Santiago de las Vegas is a ward of Boyeros, a municipality of Havana, Cuba, located 20 km (12 mi) south of the city center.

The first settlement dates from 1683 when tobacco farmers settled on the lands of the ranches in Sócalo Hondo, Managua, Bejucal and La Chorrera, then under the jurisdiction of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Santiago de Compostela.

In 1824, the town was declared a city, allowing their people to raise a statue dedicated to the Spanish King Ferdinand VII, placed at the Recreo Square.

It was also the birthplace of the notorious scientist Juan Tomás Roig Mesa, renowned botanist well known by his work on medicinal and poisonous plants.

[3][4] On the days before, tens of thousands of devouts, revelers, tourists and curious gather in pilgrimage to the shrine of El Rincón, some of them dressed in sackcloth or purple clothing and carrying bizarre penances[5] to pay gratitude to the miraculous San Lázaro, identified with the yoruba deity of Babalu Aye.