This character emerged as a need back in the 19th century, a request made by cigar rollers to get some amusement during the course of their shifts.

 Nestled in the El Vedado neighborhood, in the Cuba capital, the Colon is the world’s third largest cemetery, trailing only behind Staglieno in Genoa, Italy, and Montjuic in Barcelona, Spain.

According to Tatiana Viera Hernandez, vice president of the Provincial Assembly of the People’s Power in Havana, “the campaign is designed in three moments.”

Being a conservation-minded place, arguments rage in Cuba about the balance between conserving the past and allowing the island nation to modernize.

The Palace of the Captains General in Old Havana hosted Thursday a press conference in which local authorities officially launched the campaign to celebrate half a millennium of the capital city.

Havana is now officially the Cocktail Capital of Hispanic America. The certificate that bestows this status on the Cuban capital was handed by Rafael Anson, President of the Iberian-American Gastronomy Academy, to Manuel Marrero Cruz, Cuba’s Minister of Tourism.