San Antonio de los Baños
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
San Antonio de los Baños is a town in Cuba's Havana Province. It is located 26 km from the city of Havana, near the Ariguanabo River.[1] The municipality is 126 square kilometres in size, and has 42,600 residents.[2]
Water is supplied to the town via a 100-year old aqueduct. In 2003, the town had no running water for two days while the aqueduct was being repaired.[3] There are 39 schools in the town, employing over 600 teachers. These schools include an academy of plastic arts, a school for training art teachers, and the International School of Film and Television which was established in 1986. The town's library was founded in 1975, and has a collection of more than 32,000 books.[2]
There is an Air Force Base (AFB) of the same name near the town. It was built during World War II by the Americans,[4] who called it "The Cayuga" and used it as a base for the B-24 Liberator planes patrolling the Caribbean. After the war, it was handed over to the Cuban government and used by the Cuban Air Force. In a 1962 briefing paper on the Cuban Missile Crisis prepared by officials at the United States Department of Defense, the base was identified as "the headquarters for the Cuban revolutionary Air Force and the assembly point for all MIGs, except the MIG-21, which [had] previously been received in Cuba."[5]
[edit] Trivia
- San Antonio de los Baños has produced one Major League Baseball player...New York Giants pitcher Adrián Zabala. (b. August 26, 1916)
[edit] References
- ^ Places to visit in Havana. Retrieved on June 19, 2006.
- ^ a b Maricela Corvo de Armas; Jane Carpenter (Spring-Fall 2003). "World Libraries: Reading Initiatives: A Major Effort by the Libraries of the San Antonio de los Baños Community, Havana Province". World Libraries 13. ISSN 1092-7441. Retrieved on 2006-06-19.
- ^ "Water service interrupted in San Antonio de Los Baños", CubaNet News, 26 March 2003. Retrieved on June 19, 2006.
- ^ Cuban Air Force. Scramble. Retrieved on June 19, 2006.
- ^ The Avalon Project: The Cuban Missile Crisis. Retrieved on June 19, 2006.
[edit] External links
- Information about San Antonio de Los Baños
- Google Earth images of San Antonio de Los Baños AFB: [1], [2], [3]
- Map showing AFBs in Cuba
![[1]](http://therealcuba.com/San%20Antonio%20de%20los%20Banos.JPG){kind=link}
![[2]](http://therealcuba.com/San%20Antonio%20de%20los%20Banos2.JPG){kind=link}
![[3]](http://therealcuba.com/San%20Antonio%20de%20los%20Banos%20Museum.JPG){kind=link}