Pinar del Río was one of the last major cities in Cuba founded by the Spanish, on 10 September 1867.[3] The city and province was founded asNuevaFilipinas (NewPhilippines) in response to an influx ofAsian laborers coming from the Philippine Islands to work on tobacco plantations.[4]
Pinar del Río's history begins with two tribes, the Guanahatabey, a group of nomadic people who lived in caves and procured most of their livelihood from the sea. Less advanced than the other indigenous natives who lived on the island, the Guanahatabey were a peaceful and passive race whose culture came about largely independently of the Taíno. Another culture that inhabited this area was theCiboney People, a subgroup of the Taino people who inhabited mostly all of the land of Cuba.The Guanahatabey were extinct by the time of the Spanish arrival in 1492; little firsthand documentation remains of how the archaic Guanahatabey society was structured and organized, although some archeological sites have been found on the Guanahacabibes Peninsula.
Post-Columbus, the conquistadors left rugged Pinar del Río largely to its own devices, and the area developed lackadaisically only after Canary Islanders started arriving in the late 1500s. These Canarians became the tobacco farmers of the region. It was originally called Nueva Filipina (New Philippines), but the region was renamed Pinar del Río in 1778, supposedly for the pine forests crowded along the Río Guama. Tobacco plantations and cattle ranches quickly sprang up in the rich soil, along with open grazing land that typifies Pinar. Farmers who made a living from the delicate and well-tended crops were colloquially christenedGuajiros, a native word that literally means 'one of us'. By the mid-1800s Europeans were hooked on the fragrant weed, and the region flourished. Sea routes opened up and in 1893 the railways[3] was extended to facilitate the shipping of the perishable product. Pinar del Río is known as "the Mecca of tobacco".
In 2004, the municipality of Pinar del Río had a population of 190,532.[7] With a total area of 708 km2 (273 sq mi),[1] it has a population density of 269.1/km2 (697/sq mi). In December 2022 the municipality reached a population of 191,081.[2][8]
The local baseball club isPinar del Río, nicknamedVegueros, and the association football one isFC Pinar del Río. Both the clubs have their home ground in theCapitán San Luis Stadium. TheVegueros are the Serie del Caribe 2015 champions. Also Major League Baseball and Hall of Famer for the Minnesota TwinsTony Oliva is from Pinar del Rio.
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