This island, the greater one of the Archipelago of the Canarreos, was discovered by Admiral Cristóbal Columbus in 1494. During several centuries it served to pirate privateers and smugglers as guarida and bases for his misdeeds. The Island of the Treasure, the Island of the Cotorras was called indifferently, Island of the Deported ones and up to 1975 it was known him like Island of Pines. As of that date and until the present time it began to call to it him Island of Youth, in recognition to the thousands of young people who have developed their creative work there. Its city head New Gerona, as well, was founded on 1830.

Two places very related to our history are located in this region. One of them is the Property Opens, declared National Monument, that hoards personal objects of our National Hero Jose Martí, and in as details can be known their stay in the place. The other is the Military prison Model, unique installation in its type in Latin America, that exhibits the characteristics of the prison system from the decade of years 20 to the revolutionary stage. There several fighters by the independence of Cuba fulfilled sentence, among them Fidel I castrate and other young people who next to him assaulted the Moncada Quarter in 1953. The political military prison of the revolutionary leader and its compatriots, in spite of its character of punishment served the young people as the Generation of the Centenary to fortify its revolutionary conscience and its conviction that the armed warfare was the only way to reach the victory. From Fidel it continued his orientation work directed to the rest of the imprisoned fighters there or in freedom, and to the town in general.