Guayos is a small

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

and ''consejo popular'' (i.e. "people's council") located in the municipality of

Cabaiguán Cabaiguán () is a municipality and town in the province of Sancti Spíritus, Cuba. With an urban population of 30,135 is the 3rd largest town of the province. Overview It was founded in 1894, and established as a municipality in 1926. The munic ...

, province of

Sancti Spíritus Sancti Spíritus () is a municipality and capital city of the province of Sancti Spíritus Province, Sancti Spíritus in central Cuba and one of the oldest Cuban European settlements. Sancti Spíritus is the genitive case of Latin language, Lat ...

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 ...

History

The name of Guayos was given to the town by travelers that were inspired by trees of the same name which surrounded the town. These trees would serve travelers as a place of rest and relaxation. The town was founded by Captain Miguel Reyes, who fought with the Independence General Antonio Maceo. His daughter Mercedes Reyes was one of the first female to serve as a Major in Cuba. The Central Road ( Carretera Central) and the Railway of Cuba (

Ferrocarriles de Cuba Ferrocarriles de Cuba (FCC) or Ferrocarriles Nacionales de Cuba (English: National Railway Company of Cuba), provides passenger and freight services for Cuba. Route network Ferrocarriles de Cuba uses that extends from Guane (province Pinar del ...

) run along the whole island and connect Guayos with all the other provinces and their capitals, including the capital of the country, as well as with other small towns on the island. The bridge ''Los Elevados'' (literally ''The High'') was constructed at the same time as the Central Road under

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 ...

's plans to connect the whole country. ''Los Elevados'', keeps both, the Central Road and the railway running without interruptions and has become a symbol of the town and of national character.

Geography

The town is located in the central region of Cuba, only 13.6 miles (22 km) away from the exact geographic center of the island. Guayos' coordinates are 22° 2' 59" north, 79° 27' 44" west, the town is only 231 m (373 km) away from

Havana Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.

, the capital of Cuba and only 8 miles (13 km) away from its provincial capital,

. Guayos has an

altitude Altitude or height (also sometimes known as depth) is a distance measurement, usually in the vertical or "up" direction, between a reference datum and a point or object. The exact definition and reference datum varies according to the context ...

of 96

amsl Height above mean sea level is a measure of the vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) of a location in reference to a historic mean sea level taken as a vertical datum. In geodesy, it is formalized as ''orthometric heights''. The comb ...

. The people that live in Guayos are called ''guayenses''.

Demographics

The population in Guayos has been growing since the early 20th century. Today the population surpasses 15,000 inhabitants and is mainly composed by descendants of the Spanish

Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; es, Canarias, ), also known informally as the Canaries, are a Spanish autonomous community and archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, in Macaronesia. At their closest point to the African mainland, they are west of Morocc ...

Education

As stated in the

Cuban Constitution Even before attaining its independence from Spain, Cuba had several constitutions either proposed or adopted by insurgents as governing documents for territory they controlled during their war against Spain. Cuba has had several constitutions sin ...

, there are no

private school Private or privates may refer to: Music * " In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorde ...

s in the town. School attendance is compulsory until end of basic

secondary education Secondary education or post-primary education covers two phases on the International Standard Classification of Education scale. Level 2 or lower secondary education (less commonly junior secondary education) is considered the second and final pha ...

(normally at 15) and uniforms are always required. Four

primary schools A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ed ...

and one basic

secondary school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' secondary education, lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) ...

cover the educational needs of Guayos. All schools have free lunch for the school staff, including students and teachers. The town has a

public library A public library is a library that is accessible by the general public and is usually funded from public sources, such as taxes. It is operated by librarians and library paraprofessionals, who are also Civil service, civil servants. There are ...

in addition to each school having their own. Guayos also has a

house museum A historic house museum is a house of historic significance that has been transformed into a museum. Historic furnishings may be displayed in a way that reflects their original placement and usage in a home. Historic house museums are held to a v ...

, a house of culture, in-charged of managing cultural events in the town and a center for film projections and stage shows.

Healthcare

Guayos has a renovated

cottage hospital A cottage hospital is a semi-obsolete type of small hospital, most commonly found in the United Kingdom. The original concept was a small rural building having several beds.The Cottage Hospitals 1859–1990, Dr. Meyrick Emrys-Roberts, Tern Publicati ...

and a

pharmacy Pharmacy is the science and practice of discovering, producing, preparing, dispensing, reviewing and monitoring medications, aiming to ensure the safe, effective, and affordable use of medicines. It is a miscellaneous science as it links heal ...

. The demolition of the old cottage hospital started on February 28, 2003, by the hospital's staff and volunteers. The Empresa Constructora de Obras de Arquitectura (ECOA 51) started the rebuilding, this process required the hospital to be moved into mobile facilities for several months. Manuel Wong, president of the hospital, assures that in this time, besides doctor, he became designer, bricklayer, plumber, leader of work and investor. The new building takes up a whole manzana (1.68

acres The acre is a unit of land area used in the imperial and US customary systems. It is traditionally defined as the area of one chain by one furlong (66 by 660 feet), which is exactly equal to 10 square chains, of a square mile, 4,840 square ya ...

) and 2,372 square meters (2836 square yards) of length. The hospital offers new services and features such as

ultrasound Ultrasound is sound waves with frequency, frequencies higher than the upper audible limit of human hearing range, hearing. Ultrasound is not different from "normal" (audible) sound in its physical properties, except that humans cannot hea ...

