Morón, Cuba
Encyclopedia
Morón is one of ten municipalities in province Ciego de Ávila
Ciego de Ávila Province
Ciego de Ávila is one of the provinces of Cuba, and was previously part of Camagüey Province. Its capital is Ciego de Ávila, which lies on the Carretera Central , and the second city is Morón, further north....
in central 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 second in importance and the oldest. Morón is the closest city to the tourist resorts on Cayo Coco
Cayo Coco
Cayo Coco is an island in central Cuba, well known for its luxurious all inclusive resorts. It lies within the Ciego de Ávila Province and is part of a chain of islands called Jardines del Rey . The cay is administered by the Morón municipality. It is named for the white ibis, locally called Coco...
and Cayo Guillermo
Cayo Guillermo
Cayo Guillermo is a kay of the Jardines del Rey archipelago. It is located on the northern coast of Cuba, between the Bay of Dogs and the Atlantic Ocean..It is part of the Ciego de Ávila Province, and lies in the Morón municipality...
.
Geography
The municipality is located north of the city of Ciego de ÁvilaCiego de Ávila
Ciego de Ávila is a city in the central part of Cuba and the capital of Ciego de Ávila Province. The city has a population of about 86,100.Ciego de Ávila lies on the Carretera Central highway and on a major railroad. Its port, Júcaro, lies south-southwest on the coast of the Gulf of Ana Maria in...
, bordering the Bolivia
Bolivia, Cuba
Bolivia is a municipality and city in the Ciego de Ávila Province of Cuba. It is located in the north-eastern part of the province, bordering the Bay of Jiguey and Cayo Romano.-Demographics:...
municipality to the east, Chambas
Chambas
Chambas is a municipality and city in the Ciego de Ávila Province of Cuba. It is located in the northern part of the province, bordering the municipalities of Morón and Florencia, as well as the province of Sancti Spíritus...
to the west, the Bay of Buena Vista
Bay of Buena Vista
The Bay of Buena Vista is a bay on Cuba's northern Atlantic shore. It is located in the northern part of the provinces of Sancti Spíritus, Villa Clara and Ciego de Ávila, between mainland Cuba and the archipelago that lines its northern coast....
and the Jardines del Rey
Jardines del Rey
Jardines del Rey is an archipelago located off the northern coast of the island of Cuba, in the northern parts of the provinces of Ciego de Ávila and Camagüey. It is developed on the coral reef system that lines Cuba's shore, between the Atlantic and the Bay of Buena Vista and Bay of Jiguey...
to the north and the Ciro Redondo
Ciro Redondo, Cuba
Ciro Redondo is a municipality and city in the Ciego de Ávila Province of Cuba. It is located halfway between the cities of Ciego de Ávila and Morón.-Demographics:...
municipality to the south. The terrain is mostly plain, with small hills to the north, made up of salt domes. The north shore is covered by marshes.
Morón has the largest natural water mirror in Cuba, Laguna de Leche
Laguna de Leche
Laguna de Leche is the largest natural fresh water lake in Cuba. It is located in the wetland of northern Ciego de Ávila Province, north of Morón, and has a total surface of...
, of 67.2 km² (25.9 sq mi). Cayo Guillermo
Cayo Guillermo
Cayo Guillermo is a kay of the Jardines del Rey archipelago. It is located on the northern coast of Cuba, between the Bay of Dogs and the Atlantic Ocean..It is part of the Ciego de Ávila Province, and lies in the Morón municipality...
, one of the cay
Cay
A cay , also spelled caye or key, is a small, low-elevation, sandy island formed on the surface of coral reefs. Cays occur in tropical environments throughout the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans , where they provide habitable and agricultural land for hundreds of thousands of people...
s of Jardines del Rey
Jardines del Rey
Jardines del Rey is an archipelago located off the northern coast of the island of Cuba, in the northern parts of the provinces of Ciego de Ávila and Camagüey. It is developed on the coral reef system that lines Cuba's shore, between the Atlantic and the Bay of Buena Vista and Bay of Jiguey...
archipellago is located north of Morón, across the Bay of Dogs (Bahia Perros).
