CUBA
The largest island of the West Indies group (equal in area to Pennsylvania), Cuba is also the westernmost—just west of Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic), and 90 mi (145 km) south of Key West, Fla., at the entrance to the Gulf of Mexico. The island is mountainous in the southeast and south-central area (Sierra Maestra). It is flat or rolling elsewhere. Cuba also includes numerous smaller islands, islets, and cays.
Arawak (or Taino) Indians inhabiting Cuba when Columbus landed on the island in 1492 died from diseases brought by sailors and settlers. By 1511, Spaniards under Diego Velásquez had established settlements. Havana's superb harbor made it a common transit point to and from Spain. In the early 1800s, Cuba's sugarcane industry boomed, requiring massive numbers of black slaves. A simmering independence movement turned into open warfare from 1867 to 1878. Slavery was abolished in 1886. In 1895, the poet José Marti led the struggle that finally ended Spanish rule, thanks largely to U.S. intervention in 1898 after the sinking of the battleship Maine in Havana harbor.
In 1956, Fidel Castro Ruz launched a revolution from his camp in the Sierra Maestra Mountains. Castro's brother Raul and Ernesto (Ché) Guevara, an Argentine physician, were his top lieutenants. Many anti-Batista landowners supported the rebels. The U.S. ended military aid to Cuba in 1958, and on New Year's Day 1959, Batista fled into exile and Castro took over the government.
The three questions I’m asking are: What happened during the Cuban missile crisis? Why do Cubans continue to practice Communism and allow Fidel Castro to Dictate? What holidays do Cubans celebrate and what do they do for fun? I think it’s important to know about the Soviet- Cuban missile crisis to understand Cuba’s history. I would also like to try to understand why Cuban’s still practice communism and allow Fidel Castro to Dictate. We can learn a little about Cuban culture by finding out about their holidays and leisure activities.
The U.S. initially welcomed what looked like a democratic Cuba, but within a few months, Castro established military tribunals for political opponents and jailed hundreds. Castro disavowed Cuba's 1952 military pact with the U.S., confiscated U.S. assets, and established Soviet-style collective farms. The U.S. broke relations with Cuba on Jan. 3, 1961, and Castro formalized his alliance with the Soviet Union. Thousands of Cubans fled the country.
In 1961, a U.S.-backed group of Cuban exiles invaded Cuba. Planned during the Eisenhower administration, the invasion was given the go-ahead by President John Kennedy, although he refused to give U.S. air support. The landing at the Bay of Pigs on April 17, 1961, was a fiasco. The invaders did not receive popular Cuban support and were easily repulsed by the Cuban military.
A Soviet attempt to install medium-range missiles in Cuba—capable of striking targets in the United States with nuclear warheads—provoked a crisis in 1962. Denouncing the Soviets for “deliberate deception,” President Kennedy promised a U.S. blockade of Cuba to stop the missile delivery. Six days later, Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev ordered the missile sites dismantled and returned to the USSR in return for a U.S. pledge not to attack Cuba.
The U.S. established limited diplomatic ties with Cuba on Sept. 1, 1977, making it easier for Cuban Americans to visit the island. Contact with the more affluent Cuban Americans prompted a wave of discontent in Cuba, producing a flood of asylum seekers. In response, Castro opened the port of Mariel to a “freedom flotilla” of boats from the U.S., allowing 125,000 to flee to Miami. After the refugees arrived, it was discovered that their ranks were swelled with prisoners, mental patients, homosexuals, and others unwanted by the Cuban government. Cuba fomented Communist revolutions around the world, especially in Angola, where thousands of Cuban troops were sent during the 1980s.
Russian aid, which had long supported Cuba's failing economy, ended when Communism collapsed in Eastern Europe in 1990. Cuba's foreign trade also plummeted, producing a severe economic crisis. In 1993, Castro permitted limited private enterprise, allowed Cubans to possess convertible currencies, and encouraged foreign investment in its tourist industry. In March 1996, the U.S. tightened its embargo with the Helms-Burton Act.