, observation rooms,

X-Rays An X-ray, or, much less commonly, X-radiation, is a penetrating form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation. Most X-rays have a wavelength ranging from 10 Picometre, picometers to 10 Nanometre, nanometers, corresponding to frequency, ...

microbiology Microbiology () is the scientific study of microorganisms, those being unicellular (single cell), multicellular (cell colony), or acellular (lacking cells). Microbiology encompasses numerous sub-disciplines including virology, bacteriology, prot ...

, duodenal biliary drainages and a

gym A gymnasium, also known as a gym, is an indoor location for athletics. The word is derived from the ancient Greek term " gymnasium". They are commonly found in athletic and fitness centres, and as activity and learning spaces in educational ins ...

for

physical therapy Physical therapy (PT), also known as physiotherapy, is one of the allied health professions. It is provided by physical therapists who promote, maintain, or restore health through physical examination, diagnosis, management, prognosis, patient ...

and rehabilitation. (cached) The pharmacy, located in front of the hospital, sells medication with and without prescription at very affordable prices; ranging from CUP$0.50 to CUP$20.

Economy

Guayos' economy is based mainly on

agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...

Sugarcane Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of (often hybrid) tall, Perennial plant, perennial grass (in the genus ''Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar Sugar industry, production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with ...

and

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 ...

are cultivated extensively on the outskirts of the town. In the southwestern region of Guayos, the now destroyed

sugar mill A sugar cane mill is a factory that processes sugar cane to produce raw or white sugar. The term is also used to refer to the equipment that crushes the sticks of sugar cane to extract the juice. Processing There are a number of steps in pro ...

''Remberto Abad Alemán'', before 1959 was called "Las Vegas" lies next to the ''Donque'' river.

Cattle Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, cloven-hooved, herbivores. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus ''Bos''. Adult females are referred to as cows and adult mal ...

also contribute to the economy of the town. The most famous cigar factory before 1959 was "Tabacos León, and the owner was Erasmo León, uncle of the Cuban famous chef Erasmo Hernández León. The brothers of Erasmo León were also owners of another famous cigar factory, "Galileo" in the town of Cabaiguán. The cigar factory was intervened by the government and after that was close. In 1998 another Cigar Factory was opened in town, creating hundreds of jobs.

Natural resources

On the outskirts of Guayos is found the ''Nieves Morejón''

quarry A quarry is a type of open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some jurisdictions to reduce their envi ...

, from which

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

is extracted for the production of white

cement A cement is a binder, a chemical substance used for construction that sets, hardens, and adheres to other materials to bind them together. Cement is seldom used on its own, but rather to bind sand and gravel ( aggregate) together. Cement mix ...

in the nearby factory of Siguaney. Next to it, a national maximum security

prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, correc ...

is located. In May 2008, the facility faced complaints from prisoners that were not receiving letters. The

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional serv ...

of Guayos said that they were not delivering letters ''"because they do not have personnel to deliver the correspondence to the prison"''.

Cultural heritage - Parrandas

The greatest expression of traditional culture in Guayos is embodied in a festival called the

Parrandas Parrandas are traditional carnival-like street parties with origins date back to the 19th century. They take place in northern and central cities of the former Las Villas province (now divided into Villa Clara, Sancti Spíritus and Ciego de Á ...

. Celebrated for first time in 1925, the Guayos Parrandas or Changüíes overflows with the passions of its inhabitants in an encounter that every year, in a friendly and festive way, faces the two opposite districts, La Loma and Cantarranas. This festivity was brought from the city of Remedios by residents of that villa that arrived at Guayos to work in tobacco fertile valleys. With the particularity to last only 24 hours, from one sunrise to the next, the Guayos Parrandas is characterized by majestic and artistic floats, gigantic light artworks, the pyrotechnics as well as the excessive fireworks of all kinds, as well as popular rhythmical street congas. This celebration, with more than half century of tradition, usually begins with the changüíses from each of the districts, alternating themselves during several weekends until the final Parranda day comes, when at sunrise the guayenses are waked up by the sound of the church bells and the roar of the fireworks. The Guayos Parrandas had become in a rich cultural activity of the town stimulated by the rivalry between the districts of La Loma, whose symbols are the goat and red, and Cantarranas, whose symbols are the frog and green. With the new political-administrative division in Cuba, Guayos went to be a part of municipality of Cabaiguan, whose Government had tried end this tradition. The changüíes have been disappearing and the Parrandas had fallen in a decay state. Nevertheless, the big effort and immense desire of the guayenses to maintain its tradition alive, this festivity is now celebrated only in an inconsistent way and without a fixed date for its celebration. The date is only determined by the Government of the Municipality of Cabaiguán on a whim. While this is a popular tradition everything around it is totally controlled by the Government.

Floats seen during the Guayos Parrandas celebration

File:Amanecerenelnilo1995A.jpg, Dawn over the Nile river File:Float Swan Lake 1982.jpg, The Swan Lake File:Losjardinesdeliran1990.jpg, The Iran gardens File:Winter Night Dreams (Parrandas of Guayos).jpg, Winter night dreams File:Pescadoresdeperlas1993.jpg, Pearl hunters File:Float Kambaluc1986.gif, Kambaluc File:Sisiemperatrisdeaustria1989.jpg, Empress of Austria File:Elhijodelviento1996.JPG, The son of the wind

References

External links

Guayos
on EcuRed * {{Coord, 22, 02, 59, N, 79, 27, 44, W, display=title Populated places in Sancti Spíritus Province