Banes is a municipality and city in the

Holguín Province Holguín () is one of the provinces of Cuba, the third most populous after Havana and Santiago de Cuba. It lies in the southeast of the country. Its major cities include Holguín (the capital), Banes, Antilla, Mayarí, and Moa. The province ha ...

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 Caribbea ...

. Banes was an important area for the native Taino people before the conquest by

Columbus Columbus is a Latinized version of the Italian surname "''Colombo''". It most commonly refers to: * Christopher Columbus (1451-1506), the Italian explorer * Columbus, Ohio, capital of the U.S. state of Ohio Columbus may also refer to: Places ...

. The town of Banes is visited by tourists from Guardalavaca as it is the nearest town to the

resort 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 ...

, and both are in the municipality of Banes. A museum featuring the Taino culture is situated halfway between both towns.

History

The name comes from the inhabitants Taino language word ''Bani'', meaning "valley".

Hurricane Ike Hurricane Ike () was a powerful tropical cyclone that swept through portions of the Greater Antilles and Northern America in September 2008, wreaking havoc on infrastructure and agriculture, particularly in Cuba and Texas. Ike took a sim ...

made landfall here as a Category 4 hurricane on the evening of September 7, 2008, causing great losses of property.

Geography

The municipality is divided into the

barrio ''Barrio'' () is a Spanish language, Spanish word that means "Quarter (urban subdivision), quarter" or "neighborhood". In the modern Spanish language, it is generally defined as each area of a city, usually delimited by functional (e.g. residenti ...

s of Barrio Amarillo, Angeles, Berros, Cañadón, Durruthy, Este, Flores, Macabi, Mulas, Nuevo Banes, Oeste, Retrete, Río Seco, Samá (includes Guardalavaca), Marcané, Veguitas and Yaguajay.

Demographics

In 2004, the municipality of Banes had a population of 81,274. With a total area of , it has a population density of .

Personalities

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 ...

(1901–1973), politician * Victor Brown (?–2016), musician *

Rafael Díaz-Balart Rafael Lincoln Díaz-Balart y Gutiérrez (January 17, 1926 – May 6, 2005) was a Cuban politician. Díaz-Balart served as Majority Leader of the Cuban House of Representatives and Deputy Secretary of Interior (1952-1954) during the presid ...

(1926–2005), politician *

Rafael José Díaz-Balart Rafael José Díaz-Balart (c. 1899 – 1985), was a Cuban politician and mayor of the town of Banes. With his wife América Gutiérrez, he was the father of Rafael Díaz-Balart and progenitor of the Díaz-Balart family, an American political fami ...

(1899–1985), politician *

Waldo Díaz-Balart Waldo Díaz-Balart y Gutiérrez (born February 10, 1931) is a Cuban painter and sculptor currently living in Madrid, Spain. Biography Born in Banes, Cuba, Díaz-Balart is the son of the mayor of Banes, Rafael José Díaz-Balart. Díaz-Balart st ...

(b. 1931), painter * Julio González (1920–1991), baseball player *

Peruchín Pedro Nolasco Jústiz Rodríguez, better known as Peruchín (January 31, 1913 – December 24, 1977), was a Cuban pianist specializing in jazz-influenced Cuban popular music. He was an important figure in the 1950s descarga (jam session) scene in ...

(1913–1977), pianist *

Gilberto Zaldívar Juan Gilberto Zaldívar (March 28, 1934 – October 6, 2009) was the Cuban-born American co-founder of the Repertorio Español, a Spanish language theater company based in New York City that presents classic Spanish plays, modern works from Hi ...

(1934–2009), Cuban-American theatre director

References

External links