Santa Clara
A University City At The Crossroads Of Cuba, Holding The Armoured Train Derailed In The Battle That Decided The Revolution And The Country'S Most Unusual Cultural Centre · Santa Clara, Villa Clara
In December 1958 Che Guevara's column tore up the rails outside Santa Clara, derailed an armoured troop train with a bulldozer, and took the city; Batista left the country days later. The train is still there, four carriages where they came off, with the bulldozer beside them. Most visitors see the mausoleum on the edge of town and drive on, which means missing the city - a university town at the exact crossroads of Cuba, with the liveliest and most argumentative youth culture on the island. Parque Vidal is one of the great provincial squares, with a bandstand and a promenade that until 1894 was walked in two separate circles by black and white residents. And in a roofless ruined building near it, El Mejunje has for decades run the country's best-known drag shows, rock nights, children's theatre and pensioners' dances in the same week, and there is nothing else quite like it anywhere else in the country.
Parque Vidal, Santa Clara, Villa Clara, Santa Clara, Villa Clara, Cuba
Parque Vidal is open at all times and is the centre of the city's evening. The Tren Blindado monument, the Museo de Artes Decorativas and Teatro La Caridad keep daytime hours with weekly closing days. EL MEJUNJE runs afternoon and evening programmes, with different events on different nights and a long-running Saturday drag show. Daily power cuts affect everything.