Bayamo

Bayamo was founded in 1513 by Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar, the second of the seven towns he established in Cuba, which gave it the title of the Second Villa. Its inland position kept it relatively safe from the pirates who raided the coasts, and through much of the 16th century it was one of the island's most important farming and trading settlements. Ships of up to 200 tons could then sail up the Cauto River, and the contraband trade that passed down it and through Manzanillo made Bayamo the leading town of Cuba at the start of the 17th century. A great flood in 1616 choked the river with trees and wrecks, but smuggling with Curaçao, Jamaica and other islands continued through the 17th and 18th centuries, surrounded by plantations. It became a city in 1827.

The city's defining moment came in 1868. After Carlos Manuel de Céspedes launched the war for independence at La Demajagua, his forces took Bayamo on 18–20 October, and it became the first capital of the rebel Republic of Cuba in Arms. On 20 October, as the Spanish authorities surrendered, Perucho Figueredo wrote the words of an anthem to a melody the crowd was humming; La Bayamesa is now Cuba's national anthem. After the battle of El Salado in early January, the residents set fire to their own city on 12 January 1869 rather than hand it back to the Spanish army, and much of it, including the cathedral, was destroyed.

After the 1959 revolution Bayamo grew into the most important city of the Cauto region and became the capital of Granma province, and in 1982 it hosted the national celebration of the anniversary of the attack on the Moncada barracks.

Bayamo's identity is built on its place in the story of Cuban independence. Cubans call it the Second Villa and the city of carriages, and its people are proud that the national anthem, officially the Himno de Bayamo, was written here and opens with a call to them: "Al combate, corred, bayameses" — "To battle, run, people of Bayamo". The main square is a monument to Céspedes, the Father of the Nation, and to Figueredo, and the burning of 1869 is remembered as an act of sacrifice.

The city has produced more than its share of notable Cubans. Céspedes, Figueredo and the revolutionary Francisco Vicente Aguilera were born here, as were Tomás Estrada Palma, the first president of Cuba, and the singer Pablo Milanés. The many buildings in the centre that are national monuments, from the cathedral to the 18th-century Capilla de Dolores, give the old town its character.

Bayamo is known as the cleanest city in the country, and its pace is gentle: horse-drawn carriages clatter through the streets, and evenings centre on the squares. The city is the seat of the Catholic diocese of Bayamo and Manzanillo.

About 237,000 people lived in the municipality of Bayamo in 2022, about 169,000 of them in the urban area, making it one of the largest cities of the old Oriente. As capital of Granma province it is an administrative and educational centre, home to the University of Granma, and its industries include a state engineering works that makes machinery and parts for agriculture. The city grew up surrounded by plantations, and farming still shapes the plain around it.

Getting around is a matter of feet, pedals and hooves. A United Nations study found that only about 15 per cent of the population relies on motorised transport, while almost three times as many use the roughly 500 licensed horse-drawn carriages that follow fixed routes; most of the rest walk, cycle or use bicycle taxis.

As across eastern Cuba, daily life is shaped by hardship. Power cuts are among the longest in the country, water and food are often short, and fuel shortages limit buses and deliveries. Many families depend on remittances from relatives in Havana or abroad, and queues, ration books and improvisation are part of the routine.

Bayamo eats the way eastern Cuba eats. Congrí, rice cooked with red beans, is the eastern version of the national rice-and-beans dish, and pork roasted in the open is the centrepiece of any family celebration. Everyday meals add fried plantains as crisp tostones, yuca with mojo, a dressing of garlic and citrus, and simple stews such as ajiaco. Coffee from the mountains of the east is drunk strong and sweet throughout the day.

Shortages mean that menus are often short and change from day to day, and many staples come through the ration. The city is a centre of the dairy industry, whose factories make more than a hundred products, mainly from milk, and a local drinks company sells soft drinks and Bayam beer.

Visitors eat best in the casas particulares, where hosts cook for their guests, and in the family-run paladares around the old centre. Peso cafeterias and street stalls sell sandwiches, snacks and sweet coffee to local people, and rum is the drink of evenings on the squares.