A small town amid vast fields of sugarcane, Yara is barely mentioned in most travel literature, but several important chapters of Cuban history took place here, marked by monuments and a modest local museum.
Early Spanish colonizers earmarked it as one of their pueblos indios (indigenous towns) and a statue of rebel cacique (chief) Hatuey in the main square supports claims that the Spanish burned the dissenting TaÃno chief here rather than in Baracoa.
The next chapter of Yara's history began on October 11, 1868, when it became the first town to be wrested from Spanish control by rebel forces led by Carlos Manuel de Céspedes. A second monument in the main square recalls this important event and the famous Grito de Yara (Yara Declaration) that followed, in which Céspedes proclaimed Cuba's independence for the first time. Just off the square, the Museo Municipal chronicles Yara's historical legacy along with the town's role as a key supply center during the revolutionary war in the 1950s.
Buses traveling between Manzanillo and Bayamo can stop here.