central region of the island bordering on the Atlantic Ocean to the north, Matanzas Province to the west, Sancti Spiritus Province to the east, and Cienfuegos Province to the Sou ...

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 is located in the

Escambray Mountains The Escambray Mountains () are a mountain range in the central region of Cuba, in the provinces of Sancti Spíritus, Cienfuegos and Villa Clara. Overview The Escambray Mountains are located in the south-central region of the island, extending a ...

at the southern part of Villa Clara, bordering the provinces of

Cienfuegos Cienfuegos (), capital of Cienfuegos Province, is a city on the southern coast of Cuba. It is located about from Havana and has a population of 178,368 in 2022. Since the late 1960s, Cienfuegos has become one of Cuba's main industrial centers, ...

to the west and

Sancti Spíritus Sancti Spíritus () is a municipality and capital city of the province of Sancti Spíritus in central Cuba and one of the oldest Cuban European settlements. Sancti Spíritus is the genitive case of Latin ''Sanctus Spiritus'' ("Holy Spirit"). ...

to the east.

History

The area was originally settled by the Siboney, a

Taíno The Taíno are the Indigenous peoples of the Caribbean, Indigenous peoples of the Greater Antilles and surrounding islands. At the time of European contact in the late 15th century, they were the principal inhabitants of most of what is now The ...

people native of Cuba. Some toponyms of settlements included in the municipality (as Manicaragua, Mataguá, Jibacoa etc.) have an

Arawak The Arawak are a group of Indigenous peoples of northern South America and of the Caribbean. The term "Arawak" has been applied at various times to different Indigenous groups, from the Lokono of South America to the Taíno (Island Arawaks), w ...

origin.

Geography

The municipality includes the town proper (with circa 23,000 inhabitants in 2003) and several villages as Arroyo Seco, El Mango,

El Salto del Hanabanilla El Salto del Hanabanilla, also known as Hanabanilla, is a Cuban village and ''consejo popular'' ("people's council", i.e. hamlet) of the municipality of Manicaragua, Villa Clara Province. As of 2014 the town has 137 homes making up a total of 436 ...

Güinía de Miranda Güinía de Miranda, sometimes shortened as ''Güinía'', is a Cuban village and ''consejo popular'' ("people's council", i.e. hamlet) of the municipality of Manicaragua, in Villa Clara Province. It has a population of circa 3,000 and the council' ...

Jibacoa Jibacoa, or more properly Playa Jibacoa, is a fishing village A fishing village is a village, usually located near a fishing ground, with an economy based on catching fish and harvesting seafood. The continents and islands around the world h ...

, Jorobada, La Moza,

Mataguá Mataguá is a Cuban village and ''consejo popular'' ("people's council", i.e. hamlet) of the municipality of Manicaragua, in Villa Clara Province. With a population of ca. 10,000, it is the most populated village in the municipality after Manicar ...

(the most populated one), Seibabo etc. It has areas of outstanding natural beauty and value as the Valley of Jibacoa, the

Hanabanilla Lake El Salto del Hanabanilla, also known as Hanabanilla, is a Cuban village and ''consejo popular'' ("people's council", i.e. hamlet) of the municipality of Manicaragua, Villa Clara Province. As of 2014 the town has 137 homes making up a total of 436 ...

, the dam, and the Hotel of the same name.

Demographics

In 2004, the municipality of Manicaragua had a population of 73,370. With a total area of , it has a population density of . In 2022 the population had dropped to 61,445.

Economy

Manicaragua is one of the four largest municipalities in Cuba. Main crops and source of income in this area include such items as

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

and coffee. Coffee is grown in the slopes of El

, a mountain ridge extending from the southeastern part of the

Cienfuegos Province Cienfuegos () is one of the provinces of Cuba. The capital city of the province is also called Cienfuegos and was founded by French settlers in 1819. Overview Until 2011, Cienfuegos was the smallest province in Cuba (excluding the city of H ...

to neighboring

Coffee Coffee is a beverage brewed from roasted, ground coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content, but decaffeinated coffee is also commercially a ...

beans from Manicaragua bear a flavorous unparallel nectar, though not known in the Western World due to the economic embargo. Not simingly, cigars made in the local factory, enjoy the popularity of many a tourist from different parts of the World. El Hoyo de Manicaragua, once known as the Land of the Best Tobacco in the World, is a small village located in this municipality. Its popularity faded after the crop was relocated to the western Cuban province of Pinar del Río, where many of the local campesinos were transferred due to their anti- Castro activities.

Notable people

Ofelia Domínguez Navarro Ofelia Domínguez Navarro (Mataguá, December 9, 1894 – Havana, July 7, 1976) was a Cuban writer, teacher, lawyer, feminist and activist. She was a proponent of the rights of women and illegitimate children. As a journalist, Domínguez Navarro s ...

(1894-1976), writer, teacher, lawyer, feminist and activist *

Juan Ramón Valdés Gómez Juan Ramón Valdés Gómez (born 1968 in Manicaragua, Cuba), also called "Yiki", is a modern Cuban artist, known for his paintings. His paintings are representative of 20th-century vanguardia artists who rejected the academic conventions of Cuba ...

(b. 1968), painter

References

External links

{{Municipalities in Villa Clara Populated places in Villa Clara Province