Cuba

Region: Central America and Caribbean

Official language: Spanish

Population: 10,966,038 (2024 est.)

Nationality: Cuban(s) (noun), Cuban (adjective)

Land area: 109,820 sq km (42,402 sq miles)

Water area: 1,040 sq km (402 sq miles)

Capital: Havana

National anthem: "La Bayamesa" (The Bayamo Song), by Pedro Figueredo

National holiday: Triumph of the Revolution, January 1 (1959)

Population growth: -0.17% (2024 est.)

Time zone: UTC –5

Flag: The Cuban flag consists of a red triangle design on the hoist side (nearest the flagstaff) followed by five horizontal stripes alternating between blue, of which there are three, and white, of which there are two. Centered in the red equilateral triangle is a five-pointed white star. Symbolically, the blue stripes represent the island’s three old divisions: white represents the strength of idealistic independence, while red represents liberty and equality, as well as the blood shed to attain them.

Motto: “Patria y libertad” (Homeland and Freedom)

Independence: May 20, 1902 (from Spain December 10, 1898; administered by the US from 1898 to 1902); not acknowledged by the Cuban Government as a day of independence

Government type: Communist state

Suffrage: 16 years of age; universal

Legal system: civil law system based on Spanish civil code

The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean Sea. It is separated by water from the United States, Mexico, Haiti, Jamaica, and South America. The major bodies of water surrounding Cuba include the Straits of Florida and the Gulf of Mexico in the north, the Yucatan Channel to the west, the Caribbean Sea to the south, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east and northeast.

The Cuban Revolution of 1959 is the most important political, economic, and social event in Cuba’s modern history.

Note: unless otherwise indicated, statistical data in this article is sourced from the CIA World Factbook, as cited in the bibliography.

People and Culture

Population: Like many Caribbean nations, as well as parts of South America, the ancestors of modern-day Cubans were European settlers, enslaved Africans, and Indigenous peoples. According to the 2012 Cuban census, 64.1 percent of Cubans self-identify as White, 9.3 percent identify as Black, and 26.6 percent identify as mixed race. There is also a very small population of Asian descent. The predominant language in Cuba is Spanish.

Cuba is formally an atheist nation—under communism, religion is effectively banned—although there are still strong links between many Cubans and the Roman Catholic Church, as well as syncretic religions, which are hybrids of traditional religions and folk beliefs. One such syncretic religion is Santería, a combination of Christian and Yoruban beliefs. In Santería, such elements as animal sacrifice and the worship of saints are not contradictory. The largest religious groups, after Catholicism, are Protestants, Jehovah's Witnesses, Muslims, Buddhists, and Jews.

Most Cubans (77.5 percent of the population in 2023) live in urban areas. Havana is the largest city, with a population of 2.14 million (2023 estimate).

In 2024 Cuba was ranked 85th out of 191 countries and territories on the United Nations Human Development Index.

Indigenous People: The original inhabitants of Cuba were the Taíno, Guanahatabeyes, and Ciboney peoples, but they were either killed by Spanish explorers and settlers or died of diseases brought by the Europeans. Both the Taíno and the Ciboney were related to the greater Arawak civilization of South America, had complex social structures, were agrarian, and maintained generally peaceable existences. The Europeans, however, viewed them as savages and did not recognize their natural rights.

None of these populations survived in any significant numbers past the seventeenth century. Despite this, there are some contemporary efforts to determine if these cultures still exist on some level within modern Cuban society.

Education: The education system is a source of pride among Cubans. Although the Cuban Revolution proved to be disastrous for many social and cultural systems, education generally improved under the regime of Fidel Castro. All Cuban education became free and compulsory through the ninth grade, and as of 2021 the literacy rate was estimated at 99.7 percent.

Cuban primary schools have a very high enrollment rate; secondary education is often augmented by occupational training. However, after Raúl Castro took over the presidency from his brother Fidel in 2008, cuts to education funding significantly reduced the number of Cubans pursuing higher education, from 300,000 in 2008 to about 156,000 in 2011. The oldest college in Cuba is the Universidad de La Habana (University of Havana). Other important institutions of higher learning are the Universidad de Oriente–Santiago de Cuba (University of Orienge–Santiago de Cuba), Marta Abreu University of las Villas, Universidad de Holguín Oscar Lucero Moya, and Universidad Tecnológica de La Habana José Antonio Echeverría. There are also several technical and trade schools throughout the country.

