Cruces is a municipality and town in Cienfuegos Province

Cienfuegos Province

Cienfuegos is one of the provinces of Cuba. The capital city of the province is also called Cienfuegos and was founded by French settlers in 1819....

, Cuba

Cuba

The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...

. It is the home of the Mal Tiempo National Park which commemorates a battle in the 1895 War of Independence

Cuban War of Independence

Cuban War of Independence was the last of three liberation wars that Cuba fought against Spain, the other two being the Ten Years' War and the Little War...

.

The town was founded in 1852 in a place known as Sabana de Ibarra. The railway reaches the town in 1855.

The municipality is divided into the barrio

Barrio

Barrio is a Spanish word meaning district or neighborhood.-Usage:In its formal usage in English, barrios are generally considered cohesive places, sharing, for example, a church and traditions such as feast days...

s of Estrada Palma, Mal Tiempo, Marta and Monte Cristo. There were 5 sugar mills in the vicinity of Cruces, by its traditional names: San Francisco, Andreita, Santa Catalina, Caracas and Hormiguero.

Demographics

In 2004, the municipality of Cruces had a population of 32,139. With a total area of 198 km² (76.4 sq mi), it has a population density of 162.3 /km2.

Education

Education was provided by two Catholic Schools and several public schools for the Grammar Levels. One High School was home to roughly 800 students. Higher education was conducted in Cienfuegos or Santa Clara, distant 11 and 28 miles (45.1 km) respectively.
Cruces is the home town of the Baseball Hall of Famer Martin Dihigo.