Cuba: Some thoughts

This January, we went to a Cuban resort.  I have to be honest, I wasn't sure what to expect. We had gone to a Cuban resort a couple years ago, and I was shocked at the state of Cuba.  The Cold War was over, so why did Cuba look like the poorest of all countries, when it is one of the most beautiful natural places in the islands?

Some Age of Conquest history

Christopher Columbus landed at Cuba in 1492 and claimed the land for Spain. (Funny enough, our Sunwing tour guide offered to take us to the spot Columbus landed.)

The sad thing is, when I think of what colonialism means, in its worst state, I think of the Spanish and the landing of Christopher Columbus in a 'new' land.  Regardless of the arguments of how brutal the Spanish were (I would say pretty brutal) the worst was the spread of European diseases into places and populations that had no defense against them.  Cuba was one such place, and then the rest of North America was subject to influenza, smallpox, measles, and typhus fever.  The Spanish killed hundreds of thousands of people wherever they went.  (Example:  Columbus built his first town on the nearby island of Hispaniola, where the Taino numbered at least 60,000 and possibly as many as 8 million, according to some estimates. But by 1548, the Taino population there had plummeted to less than 500.) Not to mention the environmental seeds, animals, etc. that were brought along for the ride that completely altered ecosystems. Conquest, more than political, had a huge effect on North America, and Cuba.

More than anything, Cuba was a place that was fought over between the Spanish, the English and the French.  It reminds me of Belgium in some ways, stuck between (and crushed) between other military super powers of the age.  In 1868, Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, considered the father of the nation, freed his slaves and, with the revolutionary cry of “Independence or Death.”  The war takes ten years, and over 300,000 Cubans and Spaniards die as a result.  Surprisingly, Cuba and the United States work to get rid of the Spanish influence.  In 1898, the USA becomes a protectorate of Cuba, and in 1902, Cuba gains independence and leases Guantanamo Bay to the USA.

Some very recent history (1900s onwards)

More than anything, the Cuban people have posters and statues of two men: Fidel Castro and Ernesto "Che" Guevara.  You see their faces everywhere.  If it wasn't for the influence of Christianity, you would think that Cubans worship these two men.  (In many ways, I wonder if some of them do.)  Set against the backdrop of imperialism, and colonialism, it's understandable as communism became such an attractive option for many why Cuba turned to Communism.  They were fighting against Fulgenicio Batista, who had taken power as a dictator and called it a democracy.

Fidel Castro (December 1976 –February 2008) became such an important figure not only because of who he was, but the forces of World War II, the Cold War and onwards.  Russia was trying to build ties with Cuba to put pressure on the United States.  Often called 'El Comandante (The Commander), Fidel would eventually lead the revolution with Che as a brother.  Che was more the revolutionary, and Castro the eventual politician. 

The end result was Che being distanced from Cuban politics, and as Castro got closer as allies with Russia.  In the end, since Che never stopped wanting to take the war to the United States (Which I think Fidel knew he would lose everything they had gained) he started wars in other places, and eventually was executed away from home. The Cuban Missile Crisis, which showed truly how nuclear war could start, was perhaps a revelation to America that nuclear weapons could be used against them if they took too many missteps internationally with their foreign policy.

Today, Cuba seems just like a nice destination for Canadians and other internationals to visit.  But the reality is more complicated and represents the influences of super powers, of nations that have very little interest in Cuba for its people, but perhaps what it represents at a stepping stone in North American and European colonialism.

What an interesting place.