History
 

 

 

 

«La Patria no es de nadie: y si es de alguien, sera, y esto solo en espiritu, de quien la sirva con mayor desprendimiento e inteligencia».
José Martí
 

 
History of Cuba

Arawak (or Taino) Indians inhabiting Cuba when Columbus arribó a Cuba el 27 de octubre de 1492
landed on the island in 1492 aproximadamente 100 000 indígenas que poblaban la Isla al iniciarse la conquista española. The native people died from diseases brought by sailors and settlers. By 1511,Spaniards under Diego Velásquez had established settlements. Havana's superb harbormade it a common transit point to and from Spain.The soul of the Cuban nation was forged during the nineteenth century. Its teacher born in Havana on November 20, 1788 was Father Felix Varela. The culminations of his philisophical writings in Cuba
 In the early 1800s, Cuba's sugarcane industry boomed, requiring massive numbers of black slaves. A simmering independence movement turned into open warfare from 1867 to 1878. Slavery was abolished in 1886. In 1895, the poet José Marti led the struggle that finally ended Spanish rule, thanks largely to U.S. intervention in 1898 after the sinking of the battleship Maine in Havana harbor.
 Primera bandera revolucionaria-La conspiración de los Soles y  Rayos de Bolivar, 1823.  

                                    
Corría el año 1823 bajo el mando del general Vives cuando la logia francmasónica de los "Soles y Rayos de Bolívar", de acuerdo con otras sociedades secretas de la isla, organizó una conspiración para derrocar la dominación española y fundar la República de Cubanacán. Por el sumario que se instruyó contra la frustrada conspiración se sabe que fueron encontradas 395 escaparelas de los colores rojo, azul, y amarillo junto con "tres banderas de seda de tafetán sencillo, cada una con dos y media vara de largo y una y media de ancho, el centro azul turquí, y en el punto medio, estampado un sol grande con sus rayos, como esmaltado, color plateado con claros y oscuros, y en la circumferencia una faja de media tercia de color carmesí". Hay desacuerdo entre la descripción y el diseño encontrado, pues en éste el sol es dorado o amarillo y no plateado como se indica
 

 

 

HIMNO NACIONAL DE CUBA

Al combate corred, bayameses

Que la Patria os contempla orgullosa

No temáis una muerte gloriosa

Que morir por la Patria, es vivir.

En cadenas vivir es vivir

En afrenta y oprobio sumidos,

Del clarín escuchad el sonido

A las armas, valientes, corred. 
 

El Himno de Bayamo,

Compuesto el 14 de agosto de 1867 por Pedro Figueredo. Cantado por vez primera el 20 de octubre de 1868 -hecho que establece actualmente el Día de la Cultura Cubana- cuando las fuerzas del Ejército Independentista tomaron la ciudad de Bayamo, que luego quemarían sus pobladores antes de volver a manos de España. Previo a la guerra del 95, en 1892, José Martí publicó la letra en el periódico revolucionario Patria.

Entre 1848 y 1849
Narciso López




La bandera de
Carlos Manuel de Céspedes




Al constituirse el país en estado independiente (1902) la bandera del venezolano Narciso López fue ratificada como la oficial de Cuba.  Sus especificaciones fueron señaladas por el Decreto Presidencies número 154, del 24 de abril de 1906
        

El Escudo Nacional

Originalmente dibujado en 1849 por Miguel Teurbe Colón, el mismo que diseñó la bandera, conserva su concepción básica aunque con algunos cambios. En su cuerpo superior horizontal aparece una llave dorada entre dos montañas y un sol naciente (lo cual simboliza la posición de Cuba en el Golfo de México, entre las dos Américas). Las franjas blancas y azules representan, al igual que en la bandera, la antigua división departamental. A la izquierda, en la vertical, aparece un paisaje cubano presidido por la palma real, símbolo del carácter indoblegable del pueblo cubano.

