Santa Clara, Cuba

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Santa Clara is the capital city of the Cuban province of Villa Clara. It is located in the most central region of the province and almost in the most central region of the country.

1 History
2 Education
3 Monuments and parks
4 Personalities
5 Sister cities

[edit] History

Further information: Battle of Santa Clara

Santa Clara was the site of the last battle in the Cuban Revolution in late 1958. There were two guerrilla columns that attacked the city, one led by Ernesto Che Guevara and the other led by Camilo Cienfuegos. Guevara's column first captured the garrison at Fomento. Then, using a bulldozer, Guevara's soldiers destroyed railroad tracks and derailed a train full of troops and supplies sent by Batista. At the same time, Cienfuegos's column defeated an army garrison at the Battle of Yaguajay not far from town. On December 31, 1958, the combined forces of Guevara and Cienfuegos (along with other revolutionaries under William Alexander Morgan) attacked Santa Clara. The battle was chaotic, the defenders were demoralized, some fought, others surrendered without a shot. By the afternoon, the city was captured. This victory for Castro's troops is seen as the decisive moment in the Cuban Revolution as Batista fled Cuba less than 12 hours later.

Prior to 1 January 1977, Santa Clara was located in Las Villas Province. On that date, as part of a general administrating reordering of Cuba's provinces, Las Villas province was reordered into the provinces of Villa Clara, Cienfuegos, and Sancti Spíritus. Santa Clara is in the province now known as Villa Clara.

[edit] Education

Santa Clara is home to the Universidad Central de las Villas (Central University of Las Villas), composed of a conglomerate of faculties:

Electrical Engineering
Agricultural Sciences
Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Sciences
Humanities
Law
Psychology
Social Sciences
Construction
Managerial Sciences
Mechanical Engineering
Chemistry and Pharmacy
Distance Education

Offering Bachelor's, Master's, and Doctoral degrees and boasting the graduation of 35000 engineers, licensees, architects, medics, and veterinarians, of which 1000 have been foreigners from 47 countries. Additionally, it has formed more than 310 doctors and more than 1600 magisters. In addition it collaborates with institutions from Germany, Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, France, Spain, Peru, Mexico and Venezuela.

[edit] Monuments and parks

Che Guevara's Monument and Mausoleum

Santa Clara is home to a mausoleum which houses the remains of Che Guevara and sixteen of his fellow combatants killed in 1967 during the Bolivia campaign. He was laid to rest with full military honors on 17 October 1997 after his exhumed remains were returned to Cuba from Bolivia. At the site, there is a museum dedicated to Guevara's life. There is also a reconstruction of Guevara derailing the train during the Battle of Santa Clara. In 2004, 205,832 persons visited the mausoleum, including 127,597 foreigners, from countries such as Argentina, Canada, Great Britain, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Africa, the United States, and Venezuela.

In Santa Clara's center is a park (Parque Vidal) and it is laid on an entire square block. In the park there is a statue of Marta Abreu, a person much loved by the people of Santa Clara. Surrounding the park is the Santa Clara Libre (formerly the Santa Clara Hilton), Teatro de La Caridad, the Plaza Central, former City Hall and the Colonial de Santa Clara center of dance, offers the most attractive and unique traditional customs of hinterland Cuba.

Parque Vidal, Santa Clara is probably one of the most traditional places in Cuba. During the afternoons, people (specially singles) visit the park to meet others. Although not widely practiced in recent times, the custom was to walk the park around and around. The women walk the inner part of the park, while the men walk the outer side. Another lost custom was for the locals to set up a platform and offer improvisations with their guitars on late Sunday afternoons. For that day they dressed with their Guayaberas and highly polished shoes.