Santiago de Las Vegas - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Santiago de las Vegas is a city in Havana Province, Cuba

Cuba

The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...

, located 12 miles (19.3 km) south of Havana

Havana

Havana is the capital city, province, major port, and leading commercial centre of Cuba. The city proper has a population of 2.1 million inhabitants, and it spans a total of — making it the largest city in the Caribbean region, and the most populous...

. As of the year 2000, the population was 22,000. The Cuban government maintains an agricultural experiment station, as well as a meteorology center in the city.

History

The first settlement dates from 1683 when tobacco

Tobacco

Tobacco is an agricultural product processed from the leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. It can be consumed, used as a pesticide and, in the form of nicotine tartrate, used in some medicines...

farmers settled on the lands of the ranches in Sócalo Hondo, Managua

Managua

Managua is the capital city of Nicaragua as well as the department and municipality by the same name. It is the largest city in Nicaragua in terms of population and geographic size. Located on the southwestern shore of Lake Xolotlán or Lake Managua, the city was declared the national capital in...

, Bejucal

Bejucal

For the Maya archaeological site in Guatemala see Bejucal Bejucal is a municipality and city in the Mayabeque Province of Cuba. It borders to the north Boyeros; to the east with San José de las Lajas; to the south with Quivicán; and on the west with San Antonio de los Baños. It was founded in 1874...

and La Chorrera

La Chorrera

La Chorrera is a town and municipality in the southern Colombian Department of Amazonas. The population is largely engaged in agricultural production, hunting, fishing, and banana and cassava growing...

, then under the jurisdiction of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Santiago de Compostela. The population grew quickly and in 1694 the first church was built. On June 18, 1725, the settlement was incorporated as the town of Santiago de Compostela de las Vegas by royal certificate and was granted an extensive jurisdictional demarcation to the town. This marked the growth of its political and economic importance.

In 1824, the town was declared a city, allowing their people to raise a statue dedicated to the Spanish

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

King Ferdinand VII, placed at the Recreo Square. In 1831, the monarch corresponded by granting the city with the title of Faithful and Very Illustrious City Council.

In 1836, a government land ownership was created for the city, but in 1840 was instead awarded to Bejucal

Bejucal

; however, it was returned again to Santiago de las Vegas in 1845. The city's church was completed in 1800; one of its towers was destroyed by a hurricane in 1846. The cemetery was built in 1814 and closed in 1895 to use the new one built at that times. In 1911 the Consistorial House was built.

The population grew from 3300 in 1861 to almost 11,000 in 1953.

Santiago de las Vegas lost its municipality status in 1976 under the new Political-Administrative Division created by the government of Fidel Castro

Fidel Castro

Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is a Cuban revolutionary and politician, having held the position of Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976, and then President from 1976 to 2008. He also served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from the party's foundation in 1961 until 2011...

, and is now part of the new municipality

Municipality

A municipality is essentially an urban administrative division having corporate status and usually powers of self-government. It can also be used to mean the governing body of a municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district...

of Boyeros

Boyeros

Boyeros is one of the 15 municipalities or boroughs in the city of Havana, Cuba.The municipality was created in 1976, and amalgamated the town of Santiago de Las Vegas. It lies on the south-west side of the city and extends towards the José Martí International Airport.-Demographics:In 2004, the...

, thus being amalgamated into the City of Havana

Havana

Commerce and business

Transportation is one of the primary industries for the city. Geographically located between the increasingly greater metropolitan

Metropolitan area

The term metropolitan area refers to a region consisting of a densely populated urban core and its less-populated surrounding territories, sharing industry, infrastructure, and housing. A metropolitan area usually encompasses multiple jurisdictions and municipalities: neighborhoods, townships,...

zones of the island and the rural region to the south and southwest of the province of Havana

Havana

, it served as a distribution point of numerous passengers between these two regions. Its bus station was a title branch of the National Bus Station in Havana

Havana

.

Here was born, in 1923, the Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

writer

Writer

A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....

Italo Calvino

Italo Calvino was an Italian journalist and writer of short stories and novels. His best known works include the Our Ancestors trilogy , the Cosmicomics collection of short stories , and the novels Invisible Cities and If on a winter's night a traveler .Lionised in Britain and the United States,...

. It was also the birthplace of the notorious scientist Juan Tomás Roig Mesa, renowned botanist well-known by his work on medicinal and poisonous plants. Other notable sons of the city were ethnomusicologist

Ethnomusicology

Ethnomusicology is defined as "the study of social and cultural aspects of music and dance in local and global contexts."Coined by the musician Jaap Kunst from the Greek words ἔθνος ethnos and μουσική mousike , it is often considered the anthropology or ethnography of music...

Helio Orovio and mezzo-soprano

Mezzo-soprano

A mezzo-soprano is a type of classical female singing voice whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above...

Esther Borja.

In addition, Santiago de las Vegas has three of the most important sanatorium

Sanatorium

A sanatorium is a medical facility for long-term illness, most typically associated with treatment of tuberculosis before antibiotics...

s of Cuba

Cuba

, the Psychiatric Hospital of Mazorra, the "Los Cocos" sanatorium for housing and caring of HIV/AIDS patients, and the Sanatorium of El Rincón for leprosy patients. The presence of these facilities has also increased the necessity of lodging and restaurants in the community.

Tourism

The construction of the José Martí International Airport

José Martí International Airport

José Martí International Airport , sometimes known by its former name Rancho-Boyeros Airport, is located southwest of Havana, Cuba, and is a hub for Cubana de Aviación, Aerogaviota and Aero Caribbean, and former Latin American hub for Aeroflot Soviet Airlines...

in Havana

Havana

brought important opportunities for the development of the tourist industry. Santiago de las Vegas has natural, historical, cultural and religious points of interest. These opportunities have created another possible source of wealth for the city and its surroundings, leading to the construction of hotels, restaurants, and other facilities, as well as created new jobs.

The most massive religious celebration in Cuba is the festivity of San Lázaro, on December 17. On the days before, tens of thousands of devouts, revelers, tourists and curious gather in pilgrimage to the shrine of El Rincón, some of them dressed in sackcloth

Cilice

A cilice was originally a garment or undergarment made of coarse cloth or animal hair used in some religious traditions to induce some degree of discomfort or pain as a sign of repentance and atonement...

or purple clothing and carrying bizarre penances to pay gratitude to the miraculous San Lázaro

Lazarus and Dives

The Parable of the rich man and Lazarus is a well known parable of Jesus which appears in one of the Four Gospels of the New Testament....

, identified with the yoruba deity of Babalu Aye

Babalu Aye

In the religious system of Orisha worship, Babalú-Ayé is the praise name of the spirit of the Earth and strongly associated with infectious disease, and healing. He is an Orisha, representing the deity Olorun on Earth...

External links

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