                  MARTI                    MACEO                 GOMEZ             AGRAMONTE  

WAR  INDEPENDENCE
 1868 -1898

 

 

The Birth of a Nation.....May 20

An 1899 treaty made Cuba an PSEUDO independent republic under U.S. occupation, which ended in 1902, . The 1901 Platt Amendment IMPOSE BY WASHINGTON allowed the U.S. to intervene in Cuba's affairs, which it did four times from 1906 to 1920. Cuba terminated the amendment in 193

In 1933 a group of army officers, including army sergeant Fulgencio Batista, overthrew President Gerado Machado. Batista became president in 1940, running a corrupt police state. THOUSAND OF CUBAN Died FROM TORTURE BY THE BATISTAS GOVERNMENT POLICE.
in 1956, Fidel Castro Ruz launched a revolution from his camp in the Sierra Maestra mountains. Castro's brother Raul, and Ernesto (Ché) Guevara, an Argentine physician, along with camilo cienfuegos were his top lieutenants. Many anti-Batista landowners supported the rebels. The U.S. ended military aid to Cuba in 1958, and on New Year's Day 1959, Batista fled into exile and Castro took over the government.

En 1961 a U.S.-backed group of Cuban exiles invaded Cuba. Planned during the Eisenhower administration, the invasion was given the go-ahead by President John Kennedy, although he refused to give U.S. air support. The landing at the Bay of Pigs on April 17, 1961, was a fiasco. The invaders did not receive popular Cuban support and were easily repulsed by the Cuban military

 
    BAY OF PIG

A Soviet attempt to install medium-range missiles in Cuba capable of striking targets in the United States with nuclear warheads—provoked a crisis in 1962. Denouncing the Soviets for “deliberate deception,” on Oct. 22 Kennedy said that the U.S. would blockade Cuba so the missiles could not be delivered. Six days later Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev ordered the missile sites dismantled and returned to the USSR, in return  U.S. pledge not to attack Cuba.

Cuba fomented Communist revolution around the world, especially in Angola, where thousands of Cuban troops were sent in the 1980s. The U.S. established limited diplomatic ties with Cuba on Sept. 1, 1977, making it easier for Cuban-Americans to visit the island. Contact with the more affluent Cuban Americans prompted a wave of discontent in Cuba, producing a flood of asylum seekers. In response, Castro opened the port of Mariel to a “freedom flotilla” of boats from the U.S., allowing 125,000 to flee to Miami. After the refugees arrived, it was discovered their ranks were swelled with prisoners, mental patients, homosexuals, and others unwanted by the Cuban government
Russian aid, which had long supported Cuba's failing economy, ended when communism collapsed in eastern Europe in 1990. Cuba's foreign trade also plummeted, producing a severe economic crisis called periodo especial. In 1993, Castro permitted limited private enterprise, allowed Cubans to possess convertible currencies, and encouraged foreign investment in its tourist industry. In March 1996, the U.S. tightened its embargo with the Helms-Burton Act.

In June 2000, Castro won a publicity bonanza when the Clinton administration sent Elian Gonzalez, a young boy found clinging to an inner tube, back to Cuba. The Cuban-American community had demanded that the boy remain in Miami rather than be returned to his father in Cuba. By many accounts, the influential Cuban-Americans lost public sympathy by pitting political ideology against familial bonds

LA OPOSICION CUBANA
CONOZCA A LOS PRINCIPALES LIDERES

http://www.proyectovarela.org/

La Flor Nacional 
 La mariposa. Su nombre científico es Hedychiu
coronarium, de la familia de las Zingiberaceas.
Oriunda de Vietnam. Devino símbolo de la flora
 cubana, pues fue empleada como una especie
de clave entre las mujeres que participaron en las guerras liberadoras del siglo XIX. Tiene un exquisito perfume 

LaPalmaReal
Aunque no es oriunda de Cuba, por su abundancia en nuestra naturaleza y su simbolismo, representando la firmeza del pueblo cubano
 

Tocororo
, especie autóctona, su plumaje reproduce los colores de la enseña nacional

Elian Gonzalez
The Elian Gonzalez  pictures

  