Health Care: Another source of pride among Cubans is their universal and free health care system. Like education, it is a fundamental right of all Cubans and is very inexpensive. In 2018, the physician density was 8.42 doctors for every 1,000 people; in contrast, the physician density in the United States was 2.59 per 1,000 people in 2016. Cubans' average life expectancy at birth is 80.1 years—77.8 for men and 82.6 for women (2024 estimate).

The main problem in Cuban health care, however, appears to be a disparity between the very good levels of care offered to both tourists and government officials versus the lesser standard of care offered average Cubans.

Food: Cuban cuisine is a mix of European, African, and Latin American cuisines. Popular menu items in Cuba include empanadas (meat-filled turnovers), coffee, congri (rice and black beans), and mariquitas (plantain chips). Guava, pineapple, and other tropical fruits are common in both food and drink.

Most Cubans are forced to ration their food, leading to problems preparing certain dishes, as well as surpluses of some common ingredients.

Arts & Entertainment: Cuban culture is influenced by its European and African roots, as well as the neighboring cultures of North America and South America. More importantly, Cuban music, including mambo, Cuban son, habanera, salsa, and Cuban jazz, to name just a few, have all left lasting imprints on neighboring cultures.

Another area of lasting importance, particularly throughout Latin America and among developing countries, is Cuban cinema. Post-revolution directors such as Tomas Gutierrez Alea and Mikhail Kalatozov (a Soviet) created unique works—Death of a Bureaucrat (1966) and I Am Cuba (1964), respectively—that are still considered to be among the most important works of the twentieth century.

Important Cuban entertainers include Desi Arnaz, singers Celia Cruz and Gloria Estefan, actor Andy García, and television personality Daisy Fuentes. Notable Cuban authors include José Martí, Guillermo Cabrera Infante (an exile after 1965), Alejo Carpentier, and Reinaldo Arenas (in exile after 1980).

Of major importance to many Cubans is its national pastime, which it shares with the United States: baseball. Among the many Cuban baseball players who emigrated to the United States were Orlando Hernández, Tony Oliva, Luis Tiant, Tony Perez, and Minnie Miñoso. Cuban teams have maintained a high profile internationally, including at the Summer Olympics and several international tournaments.

Holidays: Holidays in Cuba include Liberation Day/New Year's Day (January 1), Labor Day (May 1), National Revolutionary Festival (July 25–27), Commencement of the Wars of Independence Day (October 10), and End of Year Celebration (December 31). Although Cuba is officially a secular country, the Christian holy days of Good Friday and Christmas are observed as public holidays.

Environment and Geography

Topography: Cuba is the largest island in the Cuban Archipelago, which is made up of over three thousand islands and keys. It has 3,735 kilometers (2,321 miles) of coastline. It is also part of the Greater Antilles island chain.

Cuba is characterized by flat or rolling terrain throughout most of the country, with some mountainous and hilly areas in the southeast. In addition to the fertile valleys and plains, there are some marshy areas and several scenic coastal areas. It is part of a limestone platform that includes parts of Mexico, the United States, and the Bahamas. There are also many limestone caves throughout certain areas of Cuba, most notably near the city of Havana.

There are three mountain zones in Cuba: the Cordillera Guaniguanico, in which sits Sierra de los Organos and Sierra del Rosario; Sierra del Escambray, in the east; and the Sierra Maestra, Sierra del Cristal and other ranges in southeast Cuba. The highest point in Cuba is at Pico Turquino (1,974 meters/6,476 feet) in the Sierra Maestra range.

The Isla de la Juventud is the second largest island in Cuba. The longest river in Cuba is the Cauto River, which stretches 343 kilometers (213 miles).

Natural Resources: The major natural resources of Cuba include cobalt, nickel, iron ore, chromite, manganese, copper, limestone, salt, and timber, such as pine and mahogany.

Among important conservation issues facing the country are deforestation, conservation of its arable lands (which are considerable) and biodiversity, and air and water pollution.

