Santa Clara: Home to a New Kind of (Cultural) Revolution
Hotel Santa Clara Libre
Santa Clara is an EEAbroad favorite destination during any trip to Cuba for countless reasons. It is a truly beautiful and unique city with a youthful feel thanks to the prestigious and second most important university in the country, Universidad Central de Las Villas. You can also find a mix of entertainment around every corner of the city, from concerts and drag shows to goat-drawn carriages and dancing the night away with friends. Santa Clara doesn’t go out of its way to impress its visitors, yet there is a fierce and vibrant social fabric here that is worth noting. As the Cuban saying goes, “hay tela por donde cortar” or, “there is a lot of potential here.”
Street in Santa Clara
Casa & Parque Abbey Road
Like almost all accommodation on the island, the hosts of Santa Clara hostels and guest houses are extremely welcoming, treating their guests like family and serving them delicious Cuban cuisine everyday! A stone’s throw away from a popular accommodation area is Parque Abbey Road, dedicated to The Beatles. Not only are The Beatles very popular among Cubans, but Santa Clara is also home to the country’s best rock festival, Ciudad Metal, adding to the growing list of reasons why music lovers continue to flock there.
Parque Vidal
A favorite place to hang out for locals and visitors alike is Parque Vidal, the city’s main park-square that has a vital WiFi hotspot and is practically always filled with people. Declared a national monument in 1999, the park boasts Santa Clara’s best eclectic neoclassical and colonial-style buildings. Instead of a horse-drawn carriage, there is a goat-drawn cart for young children that makes its rounds throughout the square, putting a smile on everyone’s face as it trots past. Some notable buildings that can be seen from Parque Vidal are the Hotel Santa Clara Libre and Teatro La Caridad. Hotel Santa Clara Libre is the tallest building in town and still displays bullet holes from the decisive battle for Santa Clara led by Che Guevara in 1958.
Teatro La Caridad
Teatro La Caridad was built in 1885 and is one of the eight Grand Theaters of the Cuban Colonial era and is still in use to host a wide variety of events. The theater was financed entirely by Marta Abreu de Estevez, Cuba’s most renowned philanthropist. Santa Clara used to be nicknamed the Ciudad de Marta thanks to her various contributions throughout the city. These contributions to the city’s development and the lower classes was no small feat; the library and train station, four schools, a weather station, a home for the elderly, a campaign against homelessness, city street lighting, public laundry stations, and enormous fundraising for Cuba’s independence are all attributed to Marta Abreu.
Teatro La Caridad
El Mejunje
An EEAbroad favorite in Santa Clara, and possibly in all of Cuba, is the well-known El Mejunje. It’s not only an LGBTQ+ cultural center, but also a theater, art gallery, bar, and café! Depending on which night of the week you go, you can find dance parties, music performances, stand-up comedy, children’s theater, drag shows, and more. It’s always the perfect place to end the night in Santa Clara!
