In 1826 the first cemetery of the city of Santiago de Cuba was inaugurated, known as the Cemetery of Santa Ana, because of its proximity to the Church of the same name.

The Santa Ana Cemetery was eighteen blocks east of the waterfront at the eastern end of the street, calle Sanchez Hechavarria. The cemetery has been closed for many years and on a part of the site there is now erected a hospital called Clinica Los Angeles. [This information is from a description of the area dated 1959 -- on GoogleMaps in early 2010, in about the same location there is the Hospital Materno Sur.]

The use of the Santa Ana cemetery was short due to the rapid growth of the population of the city and the need for a larger burying ground.

In the 1860's, with the hope of avoiding or minimizing epidemics like cholera and yellow fever which at the time were rampant throughout the Caribbean, the officials of the city decided to build another, larger cemetery at a distance from the Church. The new cemetery was inaugurated officially in 1868 as General Cemetery of Santa Ifigenia. (See Cementerio de Santa Ifigenia -- http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=cr&CRid=1966850&CScntry=26&)

In 2008, it was announced that the little church, Iglesia Santa Ana, seating just 100 parishoners, would be demolished in favour of a new and larger Church of the same name which is to serve the surrounding parish of 50,000 souls. Cuba was to have its first new Catholic church in more than fifty years. Nothing was said in the article about the old church cemetery of Santa Ana.