Plants & Animals: Common plants found in Cuba include over two thousand species of palm tree, including the Royal palm (the national tree) and the cork palm; forests of pine, ebony, and mahogany; and a rich variety of tropical plants found throughout the region. The national flower is butterfly jasmine. Cuba also has several mangrove swamps.

Common animals found in Cuba include crocodiles, alligators, water turtles, iguanas, wild pigs, Cuban pygmy frogs, the torcoro (also the national bird), banana rats, tarantulas, boa constrictors, and Cuban racers. There were about seventy critically endangered species in Cuba by 2020, of which forty were animals and thirty were plants. Among them were several species of hutia, a rodent, as well as various types of frogs and toads, sawfish, hammerhead sharks, and the Cuban crocodile.

Climate: Cuba has a tropical climate with alternating wet (late spring to mid-fall) and dry (mid-fall to mid-spring) seasons. The average annual temperature is 25 degrees Celsius (77 degrees Fahrenheit), with an average rainfall of 1,322 millimeters (52 inches). The hurricane season in Cuba runs from mid-summer to fall.

Economy

The two most important facts of economic life in Cuba are the economic embargo placed on the country in 1962 by the United States government and the enormous economic losses it faced after the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1989 and 1990. It was to the Soviet Union that Cuba primarily turned for aid after the US blockade went into effect. In addition, Cuba's vibrant black market is an unofficial yet stable aspect of the national economy. Under Raúl Castro, a small private sector was allowed to emerge. US president Barack Obama initiated a thaw in US-Cuban relations in 2015, including an easing of some travel and trade restrictions; however, President Donald Trump moved in 2017 to undo these measures. In 2017, Cuba's gross domestic product (GDP, purchasing power parity) was estimated at US$137 billion, a slight increase from the previous year.

Industry: Cuba's major industries include sugar, petroleum, tobacco, construction, pharmaceuticals, mining, and the manufacture of steel, farm equipment, cement, and pharmaceuticals. Its main exports include petroleum, sugar, nickel, tobacco, seafood, and liquor.

Cuba's largest export partners in 2019 were China, Spain, the Netherlands, and Germany. Its largest import partners were Spain, China, Italy, Canada, Russia, the US, and Brazil.

The country has an official unemployment rate of 1.16 percent, although "unofficial estimates are about double" the official figures, according to the World Factbook (2023 estimates).

Agriculture: The most important and largest sector of Cuban agriculture was the sugar industry, but the decline of the sugar market since the late 1990s has become a source of economic trouble. Increasing sanctions imposed by the US led to a yield of only 480,000 tonnes of sugar during the 2022–23 season. Tobacco, coffee, rice, potatoes, beans, citrus, and livestock are also very important agricultural products in Cuba. In 2018, agriculture employed an estimated 18.3 percent of the labor force.

Tourism: Cuba's tourism industry is the greatest single source of revenue to the nation. In 2019, travel and tourism contributed an estimated 10.3 percent of the country's GDP. That same year, there were 4.2 million tourist arrivals to Cuba. However, in 2020 that number dropped to 1.08 million following the global COVID-19 pandemic that began that same year, and numbers remained low in the years to follow due to Cuba's prolonged pandemic-related restrictions, even as other parts of the Caribbean began to rebound.

Popular destinations in Cuba include Old Havana, a UNESCO World Heritage Site; tobacco plantations in Pinar del Río and elsewhere; Revolution-related attractions, including the historical hiding places of revolutionary heroes Fidel Castro and Ernesto "Che" Guevara; the Vinales Valley; and the many miles of coastline beaches and resorts around the island.

Government

Cuba is officially a republic governed by its only legally recognized political party, the Communist Party of Cuba. In reality, it is a dictatorship controlled by one man with a few important party officials as assistants.

In the executive branch, the president is both chief of state and head of government, and is also president of the Council of State (the thirty-one-member ruling body of the government). A prime minister leads the Council of Ministers (the president's cabinet). The president appoints the members of the Council of Ministers, subject to the approval of the unicameral National Assembly of People's Power (Asamblea Nacional del Poder Popular), and effectively controls all other governmental entities. The National Assembly has 605 seats, and members are elected for five-year terms.

