Las Tunas' history is intertwined with a cactus. It is said that Don Julián Gamboa had a large cattle ranch here and liked to plant opuntia and it was his custom to give it away in small pots to visitors who came to these lands.

Many came; people from all over who used to say: “I'm going there, to the las Tunas the farm (prickly pear), to buy cattle.” The name became established while the plants became prevalent in these places.

History also says that the black slaves gave the matter a religious connotation; then stories were born associated with having them on top of the houses helped to collect negative energies and gave luck; and they became a tradition, a seal, a root.

These are the most deforested lands in Cuba since the colony itself. That is because the wide plains were dedicated to cattle breeding and they even claim that many of the horses that the Spanish used for the conquest of America came from here, through the area of Jobabo, and that they were raised in the immense pastures of these places.

Centuries have passed since those days and here we are every September, remembering the original history that gave way to what we are, celebrating on September 30 the praise of the local patron saint and reaffirming that it is 228 years old, because the oldest document found to date continues to be the chapter act that refers to the permission for the settlers to build their barns around the Church, "as has been practiced since 1796."

That is how we are; noble, imperfect, hard-working, like this small city that inhabits us and we inhabit. It is a pleasure to entertain her, to whom we owe so much, because, beyond the thorns surrounding. It is like the cactus that gives it its name, always ready to bloom.