Tarar� was developed in the 1940s by American Royal Sylvester Webster as a complete town, with a church (Santa Elena), a club known as the Tarar� Yacht Club, 400 residences, stores, a movie theatre, a marina, a public park and beach facilities. Many considered the Tarar� beach to be one of the most beautiful on the island, with its boardwalk a popular weekend destination. Tarar� was a fast and easy trip to Havana and the airport, with newly paved highways going directly to the resort. Mr. Webster lived there as well, as did all of his children. The entire Webster family, numbering twelve who were born on Cuba, and eight who were originally U.S. citizens, was forced to leave the island after Castro's police confiscated their homes, personal property and business records at gunpoint.
After the Cuban Revolution, in January 1959, Che Guevara went to live at a summer villa in Tarara to recover from a violent asthma attack. While there he started the Tarara Group, a group that debated and formed the new plans for Cuba's social, political, and economic development. In addition, Che began to write his book Guerrilla Warfare while resting at Tarara. Che returned to Tarara in June 1959 for his honeymoon after his marriage to his second wife Aleida March.
At the height of tight Cuban-Soviet relations, the town housed Russian officials stationed in Cuba, and for a while (early 1990s) functioned as a recovery resort for Ukrainian children affected by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. After 2000 (and the partial opening of Cuba to foreign investments), this was a place of choice for foreign companies representatives that were doing business in Cuba, with the residences functioning as rental villas.
In 2005, the town was turned into a recovery resort for blind patients from Venezuela, part of a deal between Fidel Castro and Hugo Ch�vez, in which Cuba offered medical expertise in return for Venezuelean oil.
In 2007, the town began to receive Chinese
