Granma is one of the provinces of Cuba

Provinces of Cuba

Administratively, Cuba is divided into 15 provinces and one special municipality not included in any province. The last modification was approved in August 2010 , splitting Havana province into two new provinces: Artemisa and Mayabeque...

. Its capital is Bayamo

Bayamo

Bayamo is the capital city of the Granma Province of Cuba, and one of the largest cities in the Oriente region.The community of Bayamo lies on a plain by the Bayamon River...

. Other towns include Manzanillo

Manzanillo, Cuba

Manzanillo is a municipality and city in the Granma Province of Cuba.It is a port city in the Granma Province in eastern Cuba on the Gulf of Guacanayabo, near the delta of the Cauto River...

 (a port on the Gulf of Guacanayabo

Gulf of Guacanayabo

The Gulf of Guacanayabo is a bay along the southern coast of Cuba, bordered by Granma and Las Tunas provinces. It is located at .The largest port on the bay is Manzanillo, ad to the north-west, the gulf is bordered by the Jardines de la Reina archipellago...

) and Pilón

Pilón, Cuba

Pilón is a municipality and city in the Granma Province of Cuba. It is located on the southern coast of Cuba, in an inlet of the Caribbean Sea.-Demographics:...

.

History

The province was named after the yacht Granma

Granma (yacht)

Granma is the yacht that was used to transport 82 fighters of the Cuban Revolution from Mexico to Cuba in 1956 for the purpose of overthrowing the regime of Fulgencio Batista. The 60-foot diesel-powered cabin cruiser was built in 1943 and designed to accommodate 12 people...

, used by Che Guevara

Che Guevara

Ernesto "Che" Guevara , commonly known as el Che or simply Che, was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, intellectual, guerrilla leader, diplomat and military theorist...

 and Fidel Castro

Fidel Castro

Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is a Cuban revolutionary and politician, having held the position of Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976, and then President from 1976 to 2008. He also served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from the party's foundation in 1961 until 2011...

 to land in Cuba

Cuba

The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...

 with 82 guerrillas

Guerrilla warfare

Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare and refers to conflicts in which a small group of combatants including, but not limited to, armed civilians use military tactics, such as ambushes, sabotage, raids, the element of surprise, and extraordinary mobility to harass a larger and...

 in 1956; until 1976 it was part of the larger "Oriente Province". The American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 who sold them the secondhand yacht in Mexico apparently had named it "Granma" ("Granma", more usually "Grandma", is an affectionate term for a grandmother) after his grandmother and so the name of this vessel became an icon for Cuban communism.

The province is full of reminders of the Cuban Revolution

Cuban Revolution

The Cuban Revolution was an armed revolt by Fidel Castro's 26th of July Movement against the regime of Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista between 1953 and 1959. Batista was finally ousted on 1 January 1959, and was replaced by a revolutionary government led by Castro...

, and the Cuban Wars of Independence, plaque

Commemorative plaque

A commemorative plaque, or simply plaque, is a plate of metal, ceramic, stone, wood, or other material, typically attached to a wall, stone, or other vertical surface, and bearing text in memory of an important figure or event...

s in the mountain

Mountain

Image:Himalaya_annotated.jpg|thumb|right|The Himalayan mountain range with Mount Everestrect 58 14 160 49 Chomo Lonzorect 200 28 335 52 Makalurect 378 24 566 45 Mount Everestrect 188 581 920 656 Tibetan Plateaurect 250 406 340 427 Rong River...

 commemorating the 1959 struggle against Fulgencio Batista

Fulgencio Batista

Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar was the United States-aligned Cuban President, dictator and military leader who served as the leader of Cuba from 1933 to 1944 and from 1952 to 1959, before being overthrown as a result of the Cuban Revolution....