The Cuban opposition

In February 1996 Cuban authorities arrested or detained at least 150 dissidents, marking the most widespread crackdown on opposition groups in the country since the early 1960s. Many were members of the Concilio Cubano, a fledgling coalition of more than 100 organizations dedicated to political reform.
Later that month, Cuban jet fighters shot down two civilian planes that Cuba claimed had violated Cuban airspace. The planes belonged to Brothers to the Rescue, a U.S.-based group headed by Cuban exiles dedicated to helping Cuban refugees. The group used small planes to spot refugees fleeing the island nation and then reported their positions to the U.S. Coast Guard. The United States condemned the shootings as a flagrant violation of international law; the United Nations also criticized the downing of the planes. Cuba said that planes from the same group had previously flown into Cuban airspace and dropped antigovernment leaflets, but Cuba's repeated diplomatic complaints to the United States about the incidents had gone unheeded. Castro said he did not directly order the shootings, but acknowledged that in the weeks prior to the incident he had given the Cuban Air Force the authorization to shoot down civilian planes violating Cuba's airspace.
As a result of this incident, U.S. President Bill Clinton abandoned his previous resistance to stricter sanctions against Cuba and in March 1996 signed into law the Helms-Burton Act. The legislation aimed to tighten the U.S. embargo by making it more difficult for foreign investors and businesses to operate in Cuba. It made permanent the economic embargo, which previously had to be renewed each year, and threatened foreign companies with lawsuits if they were deemed to be "deriving benefit" from property worth more than $50,000 that had been confiscated from U.S. citizens during the Cuban revolution. Canada, Mexico, and the European Union complained about the U.S. law, claiming that the United States was trying to export its laws and principles to other countries.

THE VARELA PROYECT wants to convert into laws rights that are already established in the Constitution of the Republic of Cuba and are not upheld.

This project is geared toward opening spaces for citizens’ free and responsible participation in the economic and political life of society.

Citizens are being proposed with supporting a petition for a referendum so that it may be the people who make the decision about this step toward an opening. Article 88g of the Constitution of the Republic of Cuba provides citizens with the right to carry out this petition. We hope that the government respects this right.

The Varela Project would convert into law the following for Cuba:

Freedom of expression

Freedom of the press

Freedom of association

The right of citizens to own private companies (a privilege now only granted to foreigners)

a modification of Electoral Law No. 72, which it considers to be unconstitutional

The Varela Project also asks for amnesty for political prisoners and new elections.
Taken textually from: Introductory Letter of the Varela Project,
Havana, January 22, 1998.
http://www.proyectovarela.org/

