Oriente Province

Oriente Province Provincia de Oriente
Metropolitan region
Province of Oriente
Coat of arms
Seat	Santiago de Cuba
Population  (2015)
• Metropolitan region	3,965,783
• Urban	2,616,226
• Rural	1,349,557
Demonym	orientales

Oriente ([oˈɾjente], "East") was the easternmost province of Cuba until 1976. The term "Oriente" is still used to refer to the eastern part of the country, which currently is divided into five different provinces.

The origins of Oriente lie in the 1607 division of Cuba into a western and eastern administration.^[1] The eastern part was governed from Santiago de Cuba and it was subordinate to the national government in Havana. In 1807, Cuba was divided into three departamentos: Occidental, Central and Oriental. This arrangement lasted until 1851, when the central department was merged back into the West. In 1878, Cuba was divided into six provinces. Oriente remained intact but was officially renamed to Santiago de Cuba Province until the name was reverted to Oriente in 1905. Fidel and Raúl Castro were born in a small town in Oriente province (Birán). The province was split in 1976 into five different provinces: Las Tunas Province, Granma Province, Holguín Province, Santiago de Cuba Province, and Guantánamo Province. This administrative change was proclaimed by Cuban Law Number 1304 of July 3, 1976,^[2] and remains in place to this day.