Cuba

C

Religion

Cuba has no official religion and about half the people class themselves as non-religious. However, during the 1990s the number of people openly practising some kind of religion has increased, partly because of reforms by the government reducing discrimination against believers. The decision by the Fourth Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba, held in 1991, to admit adherents to the Christian faith was followed, in July 1992, by constitutional amendments guaranteeing freedom of religion. The number of professed Roman Catholics has declined from more than 70 per cent of the population in the 1950s to about 40 per cent in the mid-1990s, in large part because of the confrontation between Church and State in the early years of Castro’s administration, which led to the departure from the country of the majority of priests and nuns, as well as some Protestant clergy and all rabbis. Relations with the Vatican began to improve during the 1980s and are now cordial; Pope John Paul II accepted an invitation to visit Cuba in 1998. About 4 per cent of the population belongs to Protestant denominations, including the Baptist and Episcopal Churches, Methodism, and Presbyterianism. However, the fastest-growing are the evangelical Pentecostal Churches and the house-church movement. Also important are the Afro-Cuban syncretist religions, notably santería, which was developed originally by people from West Africa, especially Nigeria, brought to Cuba as slaves. Santería blends Catholic belief in saints with the Yoruba belief in orishas, emissaries of God that rule over the forces of nature and human endeavours. Belief in such religions is thought to be more widespread than belief in orthodox Catholicism.

D

Language

Spanish is the official language and also the language of everyday speech. Lucumi, a Niger-Congo language, is used for rituals (as a second language only) by people of the Santería religion.

E

Education

Like health, education has been a government priority since the revolution of 1959. It is based on communist principles, combining study with manual work. It is free at all levels and compulsory between the ages of 6 and 14, although pupils can continue in school until they are 17. In 1993, 90 per cent of the school-age population was enrolled in school. In addition to a countrywide primary school system, there are more than 2,170 secondary schools and 50 or so tertiary-level establishments. Cuba has 11 universities, the largest being the University of Havana (founded 1728). Other notable establishments include the University of Camagüey (1967), the University of Cienfuegos (1979), the University of Granma (1967), Central University of Las Villas (1952), and the University of Oriente (1947). The government also operates a comprehensive system of nursery provision and adult education and literacy programmes. The adult literacy rate is estimated at 97 per cent, the highest in Latin America. More than 10 per cent of Cubans have degrees or other tertiary-level qualifications, and the country has some 180 technical and scientific research centres. Cuba has a particular reputation in medical research and biotechnology, including genetic engineering. In 1994 Cuba spent 6.6 per cent of the gross national product on education.

F

Culture

Cuban culture is a combination of Spanish and African traditions. The blending of Spanish guitars and melodies with African rhythms and percussion instruments, especially drums, gives Cuban music its most distinctive forms—such as the rumba, the mambo, and son. Developed around the end of the 19th century and incorporating guitars, tres (a small stringed instrument), double bass, bongos, claves, and voice, son is the most popular contemporary Cuban music. Some Cuban folk music, however, such as the punto, the zapateo, and the guajira, has been greatly influenced by European music. Notable exponents of Cuban music include the musicians Pérez Prado and Benny Moré, the singer-composers Silvio Rodríguez and Pablo Milanés, and the composers Ernesto Lecuona, Moisés Simons, and Miguel Matamoros. See also Latin American Music.

Cuba has a rich literary history. The country’s most famous literary figure is the 19th-century poet, writer, and lawyer José Martí, whose death during the war for independence from Spain confirmed him as a national hero. More recently, Nicolás Guillén was adopted as the national poet after the 1959 revolution. His poems, spanning six decades from the 1920s, reflect popular speech and musical rhythms, but look to Latin America rather than Africa. Perhaps the most influential of modern authors is the novelist Alejo Carpentier, who chose to stay in Cuba after the revolution. He is credited with inspiring the coining of the term “magic realism”, used to describe a type of postmodernist fiction, when he asked “What is the story of Latin America if not a chronicle of the marvellous in the real?” Magic realism has been pursued further by other Latin American writers, notably Gabriel García Márquez, of Colombia, who spent much time in Cuba and was heavily influenced by the revolution. Contemporary writers include the poet and novelist Miguel Barnet, José Lezama Lima, and Edmundo Desnoes. The years between 1920 and the revolution saw the emergence of some of the most famous Cuban painters, such as Wifredo Lam, Marianao Rodríguez, René Portocarrero, and Amelia Pelaez. Manuel Mendive is widely considered to be the foremost of the modern generation of Cuban painters. See also Latin American Literature; Latin American Art and Architecture.

The Cuban revolution has had a profound effect on culture and has made it a part of everyday life and not just the preserve of the elite. Nearly all forms of artistic expression, whether music, painting, cinema, theatre, or literature, have been actively supported by the state. Theatres, museums, and art schools were established during the 1960s, and the Cuban National Ballet and a thriving film industry founded. Film-makers of international repute include Santiago Alvares, Humberto Solás, and Tomás Gutiérrez Alea (see Latin American Cinema). Probably the most famed of Cuban film-makers, his work includes: La Muerte de un Burócrata (1966; Murder of a Bureaucrat), the first of his films to gain international attention; Memorias del Subdesarrollo (1968; Memories of Underdevelopment); and Fresas y Chocolate (1993; Strawberry and Chocolate), which examines problems of contemporary Cuban society, and which was nominated for an Academy Award. The Cuban National Ballet has an international reputation, as has its founder and director, the prima ballerina Alicia Alonso. However encouraging to the arts, the system has also imposed its own limitations by controlling what people should be exposed to. Many young artists now feel stifled by a cultural bureaucracy and a number have left the country.

