About Cuba

Ethnic Groups and Languages The Spanish conquest eliminated the indigenous people in Cuba but introduced African slaves from the Congo, Guinea, and Nigeria. In the 19th century, Chinese laborers joined the working class. In the 20th century immigrants from the United States, Spain, and the USSR added to the ethnic mix. Officially, 67 percent of the population is white and of Spanish descent, and 33 percent is black or mulatto. However, many people who record themselves as white have mixed ancestry. Almost all of the people are native born. Since 1959 racial distinctions have blurred as the Castro government has worked to eliminate race and class prejudices.

The official language is Spanish, but immigration has left pockets of Haitians and Jamaicans in Cuba who speak French patois and creole English (hybrid languages created by the mixture of European and African languages). Both English and Russian are spoken and understood in major cities.

BSocial Structure Prior to 1959, Cuba had sharp class divisions. The largest class was the peasants, who could barely support their families on the small plots of land they farmed. At the opposite end of the social scale was the handful of sugar mill owners, who enjoyed all the advantages of great wealth. Unlike most other Latin American countries, however, Cuba had a substantial middle class of lawyers, doctors, social workers, and other professionals. Industrial workers organized into very active unions, and they had a higher living standard than many workers in other Latin American countries. There was also a large group of fairly prosperous colonos, sharecroppers and tenant farmers, who grew sugarcane for the large mills under government protection. While Cuba's social hierarchy allowed for some racial fluidity, the vast numbers of poor and uneducated people were people of color. Among these, the poorest were women of color.

Under Castro's government, class divisions and social differentiations, such as elite education and membership in country clubs, disappeared. More equitable salaries, guaranteed housing, nationalized medicine and education, and employment for all leveled the social and economic hierarchy formed between 1902 and 1958. In protest, middle- and upper-class professionals left Cuba in large numbers between 1959 and 1962, which hastened the advent of a more socially level society. For instance, the income gap between peasants and urban workers narrowed as the government controlled wages and prices, and rationed commodities. After 1959, the highest-paid professionals, such as medical doctors who both practiced medicine and taught in universities, earned around 750 pesos per month, while unskilled laborers earned around 100 pesos per month. Prior to the revolution, successful sugar and tobacco growers were millionaires, while workers in their fields barely earned 160 pesos per month, and female domestic servants earned under half that amount.

However, the revolution did not eradicate all forms of privilege. Under the Castro government, people involved in the government, military, and the Communist Party formed a new privileged group. Although their salaries were maintained at a moderate level, they had access to better hospitals, homes, cars, and commodities.

Cuba's success in creating a more even distribution of wealth became skewed when the government briefly loosened economic restrictions during the late 1970s. They loosened restrictions again in the 1990s when the government reintroduced small private enterprises and individual access to the U.S. dollar, which previously had been illegal in Cuba. In the 1990s differences in wealth were more noticeable than before, as some Cubans could purchase a wide variety of goods at special stores that accepted only dollars. Luxury items were also more accessible to citizens with dollars.

CReligion It is difficult to accurately assess religious affiliation and political ideology in Cuba. Before the revolution, Cuba was a predominantly Roman Catholic nation, although a fairly sizeable proportion were Roman Catholic in name alone and no longer practiced their religion regularly. The revolutionary government has vacillated on religion's official position in Cuba. Beginning in the 1960s, the government harshly condemned and deported many Catholic officials. The government rarely gave attractive career appointments or promotions to Catholics who continued attending church. In addition, the government often imprisoned and imposed social sanctions on those Catholics who actively opposed government policy on religious matters.

During the 1980s, however, the government's position changed somewhat, allowing the faithful to worship without penalty. In 1998, at the invitation of Castro, Pope John Paul II paid a four-day visit to Cuba. During his trip, the Pope encouraged the spread of Christianity. He challenged Marxist ideology as the dominant belief system in Cuba by encouraging people to put their faith in Catholicism and not in secular ideology.

