History of Santiago de Cuba
Spanish conquistador Diego Velazquez de Cuellar established the city in the mid of 1514. Santiago de Cuba, the capital of the Spanish colony of Cuba, was used to launch several expeditions to Mexico and Florida soon after. The French and the British plundered the city riches, and an earthquake in mid 1766 almost flattened the city but the city lived on to welcome a large influx of immigrants from the slave revolt ravaged Haiti. The city had been the center point of the Spanish defeat at San Juan Hill in the Spanish-American war.
The Cuban Revolution began in 1953 with an attack by the rebels of Fidel Castro and the local hero Frank Pais organized an urban revolutionary alliance in the city of Santiago de Cuba. The guerrilla factions of Pais forged alliance with Castro brought victory to the revolution. The people of the city are proud of their heritage and the part the city played in the making of modern Cuba.