Camilo Cienfuegos (Santa Cruz del Norte) explained

Official Name:Camilo Cienfuegos
Other Name:Hershey
Settlement Type:Village
Pushpin Map:Cuba
Pushpin Label Position:none
Pushpin Map Caption:Location of Hershey in Cuba
Pushpin Mapsize:280px
Subdivision Type:Country
Subdivision Name: Cuba
Subdivision Type1:Province
Subdivision Name1:Mayabeque
Subdivision Type2:Municipality
Subdivision Name2:Santa Cruz del Norte
Established Title:Founded
Established Date:1916
Established Title2:Established
Timezone:EST
Utc Offset:-5
Coordinates:23.1292°N -81.9419°W
Elevation M:113

Hershey (officially known as Camilo Cienfuegos)[1] is a Cuban village and consejo popular ("popular council", i.e. hamlet) of the municipality of Santa Cruz del Norte, in Mayabeque Province.

History

Milton Hershey, the famous American chocolatier and businessman, visited Cuba in 1916.[2] Hershey decided to buy sugar plantations and mills in Cuba to supply the growing Pennsylvania-based Hershey Company. He built an adjoining town for the workers and their families to live, which he named Hershey.

The village grew to 160 homes and had high standards of living, a public school, medical clinic, stores, a movie theater, and a golf course. There is also a baseball stadium where a team sponsored by the Hershey Company played home games. The factory was one of the most productive sugar refineries in Cuba and Latin America. The Hershey Company sold their holdings in Cuba in 1948.

Hershey was renamed after the Cuban Revolution in honor of Camilo Cienfuegos.[3] The sugar refinery was nationalized, wages were lowered, and the golf course was demolished. The mill was closed in 2002 under the pretense that the factory had become inefficient.

Residents still refer to the town as Hershey (pronounced as her-see) and Hershey signs still hang at the town's train station.

Geography

Hershey, located between the cities of Havana and Matanzas, is 3 km from Santa Cruz del Norte and the Atlantic coast. Other nearby villages are La Sierra, Jibacoa, San Antonio del Río Blanco, and Loma de Travieso.

The village has a station on the main line of the Hershey Electric Railway, with a branch to Jaruco, and is 5 km from the "Vía Blanca" highway that connects Havana to Varadero.

See also

Notes and References

  1. Mapa de Carreteras de Cuba (Road map of Cuba). Ediciones GEO, Havana 2011 -
  2. News: Semple. Kirk. In Cuban Town That Hershey Built, Memories Both Bitter and Sweet. 16 October 2022. The New York Times. 7 December 2022.
  3. News: Miroff. Nick. The Cuban town Mr. Hershey built. 27 May 2015. The Washington Post. 5 May 2015.