🇨🇺 Cuba · Eastern Cuba
Las Tunas is one of those Cuban cities that rarely appear on the major tourist circuits, but which hold a particular charm for anyone who dares to discover them. Located at the entrance to eastern Cuba, on the Carretera Central, it's known as the 'Capital of Cuban Sculpture': its streets, squares and corners are dotted with outdoor sculptural works, which turn the city into a kind of open museum.
It's also a land of poetry. Las Tunas is the cradle and bastion of the décima and repentismo, that tradition of improvised, sung poetry of the Cuban countryside, which has its great annual celebration here in the Cucalambeana Festival. Provincial, quiet and with warm people, the city offers an experience of the most authentic and unhurried Cuba, far from the bustle, and also serves as a gateway to the little-known beaches of the province's north coast.
This guide covers the practical side of Las Tunas with a realistic, warm eye: what to see in the city of sculptures, its poetic and musical tradition, how to get there and get around, where to stay and eat, and how to use it as a stop or base for exploring eastern Cuba and its hidden beaches. A visit for curious travelers looking to get off the most beaten paths.
The Las Tunas region was inhabited by native peoples before the conquest. The city grew around a colonial settlement whose name, 'Las Tunas', is associated with the prickly pear or tuna plant (a cactus) abundant in the area; for a time it bore the name Victoria de Las Tunas, in reference to feats of arms. The city and its region had a prominent role in the 19th-century wars of independence: General Vicente García, one of the great mambí leaders of the area, led famous episodes, among them fires of the city to prevent it from falling intact into Spanish hands, in a feat that recalls that of other patriotic cities of the east. That is why the central park and much of the local memory revolve around that figure and the independence struggle. In the 20th century and especially in recent decades, Las Tunas established itself as a provincial capital and developed a strong cultural identity: that of sculpture (with a movement that filled the city with outdoor works) and that of the peasant décima, embodied in the figure of the 19th-century décima poet Juan Cristóbal Nápoles Fajardo, 'El Cucalambé', in whose honor the Cucalambeana Festival is held. The full history —the origins, the mambí feat of Vicente García and the cultural traditions— is told on our history page.
Read the full history ↓No exact prices: a scale from $ (budget) to $$$$$ (luxury), with 2-3 options per category.
Origins, formation and what the sources say.
On the night of September 26, 1876, a man set fire to his own house so it would burn along with the whole city. It was General Vicente García, who preferred to see Las Tunas reduced to ashes rather than leave it intact in the hands of the Spanish army. From that decision was born the motto the city still repeats with pride: 'Burned yes, enslaved never'. Few Cuban cities have such a dramatic origin to their identity, and to understand it one must go much further back, to the dry landscape where the settlement grew.
The Las Tunas region, at the entrance to eastern Cuba, was inhabited by native peoples before the arrival of the Spanish. The area was settled later and more sparsely than other parts of Cuba, in a territory of plains, savannas and one of the driest areas in the east, historically devoted to cattle ranching and agriculture. The name 'Las Tunas' is associated with the abundance of the plant known as tuna or nopal (a type of cactus with edible fruit), very present in this landscape. Over time, the settlement grew and established itself as a key point on the road to the east, on the route that would later be the Carretera Central.
The city long bore the name Victoria de Las Tunas. That root —between the cactus landscape and the memory of war— accompanies the identity of a place that, in time, would become famous for very different and luminous reasons: the art of sculpture and the peasant poetry of the décima.
The great historical chapter of Las Tunas was written during Cuba's wars of independence against Spain, in the second half of the 19th century. The region had a prominent role in the mambí struggle, and produced one of the great independence leaders of the east: General Vicente García González, a son of the city and a tutelary figure of its patriotic memory.
His most remembered action was the capture and burning of Las Tunas in September 1876, during the Ten Years' War (1868-1878). At dawn on September 23, with the support of the local population, the mambí troops surprised the Spanish garrison and, after about eight hours of machete combat, took the city (then Victoria de Las Tunas). Without the means to hold it against the inevitable counterattack, on the night of September 26 Vicente García ordered it reduced to ashes, starting with his own house. That phrase of his —to prefer the city burned rather than enslaved— gave rise to the Las Tunas motto 'Burned yes, enslaved never', and links the feat to that of other patriotic cities of the east like Bayamo.
For all this, the figure of Vicente García and the mambí struggle occupy a central place in the identity of Las Tunas. The city's main park bears his name, the Provincial Museum honors his figure, and much of the local monuments revolve around that history of resistance. The city was rebuilt after the wars, keeping the memory of that heroic era alive.
Alongside the patriotic memory, there is another tradition that deeply defines Las Tunas: that of the décima and repentismo, the improvised, sung poetry of the Cuban countryside. And at the center of that tradition is the figure of Juan Cristóbal Nápoles Fajardo, known as 'El Cucalambé', a 19th-century Cuban décima poet, native to the region, considered one of the great representatives of the island's popular peasant poetry.
El Cucalambé embodies the soul of Cuban rural culture: the décima (a ten-line stanza), the punto cubano (the peasant musical genre), the lute and the guitar, and the art of improvising verses. His work and his figure became a symbol of this tradition, and the region adopted him as one of its greatest cultural references.
In his honor the Cucalambeana Festival is held each year, the great celebration of the décima and Cuban peasant culture, which brings together repentistas, musicians and audiences from all over the country around the El Cucalambé complex, on the outskirts of the city. This festival, together with the living tradition of the décima at peñas and culture houses, has made Las Tunas a bastion of Cuban improvised poetry, an intangible heritage deeply rooted in the local and national identity.
In the 20th century, and especially in its last decades, Las Tunas developed the facet that today most distinguishes it for the visitor: that of the city of sculpture. A strong local sculptural movement, driven by artists of the region and by events and biennials dedicated to sculpture, gradually populated the city with outdoor works, until it earned the title of 'Capital of Cuban Sculpture'.
Monuments, sculptural ensembles and pieces of various styles and themes —patriotic, symbolic, abstract— were distributed around squares, parks, avenues and corners, turning the urban space into a kind of open-air museum. Some of these works became landmarks and symbols of the city, recognized by the tuneros and by visitors.
Thus, contemporary Las Tunas combines its different layers of identity: the dry landscape and the cactus name, the heroic memory of the mambí feat and of General Vicente García, the living tradition of the décima and the Cucalambeana Festival, and the sculptural vocation that fills its streets with art. A provincial capital, an eastern crossroads on the Carretera Central and a gateway to the quiet north coast beaches, the city offers an experience of the most authentic and cultural Cuba, far from the major tourist circuits.