For the Cuban son band,see
Sierra Maestra (music).
Sierra Maestra is a mountain range that runs westward across the south of the old Oriente Province from what is now Guantánamo Province to Niquero 
in southeast Cuba, rising abruptly from the coast. Some view it as a series of connecting ranges (Vela, Santa Catalina, Quemado Grande, Daña Mariana) , which joins with others extending to the west. The Sierra Maestra is the highest system of Cuba. It is rich in minerals, especially copper, manganese, chromium, and iron. At 6,650 ft (1,999 m), Pico Turquino is the range's highest point.
Orography
Cuba rides on a separate tectonic plate, which originally was in the
Pacific Ocean but (after crossing between the then separated Americas) crashed into
Florida. This along with several other violent events (including volcanic activity, the crash of the comet
Chicxulub, and earthquakes - the Sierra Maestra is immediately north of the Bartlett Deep, or
Cayman Trench on the main
Caribbean Plate) fractured huge slabs of rocks.
Enormous tsunamis presumably from the volcanoes on the
Canary Islands carved great steps on the coast. All this caused emergence of these mountains in a complex process that included lifting up of now cave-ridden calcareous deposits, and the development of the Bartlett Deep or
Cayman Trough. Originally heavily forested and divided by deep river valleys, volcanic dykes, and impassable
karst areas, its steep valleys and abrupt fault lines make it an ideal terrain for rebellion.
History
The Sierra Maestra has a long history of guerrilla warfare. Starting with the resistance of the Tainos under Guamá, the Cimarrón Neo-Taíno nations escaped slave cultures, and the Ten Years' War and the Cuban War of Independence. And various minor conflicts such as the Race War of 1912, and Antonio Guiteras's uprisings against Gerardo Machado and Fulgencio Batista. After Fidel Castro returned to Cuba from exile in Mexico, he and the few other survivors from the failed attack on Moncada Barracks hid out in Sierra Maestra. They were able to expand the 26th of July Movement, starting a revolution throughout the region. They built up guerrilla columns, and in collaboration with other groups in the central provinces, Escopeteros on the foot hills and plains, and the urban resistance, eventually overthrew Fulgencio Batista.
See also
Sources Consulted
- Achenbach, Joel and Peter Essic (photographer) 2006 The next big one and special supplement (map): Earthquake risk Zones. Nation Geographic 209(4, April), 120-147 and map.