A significant portion of the population, including some who profess Catholicism and others who are high officials of the government, practice Santería, a mixture of Catholicism and African religions. The Castro government has attempted to accommodate this religion, allowing Santería priests, known as babalaos, to hold parades and sell their predictions to foreigners in designated temples. Many Cubans see no conflict in being a Catholic, a believer in Santería, and a Marxist. About half of the population professes no religious faith, officially classifying themselves as Marxists.

DEducation The government controls the educational system and provides education for essentially all Cuban children. School attendance is compulsory for children ages 6 through 16, and Cuba has one of the highest literacy rates in the world, claiming 96 percent adult literacy, compared to only 54 percent in 1952. Estimates are that virtually all eligible children attend the first six years of school.

Castro's government attempted to narrow the gap between the educated and uneducated by allowing all children to attend school free of charge and by sending literacy brigades throughout the country during the early 1960s. These brigades, composed of teachers and trained students, taught reading and writing to Cubans in remote regions of the country that previously had no schools. As a result of their work, Cuba's literacy rate increased dramatically.

Adults may attend basic education courses. High-level courses are offered to college graduates in specialty majors such as business, medicine, nursing, and technical engineering. Membership in the Young Communist League or the Cuban Communist Party is an important determinant of student enrollment in one of the three universities and the dozens of polytechnic schools. The University of Havana is the preeminent university, but the University of Santa Clara and the University of Santiago de Cuba are also highly regarded.

The curriculum in primary and secondary schools is based upon Marxist-Leninist principles that honor collective work and that identify capitalism as an opposing world organization. Instruction on public health, elementary education, cooking, moral standards, and revolutionary loyalty are transmitted through television and radio. These programs are strictly controlled by the Cuban Communist Party and are used to communicate national, international, and political information. EHealth and Social Services The quality of Cuban medical services was highly esteemed before 1959, but the majority of the population was limited in receiving services. Since then the government has extended health services throughout the island using polyclinics in neighborhoods and hospitals for treatment of serious injuries and illnesses. Health education is communicated in school and through the media. Sophisticated medical procedures are not available to everyone, leaving those who know important officials in better positions to receive advanced care than those without such connections.

From 1959 to 1989 medical care was good as evidenced by the low infant morality rate (about 8.1 per 1,000 live births) and the high life expectancy (about 75.7 years, up from 59.4 years in 1955). However, since the USSR broke up, medicines have been in short supply. In addition, a trade embargo imposed by the United States on Cuba since the early 1960s has made receiving medicines difficult. The social security system provides for retirement, work disabilities, unemployment compensation, maternity care, and child-care centers.

FWay of Life Prior to 1959 Cuba had a weak democratic political system, a capitalist economy dependent on trade with the United States, and a nominally Catholic society. The revolution replaced those traditions with socialist values, including a strong central government with indirect citizen participation in policy decisions, a centrally controlled economy, and a secular society that discouraged the practice of religion.

Since 1959 families have been both aided and hindered by revolutionary provisions and demands. In 1975 the Family Code described the roles of each family member, maintaining that whether a couple were married or not, parents are obliged to support their children. No child is considered illegitimate. Men and women are mutually responsible for the maintenance of the home. Gender and racial discrimination is illegal, although individual prejudices continue, and male dominance remains a tradition that has been hard to change. For the first 30 years of the revolution, all Cubans who wanted to work were able to do so. Women who remained at home with families were not considered as revolutionary as those who worked, since making an extra effort to produce commodities for economic development in addition to maintaining a home and caring for a family was seen as evidence of revolutionary loyalty. Children of working couples could attend day-care centers of generally high quality. Women were guaranteed a living wage whether they worked or not, so they did not have to remain married out of financial considerations. The divorce rate soared to more than 50 percent by 1980, and it was estimated at 60 percent in 1997.

After 1990, when Soviet aid sharply declined, shortages of fuel and consumer goods altered daily work patterns. Transportation was difficult at best and at times impossible. The black market, in which items are sold illegally to bypass government controls, provided necessary subsistence products no longer available through government rationing or in the local stores. Often one member of a family devoted his or her time to resolving problems of food, clothing, and extremely scarce luxury items.