How horrible it must be for the people of Cuba to be so close and yet so far to the free-world (although it isn't very free anymore). The promise of Castro to boot out the Mafia and give control back to the citizenry was a lie. Instead he partnered with the Soviet Union and when their economy failed, he opened the door to the Communist Chinese*. It's a never-ending spiral into the abyss for the people of Cuba.
Literacy did improve under Castro but the tale is hardly heroic -- illiteracy was neither high prior to the Revolution, as Castro claimed, nor was it much changed after Castro's Great Campaign. In fact, since Castro came to power, other Latin American countries made far greater gains in literacy than Cuba, largely because Cuba didn't have as far to climb -- it already had one of Latin America's highest literacy rates.
Neither can Castro's health claims be taken as credible because the health system, like the legal system, is subordinate to his regime's need for propaganda. In 1997, a major epidemic of dengue fever, which causes hemorrhaging, broke out in Cuba. Patients were bleeding from every orifice of their bodies and choking on their own blood. Public health authorities and the government's Institute of Tropical Medicine called the disease "an unspecified virus" and denied its existence, partly to protect the reputation of Castro, who had personally declared the disease's extinction, and partly to protect the tourist industry, which was becoming a major earner of foreign exchange.
"There have been no major problems [at May Day in Cuba] other than the continuing economic difficulties that of course Cuba faces because of the US embargo, the economic embargo." -- Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC
Cuba trades with every other country in the world but the United States. To say that the US is the cause of Cuba's economic woes is to disregard basic economic theory. Communism and dictatorship are Cuba's problems, and until individual rights are respected the condition of Cuba will only continue to deteriorate.
This idea that the economic problems of Cuba are related to US trade embargo is so pervasive you can even find it on the Web. They can't import cars or car parts not because they can't get them from America for cheap, but because they can't afford them. In order to afford them they would need to be able to keep the products of their labor, and be free to produce as each individual sees fit. Once individual Cubans had produced goods according to their judgment, they would also need to be free to trade those goods for other goods according to their mutual consent. None of this happens in Cuba today.
As far as Cuban holidays are concerned, the national ones are fairly few and far between. Christmas is the only one of the government-recognized religious Cuba holidays, but there are a handful of official Cuban holidays that may interest you. Socialist holidays like the May 1 Día de los Trabajadores (Day of the Workers) and the July 26 Day of the National Rebellion can be of particular interest for those intrigued by Cuba's Communist stance. On January 28, Cubans celebrate the birth of national hero José Martí, and October 8 is reserved to honor the death of Ernesto Che Guevara. If you are in Cuba on April 19, the country will be observing the anniversary of their historic victory at the Bay of Pigs. If you want Cuban events with a little more fanfare, you can always come during Carnival.
Like most of the notable Cuban events, Carnival is best observed in Havana. Every year in August, parades move down the city's famous Malecon oceanfront walkway, and you can expect a lot of song and dance to fill the air. Fireworks are common, as is flowing Cuban beer and rum. People dancing Conga display the country's rich Afro-Cuban traditions, and it's quite a sight to see. Cuba's burgeoning tourism industry is helping to fuel Cuba festivals like Carnival, making a Cuba vacation even that much more rewarding.
Music-lovers will not want to miss the chance to visit Havana during what is arguably one of the best Cuba festivals. The Havana Jazz Festival, which runs during most of February, sees nightly live music performances as clubs and venues around the city. It's definitely the best time to be in Havana if you know and like Cuban music. Various other Cuban festivals find their settings to also be the country's capital, so you might want to see what upcoming Cuban events are taking place during your vacation.
Currently President Obama is fighting to lift the U.S. embargo on Cuba to reopen trade. If this happens U.S. citizens may receive a warmer welcome while vacationing in Cuba. So if you can look past our history with Cuba, there Communist government and year’s worth of animosity from both countries, go ahead and visit. Personally I would probably enjoy a vacation to Cuba, but I was also willing to take risks while serving in the U.S. Navy.
Works Cited
Humphry, M. (2010) http://markhumphrys.com/cuba.html
No comments:
Post a Comment