Diario las Américas., 1958-03-19
Know thy
Nei9hborI
By ANTONIO RUIZ

-AN
OF Cuba is divided, extends clear
across the island from north to
south, and has a good size capital
city, as well as one or more good
ports, on one or both of the coasts.
The Central Highway, which runs
almost the entire length of the
island, connects all the provincial
capitals and also many smaller
towns. With its many coastal coves,
Cuba has earned the name of "Is-
land of the Hundred Harbors," and
of these at least fifty are of some
commercial importance. Nearly
every one of them is connected
with an important town several
miles inland, the reason for this
curious development going back to
conditions that prevailed in ear
ly days of Cuban settlement and
exploitation.
Transportation by land in those
times was both costly and difficult,
so each town that was a focal point
of an agricultural or mining dis
trict had its own seaport. The ur-
ban center itself was built at some
distance inland, as a protection
from raids by the pirates who in
tested the Caribbean waters dur
ing the 18th. and 18th. centuries,
and haraNed the prosperous coast
al towns.
The westernmost province is Pi-
mar del Rio, with its capital of the
same name lying in the center of
the most famous tobacco producing
area in the world. This region,
known tobacco. Cattle raising is
also an important industry in Pinar
South and about thirty miles East
to West. The land is flat, and it is
pre-eminently an agricultural re-
gion, growing coffee, sugar cane
and pineapples, besides its we'll
known tobacco. Cattle raisin n
l-so an important industry in Pinar
del Rio, and there are large as
phalt deposits in Mariel and Ba-
hia Honda, on the northern coast
Mariel, the present headquarters
of the Cuban Naval Academy, lies
in a land-locked by that used to be
the favorite port of filibusters
smuggling arms and ammunition
into Cuba to aid the patrios on the
eve of the Spanish-American War.
The Province of Havana is locat-
ed east of Pinar del Rio. The
smallest of the six Cuban Provin-
ces, it is the most densely populat-
ed. 1t contins nearly one third of
the inhabitants of the Island, the
city having over one million peo-
pie. The wealth of this section lies
mainly in commerce and industry.
1t is best known for its cigar
and cigarette factories, although
its fisheries are also, important,
and some agriculture is carried on,
especially the growing of tobac-
CO.
Havana, the capital of the pro-
vince, as we'll as of the Republic,
has felt the impact of foreign in
~fluences, and its development has
been so vitality affected by power
full economic forces, that as it
stands today, it is not at all typic-
al of the country as a whole. 1t
presents, nevertheless, a dazzling
picture to the visitor who, If he
so desires, can seek out in the old
er section the surviving landmarks
of Spanish tradition, which have
been crowded back by the wide,
handicapped boulevards and impos,
ing buildings of the modern city.
Outstanding among the monu-
ments of the past RI the massive
forts on either Side ofHavana's
deep, sheltered harbor, the Moro,
whose guns protected the city from
pirate raids from 1897 on, now
used as a lighthouse and signal sta
ton, and the old fort known as
La Fortaleza, built between 1853
and 1877, after the sacking of Ha.
vana by the pirate Jacques de So
res, which demonstrated the made
quacy of the city's defenses. AT
present this former treasury house,
where millions in gold, silver and
precious stones were stored in the
past, is ustilized as barracks.
Spanish Version Page 3