The city was founded in 1825, uniting ranches (haciendas) that stood in this area, and was the place where the body of José Martí (the leader of the Cuban independence movement, killed in 1895, in the Battle of Dos Ríos) was brought before it was laid in its final resting place in Santiago de Cuba.

The municipality is divided into the localities of Aguacate, Arroyo Blanco, Candonga, Dos Palmas, Dos Ríos, El Maniel, Hatillo, Hicotea, La Candelaria, La Curia, Oriente, Ramón de Guaninao, Soledad, Yarayabo and other minor localities.

[3] Until the 1976 national municipal reform, it included the localities of Alto Cedro, Caney del Sitio, Guaninao, José Martí, Juan Barón, La Concepción, Las Cuchillas, Los Dorados, Norte, Palmarito de Cauto, San Leandro, San Ramón, Santa Filomena and Sur.

It is served by two exits (one in the nearby hamlet of Dos Ríos) of the A1 motorway, on the Palma-Santiago de Cuba section.

Palma Soriano railway station is part of the San Luis-Bayamo line, and is served by trains to/from Santiago de Cuba, Guantánamo and Manzanillo.