Central Patria o Muerte


Cuba's sugar industry is preserved at this huge, rusting ex-sugar mill founded in 1914 in the village of Patria, 3km south of Morón. Guides explain the sugar-milling process from slave times to the factory's decommissioning in 2001. For an extra CUC$4, a 1920 Philadelphia-made Baldwin steam train can take you on a 5km ride through cane fields to Rancho Palma, a bucolic farm with a bar-restaurant where you can sample guarapo (pressed cane juice).

The mill and its 263-strong workforce were passed over to the Americans in 1919, and it remained in Yanqui hands until nationalization in 1960.


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