Each of Cuba’s 14 provinces has its own theatres, museums, and art galleries. The National Museum in Havana houses collections of both classical and modern art, and relics of indigenous cultures. The Colonial and Anthropological museums are also in Havana. Santiago de Cuba, the country’s second city, has the Emilio Bacardi Moreau Museum of natural history and art, while the Oscar M. de Rojas Museum is in Cárdenas. Cuba is host to a number of important international cultural events, including the Latin American Film Festival, the International Ballet Festival, and the Havana Jazz Festival.

IV

Economy

Cuba had a gross national product (GNP) in 1991 of about US$17,000 million, giving a per capita income of about US$1,580. Since then both GNP and per capita income have declined as a result of the impact of the dissolution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) on Cuba.

The revolutionary government that gained power in 1959 subsequently imposed a Marxist-Leninist system on the country, with almost all sectors of the economy state-controlled and centrally planned. Much of the property that was expropriated without compensation after the 1959 revolution belonged to US companies or individuals. The United States in 1962 declared a full economic and political blockade of Cuba. In response to these efforts to isolate it, the Cuban government turned to the Soviet bloc for military, economic, and financial assistance. Cuba became heavily dependent on other Communist countries for trade and aid, particularly the USSR. Sugar and, to a lesser extent, nickel were traded for oil, machinery, transport equipment, and consumer goods. With Soviet assistance, Cuba developed better housing, health, and education than anywhere else in Latin America and the Caribbean, and now has a lower infant mortality rate than many industrialized countries. There are more doctors per head (1 doctor for every 169 people) than nearly anywhere else in the world, and in education Cuba has a lower student to teacher ratio than France, Germany, the United Kingdom, or the United States.

However, the break-up of the Eastern bloc and collapse of the USSR in 1991 had a devastating effect on the Cuban economy that was exacerbated by the tightening of the US blockade during this period. Before 1990 Soviet assistance amounted to more than 20 per cent of Cuba’s gross domestic product (GDP), while the Eastern bloc generally accounted for 85 per cent of the country’s foreign trade. In particular it was the source of cheap imports, especially oil. After 1990 fresh produce and other food, fuel, fertilizers, medicines, agricultural chemicals, and a wide variety of other basic goods were either rationed or unavailable. According to official statistics, GDP fell by 35 per cent between 1989 and 1994, while export earnings fell from US$8.1 billion in 1989 to US$1.7 billion in 1993.

The government was forced to take action and the “special period” was announced, involving the introduction of cautious, market-oriented economic reform. Steps were taken to transform parts of the centrally planned economy into a mixed economy along lines generally recommended by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). During 1994 and 1995 IMF representatives paid several unofficial visits to Cuba, underlining the important shifts in policy. In June 1993 restrictions on Cuban exiles travelling to Cuba were relaxed. In September 1993 the government authorized limited individual private enterprise in a range of 117 occupations. In October 1994 agricultural markets were liberalized with the aim of reducing the expanding black market; the move was subsequently extended to consumer goods. Other measures have included cuts in subsidies to inefficient state enterprises, selective price rises, the imposition of new taxes (including income tax on the self-employed), and moves to control the money supply and reduce the huge budget deficit. There were also some currency reform measures: Cubans are now allowed to hold foreign currency and a “convertible peso”, initially at par with the US dollar, has been introduced. It is fully exchangeable with the dollar inside Cuba. The US dollar was made legal tender in 1993. There have also been changes in legislation to encourage more foreign investment, and to allow free-trade zones and export manufacturing centres to be established.

The changes appear to have had a positive impact. According to official figures GDP grew by 7.6 per cent in 1996, compared with 2.5 per cent the previous year. The growth in 1996, despite a devastating hurricane and flooding from subsequent tropical storms, was attributed to increases in sugar and nickel production. The budget deficit was almost halved between 1993 and 1996 to 2.4 per cent of GDP. Although the reforms were important, President Fidel Castro, Cuba’s head of state, insisted that they did not reflect a fundamental change in ideology. Thus, for example, almost all land and all important industrial enterprises are still in state hands. The Central Planning Board (established in the early 1960s) still develops and implements the five-year and annual plans that set prices and production targets for production, imports, and exports.

During the 1990s Cuba has also concentrated on improving its foreign relations, particularly with the EU, Canada, and Latin America, in order to increase trade and investment. More than 400 foreign companies are now operating in Cuba, with capital from 38 countries. The leading investors are Spain, Canada, France, Italy, and Mexico. The United States tried in 1996 to tighten the economic blockade further by passing legislation aimed at curtailing third-country investment in expropriated US property in Cuba, though in 2000 legislation weakening some restrictions was passed (see Commerce and Trade section below).