Culture, Core Values, And Cultural Awareness Of Cuba

A culture is the body of ideas, ways of looking at the world, values, and standards for conduct and behavior that a given people or nation hold in common. It includes the range of meanings that people assign to their own perceptions and behavior, as well as to the natural world around them. We can define the elements of that culture, and understand how they fit together as a culture, by examining that people's customs, language, religion, material artifacts, and social and political institutions.

Family, heritage, ethnicity, beliefs, values, knowledge, experiences, attitudes, religion, education, roles, language, and cuisine are all items encompassing culture. Culture is what influences your outlook on life itself as well as behaviors and rituals. Culture is the way different groups of people do things. While some cultures have overlapping cultural behaviors or aspects, most cultures vary significantly. Culture, for the most part, is something you are born into, your innate programming, however, it some aspects can be changed or evolved. "Only part of culture is conscious" (Spector, 2013).

On January 8th, 1959, Fidel Castro and his rebel army marched triumphantly into Havana, Cuba, having overthrown corrupt dictator Fulgencio Batista the week earlier. It was the fruition of the Cuban Revolution, and the dramatic shift in power was about to radically alter the country’s political, social and economic course forever. The positive and negative effects of the revolution on the Cuban people, however, as well as the condition of Cuba’s economy pre and post-revolution, is subject to heated debate. Castro’s iron-fisted regime was the introduction of communism into the western hemisphere, and now, over fifty years later, the Cuban Revolution continues to be one of the most controversial events of the twentieth century. Despite the criticism levelled at Fidel Castro and his communist regime, however, the Cuban Revolution was necessary in improving the quality of life for the majority of Cuban citizens. The four fundamental categories on which to assess this are healthcare, education, economy and governance. By comparing the country’s overall performance under Fulgencio Batista versus under Fidel Castro in these areas crucial to a fully-functioning nation, it can be shown that the Cuban Revolution was a necessary and positive change in Cuban society which benefitted the majority of citizens.

Cuba’s colorful history can be documented to before the days of the American Revolution in 1776, but today, American policy directly affects many Cubans’ lifestyles because of a nearly 45-year-old trade embargo that has been placed on the island nation. It is crucial to analyze the development of Cuba and its neighboring island nations in order to discern the reasons for Cuba’s current political situation with the United States. The following paper will discuss the events that shaped Cuba and larger Caribbean nations like Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Jamaica; next, a detailed description of Cuba’s turbulent history will help in explaining the Cuban transformation into a

Over the course of the semester, I gained great knowledge about Cuba, including many factors that have influenced the way its current society functions. There are many different components that helped configure Cuba’s history and the customs and traditions that Cubans still follow today. Some of the specific factors I find have heavily influenced Cuban culture are: economy, race, wealth, religion, and cultural traditions. Like many countries, Cubans were directly affected by religious beliefs and culture. Cuba became the center of the world’s attention in 1492 when Christopher Columbus set sail for Asia, only to land in what was then declared the New World.

Cuba is a unique nation in which it’s culture has been defined as a result of incorporating different customs from various nations over time. Beginning in the 1500s, the Spanish would be the first migrants to inhabit the island. Not only did the Spanish bring their customs along with them, but fifteen years after their arrival they also brought African slaves onto the island. Even through the hardships of slavery and oppression, the African’s maintained practices and preserved aspects of their culture that were eventually incorporated into Cuban culture as a whole. The young nation also saw various nations and ethnicities, such as Haitians and Americans as time progressed. Like their migrant predecessors, these individuals would also

Cuba’s early history is characterized by colonization, agricultural capitalism, the introduction of African slave labor, and a class system that divided the island (Mintz, 1971). Beginning in the 1800’s the Catholic Church ideology saturated Cuban society, which was the standard of Spanish-speaking Latin America at that time. Education at this time was an opportunity experienced by elite, white, males and centered on rigid Catholic tenets of philosophy. The base economy was agriculture, and African slaves

No country can escape the knocking of globalization, especially a small island nation that just recently opened the door to invite back in the world’s sole surviving superpower. The recent revival of United States-Cuba relations has put Cuba in a precarious situation, whereby the next few years will be extremely crucial in defining their new place in the global world system. However, with the implementation of much-needed economic reforms, advancement strategies, and the normalization of US-Cuba diplomatic ties, Cuba has the potential to thrive .

