Güira de Melena is a municipality and town in the
Artemisa Province
Artemisa Province is one of the two new provinces created from the former La Habana Province, whose creation was approved by the Cuban National Assembly on August 1, 2010, the other being Mayabeque Province. The new provinces came into existence ...
since January 1. of 2011, before it was part of the Havana province.
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 ...
. It is located on the southern shore of the island, bordering the ''Bay of Batabanó'' and on the west part of Cuba . It was founded in 1779.
Geography
The town is south of
San Antonio de los Baños
San Antonio de los Baños is a municipality and town in the Artemisa Province of Cuba. It is located 26 km from the city of Havana, and the Ariguanabo River runs through it. It was founded in 1802.
History
There are 39 schools in the town, ...
, west of
Quivican and east of
Alquízar
Alquízar () is a town and municipality in the Artemisa Province of Cuba.
History
The settlement was first mentioned in 1616, as a coffee plantation owned by ''Don Sancho de Alquízar'', who gives the name of the community. In 1826, a garrison ...
.
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 Gabriel, Cajio, Tumbadero, La Cachimba, Penalver, Pulguero, Guerrilla, Pekin and Corea.
[''"Cronicas de Güira de Melena". Elba Rosa Rodriguez, 2011 ]
The municipality is divided into 6 consejos populares (i.e. "popular councils"): Vivian Alonso, Niceto Pérez, Ubaldo Díaz, Cajio, Gabriel, and Junco
Economy
The principal economic activities include agriculture, especially
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 ...
; the city has
cigar
A cigar is a rolled bundle of dried and fermented tobacco leaves made to be smoked. Cigars are produced in a variety of sizes and shapes. Since the 20th century, almost all cigars are made of three distinct components: the filler, the binder l ...
factories. Other agricultural products are
potato
The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'' and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae.
Wild potato species can be found from the southern Unit ...
es,
banana
A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large herbaceous flowering plants in the genus ''Musa''. In some countries, bananas used for cooking may be called "plantains", distinguis ...
s,
pineapple
The pineapple (''Ananas comosus'') is a tropical plant with an edible fruit; it is the most economically significant plant in the family Bromeliaceae. The pineapple is indigenous to South America, where it has been cultivated for many centuri ...
s and other tropical fruits, and
dairy
A dairy is a business enterprise established for the harvesting or processing (or both) of animal milk – mostly from cows or buffaloes, but also from goats, sheep, horses, or camels – for human consumption. A dairy is typically located on ...
products.
Demographics
In 2004, the municipality of Güira de Melena had a population of 37,838.
With a total area of ,
it has a population density of .
See also
*
Municipalities of Cuba
The Provinces of Cuba, provinces of Cuba are divided into 168 municipality, municipalities or ''municipios''. They were defined by Cuban Law Number 1304 of July 3, 1976Fifth United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names, Vo ...
*
List of cities in Cuba
This is a list of cities in Cuba with at least 20,000 inhabitants, listed in descending order. Population data refers to city proper and not to the whole municipality, because they include large rural areas with several villages. All figu ...
*
Güira de Melena Municipal Museum
References
External links
Article from ''El Habanero'' newspaper
{{DEFAULTSORT:Guira De Melena
Populated places in Artemisa Province