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Location of Cuba in the Caribbean
Republic of Cuba
República de Cuba (Spanish)

Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba, Isla de la Juventud, archipelagos, 4,195 islands and cays surrounding the main island. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, and Atlantic Ocean meet. Cuba is located east of the Yucatán Peninsula (Mexico), south of both the American state of Florida and the Bahamas, west of Hispaniola (Haiti/Dominican Republic), and north of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands. Havana is the largest city and capital. Cuba is the third-most populous country in the Caribbean after Haiti and the Dominican Republic, with about 11 million inhabitants. It is the largest country in the Caribbean by area.

Cuba is a socialist state, in which the role of the Communist Party is enshrined in the Constitution. Cuba has an authoritarian Government where political opposition is not permitted. Censorship is extensive and independent journalism is repressed; Reporters Without Borders has characterized Cuba as one of the worst countries for press freedom. Culturally, Cuba is considered part of Latin America. It is a multiethnic country whose people, culture and customs derive from diverse origins, including the Taíno Ciboney peoples, the long period of Spanish colonialism, the introduction of enslaved Africans and a close relationship with the Soviet Union during the Cold War. (Full article...)

A dialoguero (roughly translating to "dialogue-seeker" in English) is a label for a person who wants to open negotiations with the Cuban government. The label was coined as an epithet by hard-line anti-communist Cuban exiles.

The first dialogueros to emerge in the United States were Cuban students in the 1960s and 70s. These students developed various student organizations dedicated to discussing Cuban identity, culture, and politics. Many of these students were influenced by social movements and radical politics in the United States at the time. Various politically diverse publications were formed from these circles such as Nueva Generación, Joven Cuba, ¡Cuba Va!, Krisis, and Areíto. While these journals generally focused on developing Cuban identity, criticizing violent anti-communism and desiring dialogue with Cuba, they often disagreed about the successfulness of the Castro government and the role of Cuban Americans in Cuban politics. The emergence of dialogueros broke the staunch conservative atmosphere of Cuban exile politics, and opened the possibility of a Cuban-American left. (Full article...)
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Sánchez in 2013

Yoani María Sánchez Cordero (born September 4, 1975) is a Cuban blogger who has achieved international fame and multiple international awards for her critical portrayal of life in Cuba under its current government.

Sánchez attended primary school during the affluent time when the Soviet Union was providing considerable aid to Cuba. However, her high school and university education coincided with the loss of financial aid to Cuba following the Soviet Union's collapse, creating a highly public educational system and style of living that subsequently left Sánchez with a strong need for personal privacy. Sánchez's university education left her with two understandings; first, that she had acquired a disgust for "high culture", and second that she no longer had an interest in philology, her chosen field of university study. (Full article...)

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Rita Montaner

Rita Aurelia Fulcida Montaner y Facenda (20 August 1900 – 17 April 1958), known as Rita Montaner, was a Cuban singer, pianist and actress. In Cuban parlance, she was a vedette (a star), and was well known in Mexico City, Paris, Miami and New York, where she performed, filmed and recorded on numerous occasions. She was one of Cuba's most popular artists between the late 1920s and 1950s, renowned as Rita de Cuba. Though classically trained as a soprano for zarzuelas, her mark was made as a singer of Afro-Cuban salon songs including "The Peanut Vendor" and "Siboney".

Throughout her career, Montaner kept a close personal and professional relationship with two famous musicians from her hometown of Guanabacoa: pianist-singer Bola de Nieve and composer Ernesto Lecuona. (Full article...)
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Cuban boys playing in Trinidad, Cuba
Cuban boys playing in Trinidad, Cuba
Credit: Jean-Pierre Lavoie
Cuban boys playing in Trinidad, Cuba.

More did you know - show different entries

  • ...that Organopónicos are urban Hydroponic units in Cuba that provide on the average 215 grams of organic vegetables per day to Cuban city dwellers?
  • ...that the Guanajatabey were indigenous inhabitants of Cuba, that lived on the island since at least 1000 B.C.? And that they were forced to the western point of the island by the arrival of the Ciboney people?
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American guitarist Ry Cooder on his experiences working Cuban musicians on the Buena Vista Social Club.

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