Cuba had to evolve their economy because the Soviet Union had been such a huge part of it that when it was demolished, they were left with practically nothing. Cuba lost a third of its imports in a period of four years, as well as three-quarters of their trade, sending their economy into extreme crisis. Since Cuba’s leader, Fidel Castro, was not well liked around the world they had very few options in terms of foreign relations. Castro was a force to be reckoned with, the Soviet Union could not control him, and he often denied Soviet ideas. In the end, the soviet union sometimes felt that Castro was the one leading them. The relationship that Cuba had with Russia was imperative to their success because they had the upper hand. Since Castro had become isolated in relations with the western hemisphere he joined forces with Russia and the soviet union as they provided help in the military and economy. Now with the USSR gone, Cuba was left isolated and in need of desperate help. The Cuban people recognized their situation and began to value their currency more. Children growing up during the time of economic reform had learned to practice their own methods by renting their toys and videos to

With a 99.8 literacy rate, Cuba is ranked higher than both Britain and the United states. The reason for its high literacy rate is because after the revolution, the government sent out students to go out and teach those who could not read and mainly focused on the rural parts of Cuba. Women and afro Cubans made up most of the illiterate population, and historically they were always targeted, however when the literacy campaign begin they were not forgotten. Education is viewed in Cuba as a basic human right instead of a luxury. In fact, “The quality of Cuba’s education is recognized at the top international levels; for example, Cuba is ranked at number 16 in UNESCO’s Education for All Development Index, higher than any other country in Latin America and the Caribbean” (Martinez, Carlos 2013). The fact that Cuba is underdeveloped compared to other countries in Latin America, but strives in its education department is incredible. With its free health care, the life expectancy is set at 79 and is higher than most Latin American countries. Many would not think that Cuba is prospering in those two factors because of the amount of people trying to flee the country every year. As much as how good Cuba looks on paper, its people can be be jailed for speaking against the government and even murdered in some cases. Freedom of speech is not a right and the

As these aspects of life in Cuba were of prime concern, the effects of the revolution came to achieve this objective. This is shown in “Reflections on the Cuban Revolution” as the author, Gary Prevost, provides statistics that states, “Cuba has an average of one teacher for every forty-five inhabitants, and its literacy rate of 96.4 percent is one of the highest in Latin America” (Prevost 138). Also, health care is a primary issue in Cuba and has come to be an example to third world countries, “with more than 260 hospitals and 420 clinics” (Prevost 138). These grounds show how much Cuba has developed and advanced as a community. Because the revolutionaries had set a plan and were determined to improve Cuba socially, the strategy was a success and went into effect after the revolution.

One of the underlying themes in Castro’s speech was his ability to underscore that there was a fundamental problem in Cuba’s economy. In a time when the United States had recently come out of its own economic recession and was industrializing, foreign threats severely undermined Cuba’s ability to gain economic autonomy. As Castro keenly pointed out, “ 85% of small farmers in Cuba pay rent and live under

International actors are nowadays on the Cuban scene to improve their accessibility to the world, such as China which “pledge to provide assistance to Cuba to help its social economic development” (as stated in Press,

Cuba in the Batista’s regime had acess to only limited education that too in varied geographical regions, being more restricted in the rural arean and the ghettos of the poor. Hence it was also limited by economic status. In the years

Background: Cuba is an island in the Caribbean. La Habana is the capital of Cuba and its biggest city. Cuba is not an industrialized country and it mainly consists of farms. Cuba is the largest island in the Caribbean and the most populated with a population of over 11 million people. Cuba is a totalitarian communist country and has been ruled by Fidel Castro since 1959. Raul Castro has succeeded Fidel Castro and is now president. In 2008 Fidel Castro renounced his presidency after becoming ill and passed his presidency on to Raul Castro, his brother and Vice President. Raul Castro now performs all roles. The country