BY: YANITZA BORRERO

CUBA

MAP OF CUBACuba is located in 90 miles from Key West, Florida in the Caribbean. It is the largest island in the Caribbean.

POPULATION11,031,433 (July 2015)

White: 64.1%

Mestizo: 26.6%

Black: 9.3%

(2012 est.)

RELIGION

• Roman Catholic – 85%

• Protestant, Jehovah’s witness, Jewish, Santeria – 15%

• Prior to Castro assuming power

CULTURE

• Music in Cuba ranges from salsa, mambo, rumba to the upbeat derivation of the rumba, the cha-cha-cha.

• The typical meal consist of plantains, black beans and rice, ropa vieja, Cuban bread, pork with onions, and tropical fruits.

• Baseball is national sport.

HISTORY

• Tainos were the Native Americans who were originally in Cuba.

• Christopher Columbus landed in the islands of the Caribbean in 1492.

• In 1898, the U.S. won Cuba as one of the territories from Spain at the end of the Spanish-American War.

• In 1950s, Cuban Revolution

• In 1961, embargo began with the U.S.

• In 2015, embargo ends with U.S. and President Obama visits Cuba, first president after more than 85 years since 1928.

LITERATURE

• Cuban literature began to find its voice in the early 19th century.

• Dominant themes of independence and freedom were exemplified by José Martí, who led the Modernist movement in Cuban literature. Writers such as Jose Z. Tallet focused on literature as social protest. The poetry and novels of Dulce Maria Loynaz and Jose Lezama Lima have been influential.

NICOLAS GUILLEN RAP SHEET• Artist name: Nicolas Guillen (Nicolas Cristobal Guillen Batista)

• DOB: July 10, 1902 (Died: July 16, 1989)

• Country/Place of birth: Camaguey, Cuba

• Religious affiliation: N/A

• Education: Studied law at the University of Havana, but abandoned a legal career

• Politics: Political Activism, Communist

• Relevant Literary or Philosophical movement: Marxism, Cultural Assimulation

• Genres: Journalism, novels, songs, poesia negra,

• Main themes: Afro-Cuban poetry, social protest, social dilemma, social justice, politics, revolution, social reforms

• Style: irony, humorous which embraced the condition of the common man, political poetry to his mature descriptions of the socio-historical and everyday life of Cuba

• Examples: “A bone-point lance, a drum of hide and wood: my black grandfather. A ruff on a broad neck, a warrior’s gray armament: my white grandfather” (p822).

• Other: He was exile for Cuba for five years in the 1950s but was able to return to Cuba thanks to Fidel Castro

SOURCES

• https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/cu.html

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuba

• http://www.infoplease.com/country/cuba.html

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicol%C3%A1s_Guill%C3%A9n

• http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Nicolas_Guillen.aspx