The history of the town dates back thousands of years before the arrival of the Spanish colonizers. Its first inhabitants were aboriginal groups that settled in the southern part, near the Hanábana river, who practiced hunting, fishing, and gathering as subsistence, of which archaeological evidence was found in the place known as La Loma del Indio, close to the Villenas batey in Amarillas.

Evolution of the territory during the Spanish colony.

Colonial history begins here in the second half of the 16th century, with the occupation of these lands by individuals dedicated to livestock activity. In the year 1566 the Havana chapter granted the first land grant in the Hanábana savannah to Melchor Rodríguez. From that date and until almost the middle of the 18th century, this process extended that allowed the appropriation of a large amount of land, extending the limits of La Hanábana from the current town of Calimete to Crimea and from Macurijes to Yaguaramas. Parallel to the livestock activity, agriculture was promoted from the establishment of some work sites that guaranteed the subsistence of the small population that inhabited it. The main population nucleus of this place was the hamlet of El Caimito de La Hanábana, which was formed in the last decade of the 18th century (1793), and years later reached the status of Party Captaincy as head of the territory. Regarding the sugar plantation, its extension to this territory was late in relation to other places. The remoteness of the important economic centers and the absence of good communications limited their development, so it was not until the 1960s that the mills began to be founded, a process that accelerated in the 1970s with the arrival of the railway.

In 1867 the nucleus of the nascent town of Calimete began to be promoted. On that date, the legal act occurred in which José Antonio Castañeda, owner of a cattle ranch, gave up a piece of his land for its creation. Due to the boom in sugar activity and the arrival of the railroad, it reached the category of neighborhood in 1870 as part of the Partido de La Hanábana, Jurisdicción de Colón.

In its etymology the voice Calimete comes from the indigenous phrase "Cali" which means "street or road" and from "Limes", or "itis" (limit); that is to say end or goal of the way. This is how Manuel Pérez-Beato recounted it in his book "The fallacy of the indigenous language" of 1942, where he argues that in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, among the various roads that left Havana for the different places on the island, there was one that left of the capital ended in the vicinity of the Hato de la Hanábana, from where the thicket of the mount began. That place was the point of entry from the inland, since it constituted the entrance of the province of Matanzas and the end of the road, which from Havana led to the "Vuelta Arriba". Calimete, later founded, took its name from this topographical background.

When the war for emancipation began in October 1968, although this territory did not join the armed struggle, it was linked to events related to the insurrection. The main skirmishes and combative actions were carried out by forces of the Liberation Army that invaded the territory in 1875, led by the Englishman Henry Reeve, who along with the Cienfuegos fighter Cecilio González and the Camagüeyan Carlos Agüero were in charge of extending the war to the plains of Colon. This period stands out as one of the most important events, the assault on the town of Calimete on the night of September 30, 1876, an action carried out by the forces led by Cecilio González and Carlos Agüero. The Truce Fecunda was a continuation of these libertarian efforts in which some insurgent leaders such as Carlos Agüero were in charge of keeping the flame of rebellion alive in the territory.

During the development of the feat of 1895 the Calimete area was moved by the great political and military event that was the passage of the Mambisa invasion. On December 20, after crossing the Hanábana River, the invading column had its baptism of fire at the La Colmena farm. Days later, the forces return to the territory in the strategic countermarch known as the "loop of the invasion" and hold one of the most important warlike actions of the campaign, the combat of Godínez, which, as Major General Serafín Sánchez expressed, marked for Calimete "one of the most glorious pages of those that magnify the history of Cuba", because it was distinguished not only by the courage of the Cubans and the resistance offered by the Spanish forces, but by the quantity and quality of the casualties of the contenders and it was he who opened the doors of the invasion of Havana. The example of this feat served to raise the fighting spirit of the Calimetenses, many of whom joined the feat, some joining the invading forces and others reinforcing the troops that since the war began operating in different parts of the territory, which from 1896 it became a theater of military operations for the Southern Brigade of the 1st Division of the 5th Corps of the Liberation Army.

Evolution of the territory during the Neocolonial Republic.

After the contest with the opportunist North American intervention, a new period began that resulted in a considerable increase in the decline of the Calimete area. With its advent on May 20, 1902, slight modifications occurred in the territorial demarcation, keeping the municipal government in the hands of the Colombian city council. In the economic sphere, the inhabitants of the territory continued to depend on sugar activity, the main source of income and jobs, and which was characterized during those first years by the culmination of the process of concentration and centralization of production, which resulted in a considerable reduction of numerous factories, leaving only four plants.

