Cienfuegos
[key], city, capital of Cienfuegos prov., central Cuba, a port on the
Caribbean Sea. It is the marketing and processing center of a region
producing sugarcane, tobacco, coffee, and rice; it also has an oil refinery,
rum distilleries, fish canneries. The city is Cuba's leading sugar exporting
port as well as a major fishing port. Founded in 1819 by French emigrants
from Louisiana and named for one of the original founders, Cienfuegos was
destroyed by a tropical storm in 1825 and later rebuilt.
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