Yaguajay is a municipality and city in the Sancti Spíritus Province

Sancti Spíritus Province

Sancti Spíritus is one of the provinces of Cuba. Its capital is the identically named Sancti Spíritus. Another major city is Trinidad.The southern coast of the province is flat, but the western portion of Sancti Spíritus province is mountainous. The southeast has numerous mangroves and swamps...

 of 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...

. It is located in the northern part of the province, and borders the Bay of Buena Vista

Bay of Buena Vista

The Bay of Buena Vista is a bay on Cuba's northern Atlantic shore. It is located in the northern part of the provinces of Sancti Spíritus, Villa Clara and Ciego de Ávila, between mainland Cuba and the archipelago that lines its northern coast....

 to the north.
The Caguanes National Park

Caguanes National Park

Caguanes National Park is a national park in Cuba. It is located in the Yaguajay municipality in the northern part of Sancti Spíritus Province, on the northern coast of Cuba....

 (protecting swamp and coastal ecosystems, caves and mural art) is located in Yaguajay.

History

It was founded in 1847 and established as a municipality in 1879, then part of the province of Las Villas.

The Battle of Yaguajay

Camilo Cienfuegos

Camilo Cienfuegos

Camilo Cienfuegos Gorriarán was a Cuban revolutionary born in Lawton, Havana. Raised in an anarchist family that had left Spain before the Spanish Civil War, he became a key figure of the Cuban Revolution, along with Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, Juan Almeida Bosque, and Raúl Castro.-Political...

 fought an important battle in this city one of the last battles of the Cuban Revolution in 1958 defeating a Cuban Army Captain Alfredo Abon Lee

Alfredo Abon Lee

Captain Alfredo Abon Lee is a retired Cuban army officer. He was the commander of the garrison at Yaguajay, where he fought the Communist rebel forces in December 1958 in one of the final engagements of the Cuban Revolution....

, known as El heroe de Yaguajay . In 1958, Fidel Castro ordered his revolutionary army to go on the offensive against the army of Fulgencio Batista. While Fidel led one force against Guisa, Masó and other towns, the other major offensive was directed at the capture of the city of Santa Clara, the capital of what was then Las Villas Province.

Three columns were sent against Santa Clara under the command of Che Guevara, Jaime Vega, and Camilo Cienfuegos. Vega's column was caught in an ambush and completely destroyed. Guevara's column took up positions around Santa Clara (near Fomento). Cienfuegos's column directly attacked a local army garrison at Yaguajay. Initially Cienfuegos's column was just 60 men, out of Castro's hardened core of 230. But as they moved through the lands towards Santa Clara, they gained many recruits. A best guess is that Cienfuegos had between 450 to 500 men fighting for him.
The garrison was some 250 men under the command of a Cuban-born Chinese captain Abon Lee. The attack seems to have started around December 19. Convinced that reinforcements would be sent from Santa Clara, Lee put up a determined defense of his post. Repeatedly, the guerrillas attempted to overpower Lee and his men, but each time they failed. By December 26, Cienfuegos had become quite frustrated; it seemed that Lee could not be overpowered, nor could he be convinced to surrender. In desperation, Cienfuegos began to use a homemade "tank" against Lee's position. The "tank" was actually a large tractor encased in iron plates with attached makeshift flamethrowers on top. It, too, proved unsuccessful. Finally, on December 30, Lee, out of ammunition, surrendered his garrison.[1]

Aftermath of the battle

The surrender of the garrison was a major blow to the defenders of the provincial capital of Santa Clara. The next day, the combined forces of Cienfuegos, Guevara, and local revolutionaries under William Alexander Morgan captured Santa Clara in a fight of vast confusion. News of the loss of Santa Clara and other losses elsewhere panicked Batista and he fled Cuba the next day.

Demographics

In 2004, the municipality of Yaguajay had a population of 58,938. With a total area of 1032 km² (398.5 sq mi), it has a population density of 57.1 /km2.

The municipality was divided into the barrio

Barrio

Barrio is a Spanish word meaning district or neighborhood.-Usage:In its formal usage in English, barrios are generally considered cohesive places, sharing, for example, a church and traditions such as feast days...

s of Bamburanao, Cabecera, Centeno, Mayajigua, Meneses and Seibabo.