Biran

Set amid the gentle hills of Holguín Province in eastern Cuba, Biran is a small rural community whose isolation and lack of development belies its crucial place in the history of Cuba.

Birán is best known as the birthplace of Fidel Castro Ruz and his brother Raúl Castro, both of whom would go on to shape the destiny of modern Cuba. Their father, Ángel Castro Argiz, was a Spanish immigrant who arrived on the island at the turn of the 20th century and built a prosperous agricultural estate in Birán.

By the 1920s, the Castro family farm, known as “Finca Manacas,” had become a thriving enterprise, producing sugarcane, cattle, and timber. It was here, in this remote corner of Cuba, that the future leaders of the Cuban Revolution grew up surrounded by hard-working rural families, witnessing both the beauty and the inequalities of the countryside that would later influence their political ideals.

Today, the Castro family estate has been carefully preserved as a museum and national monument. Visitors can walk through the original wooden buildings, including the main house where the Castro children were born, a small schoolhouse, and various barns and workshops. The museum displays personal items, photographs, and artifacts that tell the story of the family’s life and the social conditions of rural Cuba during the early 1900s.

As already intimated, Biran is not the easiest place to reach. Located some 30kms southwest of Mayarí and roughly 100 kms from the provincial capital, Holguín City, Biran is not somewhere one can pop over to visit. Due to its isolation, and the lack of suitable nearby accommodation, the vast majority of visitors to Biran pass through as part of a tour, enroute between Santiago de Cuba & Holguin.

Examples of itineraries that take in the east of Cuba and which can or do include Biran include both our Eastern Cuba Highlights and Cuba Revolution Tour.