The government made some policy changes in an attempt to relieve economic hardships. Since 1994 food shortages have been resolved by permitting paladares, in-house restaurants, to serve the paying public. Farmers' markets, in which small farmers sold food for profit, opened to bring scarce produce into the cities. The government also allowed small private businesses, such as bicycle repair shops, beauty salons, and car repair. However, it was reluctant to allow the widespread development of private businesses. To cut down on the explosion of private enterprises, the government began a harsh taxation system, and it required that every business produce bills of sale for all items acquired to run the business. As a result, most of these businesses have closed or opted to operate illegally.

Cuba attempted to address a number of its needs through mini brigades of citizens offering voluntary labor. Volunteer construction teams erected public buildings and took care of the sanitation system when regular workers were overburdened. People from all sectors of society-managers as well as common laborers-shared in the heavy physical work required to build and maintain the industrial and agricultural infrastructure. Voluntary work was intended both to construct more buildings and to elicit respect in the population for all manners of work, including manual labor. However, these mini brigades were not enough. For example, they were unable to construct residential buildings in urban and rural areas to meet the housing demands that emerged throughout the revolutionary period.

Public entertainment is open to everyone except when it is reserved for foreigners in special areas set aside for tourism. Cubans are avid sports enthusiasts, especially for baseball, track and field events, volleyball, basketball, and swimming. Athletic fields are open to everyone, but few Cubans have the equipment required for play. Children often play baseball with sticks and rocks. Musical groups of all quality levels travel the island playing for people in urban and rural settings.

IVCULTURE The Cuban people began articulating nationalist ideas in literature, art, and music during the 19th century. European colonists in Cuba did not develop an independent culture earlier because the island was only a shipping and military outpost and not a great administrative or mining center during the Spanish Empire. Early Cuban authors of importance, such as 19th century writers María de las Mercedes Santa Cruz y Montalvo, better known as La Condesa de Merlín, and Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda, lived and wrote in Spain rather than in their homeland. The influences of the French Revolution (1789-1799) and the American Revolution (1775-1783) awoke Cubans to the possibilities of social and economic change, and stimulated intellectuals to become involved in nationalist and independence movements.

Romanticism, an artistic movement stressing freedom of expression and a reliance on imagination, first appeared in Cuba in the early 19th century with the early poetry of José María de Heredia. Cuban romanticism was the genesis of national patriotism, but Spain's repression of free speech and artistic expression forced nationalistic romanticism to focus on the beauty of nature and the spirituality of the people rather than on political freedoms. Later in his career Heredia joined the Parnassian school, a reaction against Romanticism. Artists of this school focused on technical perfection and an impersonal attitude in their art. Heredia's poetry straddled these two literary movements. Many artists and thinkers of the romantic period were influenced by Father Felix Varela y Morales, a professor at the Seminary of San Carlos in Havana. Originally a supporter of Spain's constitutional monarchy and limited self-government in the colonies, he later became an advocate of complete independence from Spain.

Submovements within romanticism were introduced by writers such as Gabriel de la Concepción Valdés (known as Plácido) and Juan Francisco Manzano, a former slave. They illustrated the unique facets of Cuban national characteristics through submovements within romanticism such as costumbrismo, an art form that satirized social types within Cuban society, particularly the mulattos. Other social types were portrayed in criollismo, and siboneyismo, which dealt with the daily lives of Creoles and Native Americans, respectively.

In the later half of the 19th century, a second period of romanticism began as artists were seized by the idea of Cuban independence from Spain. Writing moved from caricatures of Cuban society, nature, and regional language styles to elegant writing and literary imaging. Cuban romanticism differed from European romanticism in several important aspects. It emphasized racial complexity rather than the exaltation of upper-class individualism. Cuban romanticism expressed a positive attitude toward life, whereas European romanticism often exhibited heavy undertones of melancholy and a fascination with self-destructive tendencies. While contemporary European artists often dealt with the subject of nature and the simplicity of rural life, the hope of national sovereignty remained the central theme running through Cuba's romantic movement.

