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A HISTORY OF REVOLT
Christopher Columbus arrived in Cuba on October 27, 1492, somewhere around
Key Bariay, in present day Holguin province. Conquest and colonisation was
begun early in the 16th century by Diego Velasquez, who was the founder of
the first seven townships: Baracoa, Bayamo, Santiago de Cuba, Trinidad,
Sancti Spiritus, Puerto Principal (today's Camaguey) and San Cristobal de
La Habana. After the extermination of the native population, slave traders
began to import Africans, mainly from SenegCULTURE - A RICH DIVERSITY
The Cuban Revolution has had a profound effect on culture, its main
achievement being the integration of popular expression into daily life,
compared with the pre-Revolutionary climate in which art was either the
preserve of an elite or, in its popular forms, had to fight for acceptance
It is difficult to visit Cuba and fail to notice the importance of music
and dance to the people; its vibrant rhythms come from combining African
and Spanish elements imported over the centuries and this explains the huge
presence of the drum and guitar. Cuba's own particular brand of music is
Salsa - an integral part of the Cuban lifestyle. The roots of modern salsa
lie in Cuban son, a heavily percussive musical style with bass, bongos,
trumpets and guitar. Cuba also created the conga, the mambo, the rumba and
its own unique style of jazz.
Literature is also a rich resource. With such a high literacy rate on the
island, the works of indigenous and foreign writers are in high demand.
Cuba's most famous writers are José Marti - a famous patriot of the 19th
century, Cirilo Villaverde, also of the 19th century, who wrote about the
divisions of society, and Nicolas Guillen who, due to his denouncement of
the previous political and economic system, was made 'National Poet' after
the revolution. The government has tried to ensure that books are
accessible and affordable, but with resources and supplies often difficult
to obtain, shortfalls are inevitable.
Cuban people, like us here in Europe, love to watch television. Unlike us,
however, they are not subjected to any advertisement breaks. In massive
numbers they tune-in to watch home-produced soap operas and films - a
result of the very conscious effort made to build up the Cuban film
industry in the 1960's. The work of Cuban directors such as Tomas Gutierrez
Alea (Death of a Bureaucrat, Strawberry and Chocolate) is internationally
renowned. The government has opened a Latin American film school in Havana,
and each year the Havana film festival takes place in the capital.
RELIGION
Cuba is officially a secular state, though faiths based on beliefs brought
by African slaves are widespread, especially Santeria which has a pantheon
of over 400 gods called orishas, many of which are identified with specific
catholic saints. It is common to find catholics who have household shrines
to the orishas and Santeria followers who include catholic saints in their
worship. Santeria priests known as babalawos are gateways to the gods and
are consulted regularly. They interpret the commands of specific orishas
and pass on sacred teachings to believers. Catholicism is the main
Christian faith but Protestant churches, especially Presbyterians, are also
important. The Catholic Church claims 50% of Cubans are practising
catholics, but there are no reliable figures. In revolutionary Cuba, the
Catholic Church was seen as a vestige of Spanish colonialism and an ally of
the wealthy, right-wing elite.
al, Congo, Gambia and Guinea to
work the sugar plantations. From 1821 to 1831 nearly 600,000 Africans were
imported.
The history of the island was marked by constant independence struggles,
beginning with the Independence War of 1868 against Spain, in which one of
Cuba's greatest heroes - the writer and poet José Martí - was killed. The
United States intervened in this war in 1898, snatching from the Cubans
their imminent victory over the Spanish. The war ended in August 1898 with
a treaty signed by the US and Spain; Cuba was not represented.
The Platt Amendment of 1901 confirmed a position that the US has
consistently taken on Cuba ever since, giving Cuba limited control over
foreign policy, with the US having the right to intervene militarily at any
time and to compulsorily purchase any part of Cuba it felt 'necessary'.
There followed a series of US-backed corrupt governments, under which the
Mafia could freely operate, and Cuba became a destination for criminals and
tourists looking for casinos and brothels. The last of these regimes was
that of Batista, who took over in 1952.
On 26 July 1953, Fidel Castro and other revolutionaries attacked the
Moncada army barracks in Santiago de Cuba. Although many were killed and
the rest imprisoned and tried in secret, the 26 July Movement which grew
from this became a focal point of the revolution. Castro and the other
prisoners were released in May 1955 and went to Mexico to organise. In
December 1956, Fidel, his brother Raul, and Che Guevara, along with 79
others, landed in Oriente province with their boat 'Granma'. Most were
killed, but the leaders escaped to the Sierra Maestra, where they joined
others who had been organising within Cuba. There followed two years of
guerrilla war, ending in the triumph of the revolution on 1 January 1959.
The US government immediately decided that the new government was not going
to fit in with its requirements; as early as 7 January 1959 the CIA began
its destabilisation campaign, which was to include repeated attempts to
assassinate Fidel Castro, the attempted invasion at the Bay of Pigs, and
consistent support for harassment and subversion of Cuba by any group of
criminals they could recruit.
This, along with the trade blockade, made it inevitable that Cuba would
need the support of the Soviet Union in order to survive. The United States
has always constrained Cuba's development in any way it could, and this
makes its achievements all the more remarkable, especially now that it has
managed alone for nearly ten years without a powerful ally.