In 1910 changes in the administrative political division occur that allow the creation of new municipalities. By law of the Congress of the Republic the constitution of the Municipal Term of Manguito was agreed, segregating it from that of Colón and on May 23 of that year its town hall was established, establishing a seat in the town of the same name. It included the neighborhoods that today make up the municipality of Calimete. Liberal Carlos La Rosa Hernández was elected as the first mayor. The decades of 10 and 20 were significant for the creation of several exponents of local architecture in which the construction of buildings such as theaters, hotels, the Mausoleum for the Martyrs of Independence, the City Hall building, public parks and some residences. Other progress was the electrification in 1915 and the creation of the Printing in 1917, which made possible the publication of some literary works and local newspapers.

The sugar, agricultural and manufacturing activity that developed during the neocolony turned this municipality into a territory with a great tradition of the labor movement and social struggles. At the beginning of the 1930s, the Workers' Movement emerged in the political life of the town as one of its main actors, which under the guidance of the Communists fought numerous battles during this period of history. In the midst of the difficult situation that the country was living under the Machado government and faced with the need for a political organization in accordance with its class interests, the first organization of the Communist Party was founded in central Mercedes in November 1932, which It was initially made up of 4 members, all workers at this plant, under the guidance of Bernardo Campos Abreus, veteran founding fighter of the Communist Youth League in Matanzas.

In the 1950s, a visit to the municipality by a delegation from the Orthodox Party, among which was the young lawyer Fidel Castro Ruz, a member of the Orthodox Youth, was of great importance to the revolutionary movement. The tour included the towns of Calimete, Amarillas and Manguito, where rallies were organized in which Fidel spoke to denounce the government's political corruption. In meetings with Party affiliates and supporters, he gathered support for the elections to be held in June 1952, in which the triumph of the Orthodox was looming.

Starting in 1956, the July 26 Movement had important cells in the territory through which support was provided to the insurrectional struggle, collecting money, transporting weapons and fighters, and sending medicine to the fighters in the Sierra. A fact that marked this new period of our struggles and that had great significance for the town was the participation of three young people from the municipality in the assault on the Goicuría Barracks on April 29, 1956. One of these fighters, César Modesto Rodríguez Alayón, was assassinated after the action.

The Revolution in Power

When the revolutionary triumph of the 1st. January 1959, the calimetenses like all Cubans welcomed with joy the victory that started a new stage of profound and radical changes for all the people. The quality of life increased considerably in the municipality with the creation of schools, health, cultural and sports facilities that extended its services to all spheres of the population. Significant results were achieved in productive economic activity, performing great feats of work such as that of the machetero Reynaldo Castro Yebra that led him to become the first National Hero of Labor in the Republic of Cuba.

In the sugar mills, an extensive investment plan was carried out that allowed to increase the capacity of the three plants that the municipality had and to obtain important results in the sugar contests. Among other lines, a Rice Plan was created with the purpose of self-sufficiency for the entire province and of which our Commander in Chief Fidel Castro was a promoter, with the visit he made in March 1959 to the areas where it would be created, it was also formed a Various Crops Company, a Livestock Plan and numerous cooperatives were organized, which have stood out for the results in sugarcane and food production.

Calimete currently has a territorial extension of 958 square kilometers. According to the 2012 census data the total population was 28,751 inhabitants. 25 population settlements have been developed in this territory, of which 7 are classified as urban and 18 as rural, organized into 5 Popular Councils.

In the economic aspect, the sugar agribusiness and agricultural activity occupy the main lines, highlighting the production of raw sugar and alcohol from cane. The production of rice, food, vegetables and livestock are also important. This municipality has a significant weight in the country's sugar production, counting on one of the most important sugar industries, the Jesús Rabí central and with three flagship cooperatives within the sugar cane production of the country.

 José Martí

In 1862, the Captaincy of Hanábana was granted to Mariano Martí Navarro, a former member of the Spanish Army. On April 13 of that year, he arrived to take office, and he did so accompanied by his 9-year-old son José Julián Martí Pérez.

For the child, this was a new experience. In this place he begins his work activity helping his father as a scribe, knows the customs and ways of life of the peasants, makes new friends and performs outdoor activities that allow his physical development. It was these pleasant moments, which are reflected in the letter he wrote to his mother Doña Leonor Pérez Cabrera on October 23, 1862, which is his first known document to date.

Although this constitutes a happy stage in her life, it was not without negative experiences. In Hanábana, he got to know closely the horrendous crime of rural slavery that until then he had only been able to see in the urban domestic mode. The imprint of this bitter reality was etched in his mind and were images that accompanied him throughout his life and that he immortalized in the verses written in full maturity and in the notes of an unfinished text that he had titled "My Niggas". Undoubtedly, this stay, although brief, was significant in the formation of his personality and his values ​​of justice and freedom, as well as his ideals against racism.