The capital city of the Granma province, Bayamo, was one of the original seven cities founded in 1513 by Spanish conquistador Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar. It is the birthplace of the "father of the Cuban nation," Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, who freed the slaves and declared war against colonialist Spain. During the battles, Bayamo was once burned to the ground, his house being the only one that escaped the fire. Ever since the days of the Spanish slave trade, sugarcane crops were the area's predominant economic resource, and it still remains today, in the form of sugar refining. Due to Céspedes' achievements, Bayamo is known as the birthplace of Cuban nationality.