Moa, one of the youngest cities in Cuba, was founded in 1939. As of 2024 it has a population of 92,852.[1][2]
The Moa Municipality and an industrial city located at the eastern end of the Holguín province, in Cuba. It is essentially mountainous with a narrow semillana strip on the Atlantic coast, its northern limit, where the main population conglomerates settle. Its geography extends throughout the Sagua-Baracoa mountain range that is part of the Alejandro de Humboldt National Park, rich in fauna and flora with numerous native species.
It is the Cuban capital of mining and nickel industry, being the most stable and important economic prop in the country. The word Moa has numerous meanings, however it is known that the Cuban aborigines already called it that. It is believed that in the Arahuaca language (South American and Caribbean natives) it means "Place of the waters". Its two factories of nickel they are the main economic wealth with an important contribution to GDP of Cuba being one of the first producers in the world. Its factories: Ernesto Che Guevara and Pedro Sotto Alba they lead metallurgical production. There is also logging, considered one of the oldest in the territory. Its mineral wealth (ceolite, rare earths, iron), the high endemism of the area and its human capital constitute its main economic reserves.
Made up of humid forests, pine forests and carrascals, the vegetation of Moa, locates its most exuberant area towards the mountainous strip. Among the species of the humid forests stand out: ocuje, copey, yellow júcaro, yagruma, maracana palm and pujúa. Likewise, 85 percent of the land, some 60,000 hectares, is occupied by mostly natural forests, where pine and carrascal grow. It is mostly mountainous since Moa is located in the middle of the Nipe-Sagua-Baracoa Mountain System. Some heights above 1000 meters stand out, the largest of which is the El Toldo peak, in the Moa blades, with 1170 meters above sea level, a space of interesting varieties of ferns.
Unlike most municipalities in the country with a Catholic tradition or a practitioner of Afro-Cuban rites, Moa is characterized by a strong presence of churches with an evangelical tradition, mostly Baptists and Pentecostal.[3]