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 with the Atlantic at north, Matanzas Province by west, Sancti Spiritus Province by east, and Cienfuegos Province on the South. Villa Clara ...

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 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 150,000. Since the late 1960s, Cienfuegos has become one of Cuba's main industrial centers, especial ...

to the west and

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 ...

to the east.

History

The area was originally settled by the Siboney, a

Taíno The Taíno were a historic Indigenous peoples of the Caribbean, indigenous people of the Caribbean whose culture has been continued today by Taíno descendant communities and Taíno revivalist communities. At the time of European contact in 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. Specifically, the term "Arawak" has been applied at various times to the Lokono of South America and the Taíno, who historically lived in the Greater ...

origin.History of Manicaragua
( EcuRed)

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.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 Manicara ...

(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.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 Hav ...

to neighboring

Coffee Coffee is a drink prepared from roasted coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulant, stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content. It is the most popular hot drink in the world. S ...

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 Castro is a Romance language word that originally derived from Latin ''castrum'', a pre-Roman military camp or fortification (cf: Greek: ''kastron''; Proto-Celtic:''*Kassrik;'' br, kaer, *kastro). The English-language equivalent is '' chester''. ...

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 sup ...

(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

Manicaragua
on EcuRed {{Municipalities in Villa Clara Populated places in Villa Clara Province

History

Geography

Notable people

See also

References

External links