Guanabacoa was briefly the capital of Cuba in 1555 after Havana was attacked by French pirate Jacques de Sores.

In the late 1920s Samuel Epstein, owner of Aetna Knitted Fabrics from New York’s Lower East Side, established Sedanita in rented facilities in Guanabacoa.

Sedanita moved to San José de las Lajas after it was sold to the Brandon family in the late 1930s.

[8] Four personalities of Cuban music were born in this town: Ernesto Lecuona, Rita Montaner, Ignacio Villa (Bola de Nieve), and the composer, writer and actress Dinorah Rivas, some of her compositions were played by famous musicians and singers such as Tito Puente and Milly Puente.

Four Major League Baseball players were also born here: Emilio Palmero (1895), Tony Ordeñana (1918), Rene Valdez (1929), and Evelio Hernández (1931), as well as the television news reporter Rick Sanchez.

The township was also the childhood home of Cuban singer, Lucrecia Saez Perez, hailed by many as a successor to the great Celia Cruz, and “The Myth,” bodybuilder Sergio Oliva.