Long before the arrival of the Spanish, the region of Baracoa, at the eastern tip of Cuba, was densely populated by the Taíno, an Arawak-speaking indigenous people who inhabited much of the Antilles. They lived from agriculture (growing cassava and maize), fishing, hunting and gathering, in villages spread across the coast, the rivers and the valleys of an extraordinarily fertile and humid land. The area's place names —starting with the very name 'Baracoa', of indigenous origin— and numerous cultural traits preserve that heritage to this day.
The eastern region of Cuba is also linked to the figure of the cacique Hatuey, one of the great symbols of indigenous resistance to the conquest. According to the chronicles, Hatuey, who came from Hispaniola (present-day Santo Domingo and Haiti), is said to have arrived in Cuba warning the local Taíno about the cruelty of the Spanish, and organized resistance against them. Captured by the forces of Diego Velázquez, he was condemned to die at the stake; tradition records episodes of his death that turned him into a martyr of the indigenous cause.
That Taíno substratum is one of the keys to Baracoa's identity, which claims to be one of the areas of Cuba where the heritage of the native peoples was best preserved, both in the features of its inhabitants and in its traditions, its crafts and its relationship with nature. The region was thus the scene of both the first colonial contact and the first resistance.
Baracoa holds a title that no other Cuban city can dispute: being the oldest town in Cuba. It was the first of the seven towns founded by the adelantado Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar in the process of conquering and colonizing the island, established in 1511 under the name Nuestra Señora de la Asunción de Baracoa. That is why it is known as Cuba's 'first-founded city'.
Besides being the first town, Baracoa was also the island's first capital, the seat of colonial power in the very earliest days of the Spanish presence, before the capital status passed to Santiago de Cuba and, later, to Havana. In those early years, the town was the head of the fledgling colony and the starting point of the Spanish expansion across the rest of Cuba. The island's first bishopric was established there, which reinforced its founding rank.
Its pre-eminence, however, was brief. The very geography that would later isolate it —its position in a remote corner, separated from the rest of the island by mountains— worked against its central role, and the axis of power shifted westward. Baracoa soon lost the capital status, but kept forever the honor of having been the first town and the first capital of Cuba, a pride its inhabitants uphold to this day.
The history of Baracoa is intertwined with that of the discovery of the Americas itself. A deep-rooted tradition holds that Christopher Columbus, on his first voyage of 1492, put in at this part of eastern Cuba and was impressed by the landscape, in particular by a flat-topped mountain that he described in his chronicles. Many identify that mountain with El Yunque de Baracoa, whose distinctive silhouette is said to have served as a landmark for the navigators.
Linked to that supposed landing is the town's most famous relic: the Cruz de la Parra, a wooden cross that, according to tradition, was planted by Columbus in these lands during that first voyage. If true, it would be the only one of the crosses left by Columbus in the Americas that survives. The cross is kept in Baracoa's parish church and is an object of great devotion.
The relic has been subjected to scientific study. Analyses of the wood have reportedly determined that it is a local species and that its age is consistent with Columbus's time, which lends plausibility to the tradition; however, the direct attribution to the navigator belongs more to the realm of faith and legend than to that of documented historical certainty. Over time, the cross was trimmed and protected with a metal casing, because the faithful pulled off splinters as relics. Whether or not its Columbian origin is true, the Cruz de la Parra is a powerful symbol of Baracoa's antiquity and singularity.
After losing the capital status, Baracoa was relegated by its geographic position to one of the most remote corners of Cuba. Surrounded by mountains that separated it from the rest of the island and open only toward the sea, the town lived for centuries in almost total isolation: contact with the rest of Cuba was made mainly by sea, and access by land was extraordinarily difficult. That isolation profoundly shaped its character, its customs and its identity, preserving traits —including the Taíno heritage— that in other regions faded away.
Its coastal and remote condition also made it vulnerable to threats from the sea. During the colonial era, pirates, corsairs and Spain's rival powers prowled the Caribbean coasts, and Baracoa, like other ports, had to protect itself. Several forts were built for that purpose that still stand and today form part of its heritage: the Matachín Fort (now the municipal museum), the La Punta fort and El Castillo (the Seboruco, turned into a hotel). These bastions watched over the bay and the entrance to the town.
Baracoa's economy, throughout all those centuries, rested on the fruits of its fertile, humid land: cacao, coconut, coffee and tropical crops, which gave rise to a singular cuisine and material culture. But the great challenge was always the same: to overcome the isolation. Well into the 20th century, reaching Baracoa by land was still almost impossible, and the town continued to live, to a large extent, with its back to the rest of the island.
The great turning point in Baracoa's modern history came in 1965, already in the revolutionary era, with the opening of the La Farola road. This roadwork, considered one of the most impressive and difficult in Cuba, finally crossed the mountains of the far east —the Sierra del Purial— to connect Baracoa by land with Guantánamo and, through it, with the rest of the island, ending centuries of isolation.
La Farola winds along dozens of kilometers amid jungle landscapes, with dizzying curves, ascents, descents and lookouts over valleys and mountains. Its construction, on such rugged terrain, was an engineering feat, and the road became a symbol of Baracoa's integration into the country. From then on, the town could receive visitors, trade and communicate by land with much greater ease, which transformed its daily life and opened the door to tourism.
That change, however, did not erase Baracoa's special character: the town kept its unique atmosphere, its overflowing nature and its identity forged over centuries of isolation. Today, traveling La Farola is part of the experience of visiting Baracoa, and the road remains the classic way in, a spectacular journey that prepares the traveler to discover the oldest and most remote town in Cuba.
Baracoa's natural setting is one of the richest and best-preserved in the Caribbean, and that value has international recognition. Alejandro de Humboldt National Park stretches across the region, inscribed by UNESCO on the World Heritage List in 2001 for its extraordinary biodiversity and its very high degree of endemism. The park, which takes its name from the German naturalist Alexander von Humboldt (who traveled through Cuba in the early 19th century), protects a mosaic of ecosystems —rainforests, pine woods, rivers and mountains— and is considered one of the most important places for the conservation of the flora and fauna of the Antilles.
To that natural treasure are added the area's rivers, such as the Toa (the mightiest in Cuba), the Yumurí with its canyon, unspoiled beaches like Maguana and the emblematic mountain of El Yunque. Baracoa is, in essence, a paradise of tropical nature, fed by the abundant rains that make this one of the greenest and most humid regions in the country. That same exuberance sustains its agricultural economy and its famous coconut and cacao cuisine.
Today, Baracoa combines its historical pride —being the 'first-founded city', the first town and first capital of Cuba, guardian of the Cruz de la Parra— with its vocation as a destination for nature and ecotourism. It is a place that has suffered the impact of hurricanes and of its remoteness, but which keeps its charm intact: a small, warm and singular town, at the edge of Cuba, that amply rewards the long journey of anyone who decides to reach it.