Granma Province facts for kids

Quick Facts About Granma
Capital:	Bayamo
Area:	8,375.49 square kilometers
People:	822,452
Population Density:	98.20 people per square kilometer
Map
Isla de la Juventud Pinar del Río La Habana Ciudad de La Habana Matanzas Cienfuegos Villa Clara Sancti Spíritus Ciego de Ávila Camagüey Las Tunas Granma Holguín Santiago de Cuba Guantánamo

The official coat of arms for Granma Province.

Granma is one of the provinces in Cuba, a large island country. Its main city and capital is Bayamo. Other important towns in Granma include Manzanillo, which is a port city on the Gulf of Guacanayabo, and Pilón.

Granma's History

This province got its name from a special yacht called Granma. This yacht was used in 1956 by two famous leaders, Che Guevara and Fidel Castro. They sailed to Cuba with 82 guerrilla fighters to start a revolution. The American person who sold them the yacht had named it after his grandmother. Even though the name Granma isn't the usual Spanish word for grandmother (which is abuela), it became a very important symbol for the Cuban Revolution.

What Reminders Are There?

Granma province is full of places that remind people of the Cuban Revolution and Cuba's earlier Wars of Independence. You can find many special plaques in the mountains. These plaques remember the fight against Fulgencio Batista in 1959.

Archaeologists have also found sites of old palenques. These were like small, strong villages where enslaved people who had escaped used to live. Most of these old sites are not specially marked today. Sadly, a hurricane recently damaged the site of Fidel Castro's main headquarters at a place called La Plata.

Granma's Economy

In Granma province, you can find many old, unused gold, silver, and manganese mine sites. These mines used to dig up valuable metals from the ground.

Coffee is a very important crop grown in the mountains of Granma. During the coffee harvest, sometimes there are road blocks. Soldiers are there to make sure that the coffee goes to the government. This helps control the coffee supply and prevents it from being sold illegally.

Towns in Granma

Granma province is made up of several different towns, called municipalities. Here are some of them:

• Bartolomé Masó
• Bayamo
• Buey Arriba
• Campechuela
• Cauto Cristo
• Guisa
• Jiguaní
• Manzanillo
• Media Luna
• Niquero
• Pilón
• Río Cauto
• Yara

See also

In Spanish: Provincia de Granma para niños