Bayamo

Bayamo stands on the fertile plains of eastern Cuba, north of the Sierra Maestra. Its name predates the Spanish settlement, and the rivers and open land around it supported Indigenous communities before the conquest. Founded in 1513, it became one of the earliest Spanish towns on the island and a center for the surrounding cattle country.

Distance from the principal colonial ports encouraged Bayamo’s residents to trade outside the restrictions of the Spanish monopoly. By the early seventeenth century the town had prospered through commerce with foreign ships. In 1604 a corsair seized Bishop Juan de las Cabezas Altamirano, and local men rescued him; the episode inspired Silvestre de Balboa’s Espejo de paciencia, an early work of Cuban literature. Bayamo’s wealth and its connections with the southern coast made it an important inland town.