Isla de la Juventud (English: Isle of Youth) is the second-largest Cuban island and the seventh-largest island in the West Indies. The island was called the Isle of Pines (Isla de Pinos) until 1978. It has an area 2,200 km2 (850 sq mi) and is 50 km (31 mi) south of the island of Cuba, across the Gulf of Batabanó. The island lies almost directly south of Havana and Pinar del Río and is a Special Municipality (2,419 km2 (934 sq mi)), not part of any province and is therefore administered directly by the central government of Cuba. The island has only one municipality, also named Isla de la Juventud. The largest of the 350 islands in the Canarreos Archipelago (Archipiélago de los Canarreos), the island has an estimated population of 100,000. The capital and largest city is Nueva Gerona in the north, and the second-largest and oldest city is Santa Fe in the interior.
The island first became known to Europeans in 1494 during Christopher Columbus‘s second voyage to the New World. Columbus named the island La Evangelista and claimed it for Spain. The island was also known as Isla de Cotorras (Isle of Parrots) and Isla de Tesoros (Treasure Island) at various points in its history. Pirate activity in and around the area left its trace in English literature. Both Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson and Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie draw on accounts of the island and its native and pirate inhabitants, as well as the long dugout canoes that both pirates and the indigenous peoples used and the American crocodile.
In 1926, Cuba erected a model penitentiary of panopticon design on the outskirts of Nueva Gerona, Presidio Modelo, 1926 and 1928. Cuban leader Fidel Castro, after leading the failed attack on the Moncada Barracks July 1953, was imprisoned in it from 1953 to 1955 by the regime of Fulgencio Batista, as was his brother Raul. Following the Cuban Revolution, the same facility was used to imprison the new regime’s enemies and political dissidents. They included Huber Matos, an officer in the revolutionary army who attempted to resign and who said he was tortured there, and Armando Valladares, who wrote a memoir describing the prison’s harsh conditions and cruel treatment of prisoners of conscience and political prisoners. Presidio Modelo ceased functioning as a prison in 1967. It has been declared a national monument and its hospital rooms converted into a museum. It functions are now carried out in more modern facilities.
Much of the island is covered in pine forests, which is the source of the island’s large lumber industry. The northern region of the island has low ridges from which marble is quarried, while the southern region is an elevated plain. Agriculture and fishing are the island’s main industries, with citrus fruit and vegetables being grown. A black sand beach was formed by volcanic activity. The island has a mild climate, but is known for frequent hurricanes. It is a popular tourist destination, with many beaches and resorts, including Bibijagua Beach. Until the Cuban government expropriated all foreign-owned property in the early 1960s, much land was owned by Americans, and the island contained a branch of the Hilton Hotels chain. The main transportation to the island is by boat or aircraft. Hydrofoils (kometas) and motorized catamarans will make the trip in between two and three hours. A much slower and larger cargo ferry takes around six hours to make the crossing, but is cheaper.
