Port City and agricultural center in Oriente Province until 1972 and since then its status elevated to Province of Cuba. Situated about 40 miles east of Santiago de Cuba and about 60 miles from the eastern end of the island Point Maisí.

It is located about 10 miles north of Guantánamo bay, one of the largest and best-sheltered bays in the world, having a narrow entrance into a harbour about 4 miles wide and 12 miles long, capable of accommodating the largest vessels. The bay is served by the ports of the townships of Caimanera and Boquerón which are linked be rail to Guantánano.

The Province of Guantánamo now includes Baracoa the first European settlement in Cuba in continuous occupation since 1511 when it was established by the conquistadores under the Adelantado and Captain General Don Diego Velázquez and his captains Don Pánfilo de Narváez, Don Juan Ponce de León, Don Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón , Don Diego de Almagro, Don Julian, Marques del Valle de la Mena, Don Martin de los Reyes de Austria and Don Hernán Cortés.

Both Guantánamo and Baracoa were explored by the Admiral of the Ocean Sea, Don Cristobal Colón in late October and November of 1492, the mooring of the 3 caravels and the cross planted by Colón are to this date preserved and honored at Baracoa as part of Cuba's national patrimony.

The strategic importance of the bay close to the Windward passage, which is between Cuba and Haiti and links the Atlantic Ocean to the Sea of the Antilles or Caribbean Sea and Panama was, recognized by the United States during the Spanish-Cuban-American War, when the US Marines landed at the bay. A large US naval base, which now includes fortifications and airfields, was established by treaty in 1903, first in perpetuity then renegotiated into a lease in 1936 by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to 99 years paying $5,000 gold dollars per year.

The Communist government of Fidel Castro periodically threatened to seize the base for Cuba in the early 1960's, inclusive cutting-off the water supply to this date. Thus, forcing the US Marines to heavily mine the frontier with Cuba with anti-tank and anti personnel mines during the October Missile Crisis of 1962 still in place.

The city is the centre of an agricultural and apicultural region in which in which sugar cane, cacao and coffee are the main products. The chief industrial activities are coffee roasting, honey & wax, sugar milling by 7 sugar mills, San Antonio de Redor, Los Caños, La Esperanza, Romelié, Santa Cecilia, La Isabel and El Balthony; and the manufacturing of chocolate, liquors and salt. Air traffic is active, owing to the difficulty of land communications in the mountainous eastern region of Cuba crisscrossed by the famous Sierra Maestra and the Sierra del Cristal.

Guantánamo bay was named Cumberland bay in 1741 when an English force landed and attacked Santiago de Cuba. A strong force of Scott-Irish privateers settle Cumberland bay. At the time the Guantánamo area was inhabited by a few remaining Siboney and Taino indians and were lead by the cacique Wah-yoh.

Guantánamo means land of the four rivers in the Siboney language, a reference to the four rivers, Bano, Tanamo, Guantanamo and Jaibo, that square off the fertile valley and surrounding the city of Guantánamo, known as the "City of Gardens".

The town was first settled by the Spanish in 1767 by 250 Catalan families from the Ampurdan area and the Balearic islands of Catalunya, they were granted royal lands in order to populated this desolate area of Cuba that was in danger from a settlement of Scott-Irish engage in piracy and contraband.

The enterprising Catalan settlers, so oppressed by the Castilian for so long, quickly made friends with the Scott-Irish and merged their settlements, thereafter engaging in the successful and profitable smuggling of goods and materials with the English, Castilian, French and Dutch bringing great prosperity to this isolated region.

In 1805 more than 35,000 French colonists, refugees from Haiti and Acadia in Canada, aided in the colonization of the area and many cultural characteristics, such and architecture, language and music stem from their influence as well as the Catalan and Scot-Irish settlers.

The improvisational song Guantanamera is particularly well known, the verses were spontaneously made up to either express love for the girls of Guantánamo, famous for their Celtic-Iberian beauty and green and black eyes also remembered in the world famous Cuban song Green Eyes.

Over 110,000 Guantanamero emigres settled in the United States in the 1960's, some in New York City and some in Elizabeth, New Jersey, most settled in Miami, Florida and New Orleans, Louisiana. There are a preponderance of French, Catalan and Scot-Irish surnames among the Guantanameros.