Baracoa
| Baracoa | ||
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| Municipality | ||
A view of Baracoa across the bay
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.png) Baracoa municipality (red) within Guantánamo Province (yellow) and Cuba |
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| Coordinates: 20°20′55″N 74°30′38″W / 20.34861°N 74.51056°WCoordinates: 20°20′55″N 74°30′38″W / 20.34861°N 74.51056°W | ||
| Country |
 Cuba
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| Province | Guantánamo | |
| Established | 1511 | |
| Area | ||
| • Total | 977 km2 (377 sq mi) | |
| Elevation | 5 m (16 ft) | |
| Population (2004) | ||
| • Total | 81,794 | |
| • Density | 83.7/km2 (217/sq mi) | |
| Time zone | EST (UTC-5) | |
| Area code(s) | +53-21 | |
| Website | Official website | |
Baracoa is a municipality and city in Guantánamo Province near the eastern tip of Cuba. It was visited by Admiral Christopher Columbus on November 27, 1492, and then founded by the first governor of Cuba, the Spanish conquistador Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar in August 15, 1511. It is the oldest Spanish settlement in Cuba and was its first capital (the basis for its nickname Ciudad Primada, "First City").
Baracoa is located on the spot where Christopher Columbus landed in Cuba on his first voyage. It is thought that the name stems from the indigenous Arauaca language word meaning "the presence of the sea".
Baracoa lies on the Bay of Honey (Bahía de Miel) and is surrounded by a wide mountain range (including the Sierra del Purial), which causes it to be quite isolated, apart from a single mountain road built in the 1960s.
The original inhabitants of the island were Taíno. They were eradicated by European diseases throughout the island. Today, there are descendants of the Taíno people, albeit few and of mixed-race. A local hero is Hatuey, who fled from the Spanish in Hispaniola and raised a Taíno army to fight the Spanish in Cuba. According to the story Hatuey was betrayed by a member of his group and sentenced to burn at the stake. It is said that just before he died a Catholic priest tried to convert him so he would attain salvation; Hatuey asked the priest if Heaven was the place where the dead Spanish go. When he received an answer in the affirmative he told the priest that he would rather go to Hell.
Christopher Columbus landed in Cuba in a place he named Porto Santo. It is generally assumed from his description that this was Baracoa, although there are also claims it was Gibara. But Columbus also described a nearby table mountain, which is almost certainly nearby El Yunque. He wrote in his logbook "the most beautiful place in the world ...I heard the birds sing that they will never ever leave this place...". According to tradition, Columbus put a cross called Cruz de la Parra in the sands of what would later become Baracoa harbor.
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Wikipedia