The judicial branch is headed by the People's Supreme Court (Tribunal Supremo Popular), which consists of the court president and vice president as well as both professional and lay judges. Professional judges are elected by the National Assembly and have no term limits; lay judges are elected by municipal or provincial assemblies to five-year terms.

Cuba achieved its independence from Spain only when it was ceded to the United States by the Treaty of Paris in 1898. It gained independence from the United States in 1902; by this agreement, the United States was allowed to lease a portion of the island, the US Naval Base at Guantanamo, an area it still leases in the early twenty-first century.

In the mid-1950s, a revolutionary group led by the exiled insurrectionist Fidel Castro Ruz (1926–2016), a lawyer and leader of only a few dozen revolutionaries, began making plans to overthrow the government of Fulgencio Batista. Among the dozen or so men who survived early attacks by the Cuban army were Castro, his brother Raúl, and the Argentine revolutionary Che Guevara.

By late December 1958, Castro and his forces had succeeded in driving out most resistance to their ever-growing numbers and took control of the country in a very short time. By the following week, the Cuban Revolution was in full blossom and Castro was in absolute control of the government and the military.

The early days of the Revolution were marked by several important events. The first of these was the nationalization of foreign holdings, in particular several corporations belonging to the United States (including United Fruit and the International Telephone and Telegraph Company). This action resulted in an economic embargo which would change the ideological course of the country ever after.

After the failed Bay of Pigs operation was launched by the United States in 1961, Cuba announced that it would thereafter align itself with the Soviet Union and follow communist ideology, earning further ire from the United States. There followed a final economic embargo by the United States, and for the next several decades, Cuba and the United States would remain bitterly divided over the course of political history in the Western Hemisphere.

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Cuba was faced with severe economic difficulties. It has since strengthened some sectors of its economy but has not yet rebounded to its pre-1989 GDP levels.

To many Cubans, Fidel Castro, the dominant public figure in Cuba for six decades, was a beloved revolutionary leader. To the United States and other democracies worldwide, he was a tyrant. The truth about him may lay somewhere in between: he was responsible for violently suppressing dissent, but he was also responsible for risking his own life to free millions of people from what he and many others around the world considered the shackles of economic and social disempowerment.

In 2006, Castro temporarily transferred the power of the Cuban presidency to his brother, Raúl Castro Ruz, as he was suffering from an unknown illness of the digestive system that required he undergo surgery. Following surgery, his public appearances remained limited, although he appeared on television, and Cuban news continued to report on his improved health. Castro officially retired from the presidency on February 18, 2008, stating that he would not accept the position even if it was offered to him. Later that month, the National Assembly unanimously voted for Raúl Castro to assume the presidency. Raúl proved to be, in some ways, more moderate than Fidel, who died in 2016 at the age of ninety, although he did not make major changes in the Cuban government. In April 2018, the National Assembly selected Miguel Díaz-Canel to succeed Raúl Castro as president of Cuba, although Castro remained first secretary of the Communist Party.

In 2014, Cuba and the United States began the process of normalizing relations, with the two nations reestablishing embassies and the United States relaxing some travel restrictions in 2015. Many in Cuban diaspora communities in the United States objected to such rapprochement, as they saw little movement on human rights issues in Cuba and feared that such concessions would lessen the political leverage the United States has tried to exert over its neighbor since diplomatic ties were cut in 1961. In 2017, the United States tightened travel restrictions to the island once again.

Interesting Facts

• No US-made automobiles have been exported to Cuba since the days of the Revolution. As a result, many of the vehicles in operation on Cuban roads are models that were imported prior to 1959.
• One of the most popular Cuban musical combos in recent history is the Buena Vista Social Club, comprising many elderly musicians, such as Ibrahim Ferrer and Compay Segundo, who had been nearly forgotten by the international music community before being recorded by American musician Ry Cooder. The Buena Vista Social Club's self-titled album won a Grammy Award after its release in 1997.
• Cuba is sometimes known as "El Cocodrilo" (the crocodile) or "El Caimá" (the alligator) due to its shape, which resembles that of said reptiles.
• Cubans were only permitted home wireless internet access beginning in 2019.

Bibliography

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