Human Rights Reports

•Amnesty International:   Annual Report 2001: Cuba
 
•Committee to Protect Journalists:   CPJ 2002 Annual Report: Cuba

•Digital Freedom Network: Voices of Freedom: Cuba

•Human Rights Wat

U.S.-Cuba timeline
Timeline of U.S.-Cuba Relations

1898
The U.S. joins Cuba's with Spain after the U.S. battleship Maine is blown
up in Havana harbor. Spain loses.
1898-1902
A U.S. military government controls Cuba.
1901
Cuba adopts a constitution allowing the U.S. to intervene in Cuban affairs
and prohibiting Cuba from entering treaties or financial relationships with other countries.
1903
The U.S. receives a permanent lease on Guantanamo Bay and begins to build a large naval base there.
1906
U.S. troops return to Cuba, and a government headed by an American rules Cuba until 1909.
1933
Military strongman Fulgencio Batista leads a coup overthrowing the liberal government
of Gerardo Machado. His dictatorship is backed by the U.S.
1953
Fidel Castro leads a rebellion against Batista, fails, and is imprisoned.
1955
Batista releases Castro from prison.
1956
Castro, "Che" Guevara, and a band of revolutionaries leave Mexico for Cuba to launch
guerrilla war against Batista.
1958
The U.S. withdraws military aid to Batista.
1959
Castro leads a guerrilla army into Havana, forcing Batista to flee.
1961
Castro declares Cuba Communist. Cuban exiles backed by the CIA invade Cuba at the Bay of
Pigs but are defeated by Castro's army.
1962
U.S. begins a trade embargo. Cuban Missile Crisis begins when President Kennedy announces
there are Soviet missiles in Cuba.
1963
The embargo is tightened; most travel to Cuba by U.S. citizens is banned.
1976
Terrorists attack a Cuban airliner renewing tensions between Cuba and the U.S. Former CIA
employee Louis Posada Carriles is tried for the crime.
1980
Mariel Boatlift begins a migration of more than 125,000 Cubans to the U.S.
1991
The Soviet Union dissolves. Cuba loses its most important source of aid, and its economy suffers
greatly. U.N. Commission on Human Rights finds no evidence of human rights abuses in Cuba.
1992
Congress tightens U.S. embargo by prohibiting transactions between U.S. foreign subsidiaries and Cuba.
 United Nations condemns U.S. embargo of Cuba.
1993
Cuban reforms allow some workers to start private businesses. Cuba holds first popular election
 since the revolution. Elections consist of one candidate per position with voters choosing to elect
or reject the candidate.
1994
Cuba and the U.S. reach an agreement. The U.S. will admit at least 20,000 Cuban immigrants
 annually. In return, Cuba pledges to do more to prevent illegal departures.
1996
Cuba shoots down two Anti-Castro civilian aircraft. Congress passes the Helms-Burton Act,
granting U.S. citizens the right to sue foreign investors profiting from expropriated U.S. assets.
1998
Pope John Paul II visits Cuba, an historic event because Castro outlawed religious freedom in the 1960s.
 The pope attacks the U.S. embargo and calls on Castro to loosen political restrictions and embrace pluralism.
1999
Elián González , a 6-year-old illegal immigrant, is rescued off Florida, sparking controversy
about how the U.S. should handle Cuban exiles; Elián is returned to his father in Cuba in 2000.
October 2000
U.S. House approves sale of food and medicines to Cuba.
November 2001
U.S. exports food to Cuba for the first time in more than 40 years after Cuba requests help in wake
of Hurricane Michelle.
January 2002
Prisoners taken during U.S.-led action in Afghanistan are flown to Guantanamo for interrogation as al-Qaida suspects.
May 2002
State Department official John Bolton accuses Cuba of trying to develop biological weapons, adding the country t
 Washington's list of "axis of evil" countries.
May 2002
Jimmy Carter makes goodwill visit that includes tour of scientific centers, in response to U.S. allegations about
 biological weapons. Carter is first former or serving U.S. president to visit Cuba since 1959.
October 2003
President George Bush announces fresh measures designed to hasten the end of communist rule in Cuba, including
tightening a travel embargo, cracking down on illegal cash transfers, and a propaganda campaign aimed at Cuba

 

THE PRESIDENTS

 

The Pope visit to Cuba

Los Protagonistas
Maso , Los Maceos Cisneros,
 Gomez ,Mariana Grajales

Antonio Maceo
El Titan de Bronce

Jose Marti
El Apostol

El 10 de Octubre
El Grito de Independencia
 

Ignacio Agramonte
El Mayor

Henry Reeve
 American Brigadier General
on Cuba's War of Independance

FACTS

DE LO VULGAR EN EL HABLA CUBANA

LA HABANA

LOS CUBANO

CAmilo Cienfuegos

LAM

AMELIA PELAEZ

VICTOR MANUEL- carreño
y muchos mas

NUESTRAS LETRAS

cabrera infante

Juana Borrero

 homoerotismo en nuestras letras

DICE NELSON

Osvaldo Dorticos and Ho Chi Ming

Paya                              Roca

Martha Roque

Che

La Proteta de Baragua

Los Estudiantes de Medicina

 

 

Dolia Leal, left, Berta Soler and Laura Pollan, known as the 'Ladies in White', lead the rest of the group of wives of political prisoners during a march in Havana, Cuba, Sunday, March 27, 2005. About 30 wives of political prisoners dressed in white and each carrying a single orange gladiola after services at Santa Rita Catholic Church marched demanding freedom for their husbands and other political prisoners. (AP Photo/Jorge Rey

sign our book

View our book