Pico Turquino (), sometimes erroneously spelled as Pico Torquino,
Etymology
The name is believed to be a corruption of the phrase for "turquoise peak" (), so-named for its apparent blue hues seen by the heights in certain views.
History
The peak was first mentioned (under the name "Tarquino") on a map drawn by Geert de Kremer in the late 16th century. The first documented ascent of the peak was in 1860 by Fred W. Ramsden, a twenty-year-old Englishman then living in Santiago de Cuba. The climb was not widely publicized at the time. In 1915 the Swedish botanist Erik Leonard Ekman climbed the mountain and speculated that he was probably the first person to have done so. The following year, in response, Ramsden's son published a letter his father had written to his own mother describing the original ascent.
[ Full text of "THE ASCENT OF THE TURQUINO, THE HIGHEST MOUNTAIN IN CUBA"]
A bust of José Martí sculpted by Jilma Madera was placed on the peak in 1953 to celebrate his centenary.
Fidel Castro and his soldiers summitted the peak in 1957 during their insurgency. According to Che Guevara, Castro's second-in-command, the mountain had an "almost mystical significance" to the revolutionaries, chiefly due to it being the highest point in Cuba.[Ernesto Che Guevara. "Reminiscences of the Cuban Revolutionary War".]
Conservation
Turquino National Park is established on a area around the peak.
See also
External links