The northern highway (Carretera del Norte) passes through the city; the main road from Ciego de Avila to Cayo Coco also skirts it. It is also linked by railway, to Ciego de Avila, and on the Santa Clara
Santa Clara, Cuba
Santa Clara is the capital city of the Cuban province of Villa Clara. It is located in the most central region of the province and almost in the most central region of the country.- History :Santa Clara was founded by 175 people on July 15th, 1689...
-to-Nuevitas
Nuevitas
Nuevitas is a municipality and port city in the Camagüey Province of Cuba. The large bay was sighted by Christopher Columbus in 1492. Founded in 1775, the city was moved to its present site in 1828.-Geography:...
line.
Previously the municipality was much larger, being one of nine in the previous province of Camaguey. In 1943, it was 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 Coronel Hernández, Chambas, Cupeyes, Este, Guadalupe, Mabuya, Marroquí, Oeste, Punta Alegre, Ranchuelo, Santa Gertrudis, Simón Reyes o Sandoval and Tamarindo.
History
The first residents of Morón were Creoles from Sancti Spiritus, although among them were also said to be a group of Spanish sailors who, having navigated all around Cuba, had disembarked nearby and had decided to settle here. They were from Andalusia, in Old Castile, Extremadura, Galicia and the Canary Islands, among other places.In the first half of the 20th century, the archipelago and the nearby keys had attained little development. The town of Morón, which started as a community in 1750, survived on a basis of a limited, non-mechanized agricultural, and mostly sugar, production. The settlement pattern that prevailed in the coastal areas and keys was that of squatters, people living in very poor, tach-roof, earth floor dwellings, usually not more than five houses together.
Making charcoal
Charcoal
Charcoal is the dark grey residue consisting of carbon, and any remaining ash, obtained by removing water and other volatile constituents from animal and vegetation substances. Charcoal is usually produced by slow pyrolysis, the heating of wood or other substances in the absence of oxygen...
and fishing, in many cases both activities at the same time, were apparently the main economic activities on the keys and their surroundings. Fishing was mostly done by using dinghies moved by sticks, oars, or small sails, which did not allow them to venture out of the key shelf. This means were the ones used also to reach the mainland and to transport products out. In the settlements, livestock was mostly limited to a few animals. Still standing at some places are remains of the stone fences that were used to confine the animal.
Living conditions here were in general very difficult, due mostly to the remoteness of the area and the lack of proper means of transportation. Transportation consisted usually of a small sailboat that traveled back and forth once a month, and whose journey took many hours, Reaching the mainland from Cayo Coco, for example, took around 10 hours, in addition to the risks that had to be run at sea.
During Cuba's 1st War of Independence in 1869, the town of Morón became the northern end of the line of forts, the Trocha from Júcaro to Morón
Trocha from Júcaro to Morón
The Trocha from Júcaro to Morón was a fortified military line built between 1869 and 1872 in Cuba by slave work force and Chinese immigrants to impede the pass of insurrectionist forces to the western part of the island during the 1st War of Independence and was 68 km long between Jucaro and...
built by the Spanish to contain Cuban rebels on the eastern end of the island. The Trocha also included a railroad line to move troops and supplies, the first government railroad line in Cuba.
The town of Morón began to grow in 1915 when the Trocha rail line was bought by Colonel Jose M. Tarafa as he began to assemble the Ferrocarriles del Norte railway line. Morón was chosen as the line's headquarters. The railway's maintenance shops and a large central station became the central feature of the town. Morón became the junction of a network of several branchlines and sugar lines which stimulated the expansions of sugar plantation
Sugar plantations in the Caribbean
The sugar cane plant was the main crop produced on the numerous plantations throughout the Caribbean through the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, as almost every island was covered with sugar plantations and mills for refining the cane for its sweet properties. The main source of labor was African...
s and centralized sugar mills which previously were located mainly in the south and central part of Cuba.
In the 1960s a road was built through the marshland to the coast, and in the 1990s this was extended on a man-made causeway to Cayo Coco and Cayo Guillermo, where a number of hotels were built. Many of the hotel workers live in Morón and commute to work in specially provided buses.