San Cristóbal (Cuba)
| San Cristobal | |
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Coordinates: 22 ° 43 ′ N , 83 ° 3 ′ W
San Cristobal on the map of Cuba
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| Basic data | |
| Country | Cuba |
| province | Artemisa |
| City foundation | 1830 |
| Residents | 70,631 (2012) |
| Detailed data | |
| surface | 936 km 2 |
| Population density | 75.5 inhabitants / km 2 |
| height | 50 m |
| City structure | 12 |
| Waters | Caribbean Sea |
| prefix | 53-82 |
| Time zone | UTC -5 |
| Website | |
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San Cristóbal is a Cuban city and municipality in the province of Artemisa . Until 2011 it belonged to the province of Pinar del Río . The first settlers were Spaniards from the Canary Islands and Cádiz . The urban area is divided into 12 councils, 122 constituencies and 11 defense zones. The degree of urbanization of the municipality is almost 70 percent, 21,000 people live in rural areas.
geography
The city is located in the southeast of the province of Artemisa and is bordered in the north by the municipality of La Palma and in the south by the Caribbean Sea. San Cristóbal has an area of 936 km². 31% of the area is mountainous. The average temperature is 25 ° C, the humidity 81%. The annual rainfall is between 1100 and 1300 mm³.
The coast is about 20 to 25 kilometers long and overgrown with mangroves. In the vicinity of the city there are three larger mountains: Toro (678 m), Sierra de Rangel (665 m) and Los Tumbos (503 m).
history
From the foundation to the War of Independence
The history of San Cristóbal began on August 6th, 1664 with the issuance of the land document for Don José Antonio Herrera (Spanish origin) when the place was first mentioned and was known as Herrera or Hof San Cristóbal . According to the royal decrees of 1680, the owner was Doña Leonor Calvo. At that time Herrera had 421 horses, 79 years later the place became the property of Don Alejandro Martínez (of Spanish origin). Little by little, some families settled on the banks of the Rio Cristóbal.
In the nineteenth century, San Cristóbal was a center of the Cuban struggle for independence. Between May 22 and September 17, 1879, José Martí lived in the village and conspiratorially prepared the struggle for independence. Antonio Maceo visited the place during the Cuban War of Independence on February 4th and 5th, 1895. As a result of the war, the population was decimated and the paralyzed economy of the city led to disease and unemployment.
Historical key data
- In 1902 the first post office was opened.
- San Cristóbal was connected to the telephone network in the early 1920s.
- The first power plant to generate electricity went into operation in 1916.
- The first bank was founded in 1916 and went bankrupt in 1922.
- In 1907, San Cristóbal had 20,388 inhabitants and 305 businesses. The area of the city was 750 km².
- In 1919 only 28.4% of the population received instruction.
- The city has had a cinema since the 1920s.
- In 1929 the main road was built.
- The first union was founded in 1933.
20th century until the Cuban Revolution
In its history, San Cristóbal was shaped by agriculture and is located in the growing area of tobacco and rice. In 1952 there were 362 tobacco farms in the area around the city. In 1956 the rice mill La Paloma was founded with a capacity of 25 bushels per hour and employed 13 seasonal workers. San Cristóbal became the first coffee producer in the province. At that time the land was owned by about a dozen large landowners, who mostly farmed it unproductively and paid weekly wages of 3-4 dollars while thousands of small farmers cultivated their own plots. The two largest farms were El central with 1,300 horses and Rancho Mundito with 1,100 horses. 1952 opened a bank office.
The deployment of Soviet nuclear missiles as the trigger for the Cuban Missile Crisis
On October 14, 1962, American reconnaissance planes took aerial photos showing launch pads for medium-range missiles that had been erected near San Cristóbal. This triggered the Cuban Missile Crisis between the superpowers USA and the Soviet Union, during the two weeks of which there was a great danger of a nuclear war emanating from Cuba.
economy
Traditionally, the economy of San Cristóbal is strongly influenced by agriculture. Tobacco cultivation and livestock farming have been predominant since the city was founded. Coffee has also been grown since the 19th century.
After the Cuban Revolution, the city's economic structure diversified. So today there is a sugar factory, several ice and ice cream factories, a fish farm, a fish processing center, a wine factory, a poultry farm, a factory for prefabricated parts and others. The provincial center for artificial insemination is also located in San Cristóbal.
The community has four dams that are used for irrigation in agriculture and for energy generation.
Infrastructure
education
In 1980 there were 90 primary schools in San Cristóbal, including some boarding schools. In 1991 there were 6151 students and 761 preschoolers in the city. The city's polytechnic high school had 2,847 students and 304 teachers. Taking into account the agro-industrial character of the city, two technical colleges were established in 1976, the IPA Batalla del Rubí and 30 de Noviembre . These centers have the task of training specialists and technicians for agriculture and the sugar industry.
In the 1980s, adult education in the city experienced a significant increase, because according to the decision of the 2nd party congress of the PCC (December 1980), the majority of Cuba's working people should have at least a secondary education. To achieve this goal, so-called SOCs (Spanish: Secundaria Obrero-Campesina , secondary schools for workers and farmers) were set up in San Cristóbal to provide adult education.
A college of education and some kindergartens were also built in the city in the 1980s. More than 100 foreign students are currently studying at the medical faculty.
Culture
In San Cristóbal there are various cultural institutions for theater, visual arts, music, literature and dance. The city's cultural center opened on February 24, 1978. There are a total of 150 different cultural groups.
Since 1984 there are all basic cultural facilities in San Cristóbal: a culture house, a museum, a public library, several cinemas, an art gallery, a youth club, a theater group and others.
Several baseball teams have existed in the city since the 19th century. Besides boxing and soccer, baseball is the most important sport.
Healthcare
The most significant advances in health in San Cristóbal came after the Cuban Revolution. In 1959, the city had a small first aid station, a private clinic and 10 private medical practices. In 1982 the city's polyclinic was inaugurated by Fidel Castro . This year there was one doctor for every 626 inhabitants, one hospital bed for every 400 inhabitants and one nurse for every 239 inhabitants.
San Cristóbal has been participating in the family doctor program since 1984. As a result, several decentralized medical centers were built to ensure basic services for the population. By 1991 the number of clinics rose to 31 and the number of pharmacies to 12. Since this year the polyclinic has a microbiological laboratory for diagnosing HIV .
Web links
- San Cristóbal on EcuRed (Spanish)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Census 2012 (PDF; 257 kB) , ONE