Modernism coincided with romanticism at the end of the 19th century and ultimately replaced it in the 20th century. Modernism is an artistic movement characterized by a concentration on art for art's sake, or with emphasis on the beauty of structure in language and art. Cuban modernism was short-lived and pertained to only a few artists, including writer and revolutionary José Martí, the father of Cuban independence, and poet Julian del Casal. Cuban modernism gained influence at the same time that U.S. citizens were investing in Cuba, which opened Cuban writers to increased contact with foreign literature. This was a period when calls for political, economic, and cultural change appeared in all literary genres. This era gave way to postmodernism within the first decade of independence.

Postmodernism emerged in 1909, just after the first democratically elected presidential term ended with U.S. military occupation. Corruption, economic ineffectiveness, and full dependence upon the United States undermined the ability of any government to control state matters peacefully. People of different political persuasions agreed that the renovation of past ideas about independence and sovereignty was necessary. Many postmodernists advocated specific political resolutions to Cuba's postindependence confusion, and some sought authentic cultural expression in a blend of African and Spanish language and visual design.

In 1923 leftist activists began organizing against government corruption. Broader democratic participation and social justice for all Cubans was demanded by protest groups, such as the University Student Union, the First National Congress of Students, the First National Women's Congress, the Protest of the Thirteen, the Grupo Minorista, and the Universidad Popular José Martí. The Grupo Minorista, an informal association of writers and artists, was the forerunner of the literary Vanguard Movement that unified between 1927 and 1933 against President Gerardo Machado's illegitimate government. As a movement, Cuban vanguardism brushed aside established styles through disruptive or unconventional techniques. Vanguardists were characterized by a mixture of modern artistic movements. The political nature of their movement was, however, the tool of their destruction. Between 1934 and 1958, vanguardism dissolved into various political factions as former allies became bitter enemies over a variety of political issues affecting Cuba's future.

Following the 1959 revolution, Cuba's artistic freedom came to an end. The new government selected writers and artists to publish and create as long as they did not obviously criticize the government. Government efforts to control artistic expression isolated Cuban artists and thinkers from the bold, antiestablishment artistic movements in the United States and Europe. People such as writer Juan Marinello spent their energies running literary organizations supportive of socialist ideals rather than creating. A number of Cuba's liberals and progressives, such as painter Jorge Camacho, went into exile in protest. Camacho and other Cuban painters went to France in 1959 on a grant from the Cuban government. Camacho became disillusioned with the Cuban Revolution when Castro supported the Soviet Union's repression of Czechoslovakia in 1968 after the communist government of Czechoslovakia experimented with reforms unacceptable to the USSR (Prague Spring). Even communist novelist Alejo Carpentier published his prorevolutionary pieces from Paris. Occasional purges of artists occurred, the most famous case being that of Heberto Padilla, a poet who won a prize in 1968 for his collected poetry entitled Fuera del juego. He was forced to leave Cuba in 1969 for the suggestions in those poems that the revolution limited human freedom. Entire colonies of artists live in exile, particularly in Mexico, Spain, and the United States, because their work criticized the revolution.

New generations of artists born after 1959 began to present mature works in the 1980s. After 1975 some leniency allowed work to take up nonrevolutionary themes, as long as artists and writers were not critical of the government. Newer writers and artists did not showcase overt political critiques, but looked inward to describe the psychological anguish of a revolution in crisis. The Novísimos, as the writers of the 1990s are known, distanced themselves from the revolution and often parody communist lifestyles.

Only a few intrepid intellectuals have dared to direct their accusations at the government. Exile was the only alternative for dissenters, and some people chose to leave Cuba rather than limit the expression of their frustration. Poet María Elena Cruz Varela, who pointed out that Castro's restrictions made Cubans all the more vulnerable to capitalist influences, was forced to eat the paper upon which her poems were written in a public act of repudiation. She was also imprisoned for two years for sedition between 1992 and 1994.

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Date: 2015-02-16; view: 722