. Also unmarked, although there are archaeological digs, are the sites of several palenque

Quilombo

A quilombo is a Brazilian hinterland settlement founded by people of African origin, Quilombolas, or Maroons. Most of the inhabitants of quilombos were escaped slaves and, in some cases, a minority of marginalised Portuguese, Brazilian aboriginals, Jews and Arabs, and/or other non-black,...

s, the fortified hamlets of escaped slaves. In 2005 Hurricane Dennis

Hurricane Dennis

Hurricane Dennis was an early-forming major hurricane in the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico during the very active 2005 Atlantic hurricane season. Dennis was the fourth named storm, second hurricane, and first major hurricane of the season...

 destroyed the site of Castro's headquarters at La Plata. There are numerous abandoned gold

Gold

Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...

, silver

Silver

Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...

, and manganese

Manganese

Manganese is a chemical element, designated by the symbol Mn. It has the atomic number 25. It is found as a free element in nature , and in many minerals...

 mine sites.

Economy

The main source of revenue comes from coffee

Coffee

Coffee is a brewed beverage with a dark,init brooo acidic flavor prepared from the roasted seeds of the coffee plant, colloquially called coffee beans. The beans are found in coffee cherries, which grow on trees cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in equatorial Latin America, Southeast Asia,...

 that is grown in the mountainous regions of the province. During the coffee harvest there may be roadblocks, where soldiers ensure that the coffee is delivered to the government and not the black market.

Municipalities

Municipality Municipalities of Cuba The provinces of Cuba are divided into 169 municipalities or municipios. They were defined by Cuban Law Number 1304 of July 3, 1976.-Summary:The municipalities are listed below, by province:...	Population (2004)	Area (km²)	Location	Remarks
Bartolomé Masó Bartolomé Masó, Cuba -Demographics:In 2004, the municipality of Bartolomé Masó had a population of 53,024. With a total area of , it has a population density of ....			20°10′7"N 76°56′33"W
Bayamo			20°22′54"N 76°38′33"W	Provincial capital
Buey Arriba Buey Arriba, Cuba Buey Arriba is a municipality and town in the Granma Province of Cuba. It is located south of Bayamo, the provincial capital.-Demographics:...			20°10′25"N 76°44′57"W
Campechuela			20°14′0"N 77°16′44"W
Cauto Cristo Cauto Cristo, Cuba Cauto Cristo is a municipality and city in the Granma Province of Cuba. It is located on the banks of the Cauto River, in the western part of the province, bordering the province of Holguin.-Demographics:...			20°33′44"N 76°28′10"W
Guisa Guisa, Cuba Guisa is a municipality and city in the Granma Province of Cuba. It is located south-east of Bayamo, the provincial capital.-Demographics:...			20°15′40"N 76°32′17"W
Jiguaní			20°22′24"N 76°25′20"W
Manzanillo Manzanillo, Cuba Manzanillo is a municipality and city in the Granma Province of Cuba.It is a port city in the Granma Province in eastern Cuba on the Gulf of Guacanayabo, near the delta of the Cauto River...			20°20′23"N 77°06′31"W
Media Luna Media Luna, Cuba Media Luna is a municipality and city in the Granma Province of Cuba. It is located on the coastal region of the province, bordering the Gulf of Guacanayabo, between Niquero and Campechuela.-Demographics:...			20°08′40"N 77°26′10"W
Niquero Niquero, Cuba Niquero is a municipality and city in the Granma Province of Cuba. It is located in the coastal region of the province, bordering the Gulf of Guacanayabo...			20°02′50"N 77°34′41"W
Pilón Pilón, Cuba Pilón is a municipality and city in the Granma Province of Cuba. It is located on the southern coast of Cuba, in an inlet of the Caribbean Sea.-Demographics:...			19°54′20"N 77°19′15"W
Río Cauto Río Cauto, Cuba Río Cauto is a municipality and city in the Granma Province of Cuba. It is located in the northern part of the province, upstream of the mouth of Cauto River.-Demographics:...			20°33′50"N 76°55′2"W
Yara Yara, Cuba Yara is a small town and municipality in the Granma Province of Cuba, located halfway between the cities of Bayamo and Manzanillo, in the Gulf of Guacanayabo...			20°16′37"N 76°56′49"W

Source: Population from 2004 Census. Area from 1976 municipal re-distribution.

Demographics

In 2004, the province of Granma had a population of 829,333. With a total area of 8375.49 km² (3,233.8 sq mi), the province had a population density of 99 /km2.