Cuba: Afro-Cubans could gain from new trade relations with the U.S.
A brief history of Black Cubans
President Obama moves to undo the 54-year-old United States trade embargo against Cuba, using broad executive power to lift restrictions on travel, commerce and financial activities.
The U.S. Census Bureau reports there are 2,013,155 Cuban-Americans (2013). The majority of Cubans who came to the United States were white Cubans. But, there are a number or Black Cubans who are often overlooked in the conversation about Cuba.
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Video: President Obama delivers a statement on chart a new course on U.S.-Cuba relations
December 17, 2014
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Video: Christina Milian – Obama opening US-Cuba relations
Linking black Cubans back with their families
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Cuba Population:
The demographics of Cuba is diverse… there are White European Cubans (including Jewish Cubans), Black/Afro-Cubans (people of African descent), and even Asian Cubans.
11,047,251 (July 2014 est.)
62% of Cuba’s population was of Afro-Cuban ethnicity (Black and mulatto) in 2003. Meaning Cuba is a majority black nation
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What happened to the native people of Cuba?
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The majority of the Jewish population leaves Cuba
While it remains unclear when Jews first arrived in Cuba, it is popular lore that three Jewish men arrived after the expulsion from Spain in 1492.
During the 16th and 17th centuries, Jews immigrated to Cuba from Brazil. They were persecuted under Portuguese control. New Jewish immigrants established trade in Cuba and, by the 18th century, Cuban Jewish trade reached Amsterdam, The Netherlands and Hamburg, Germany. Jews continued to be harrassed during this time, and many of the originial Jewish immigrants assimilated and acculturated into Cuban society.
In the late 1800’s, Jews from the Dutch Antilles settled in Cuba. They supported Jose Martí, who liberated Cuba from Spanish colonial rule in 1898.
A large number of Jews immigrated to Cuba from 1910 until 1920, including Sephardic Jews from Turkey. Many of these Jews came from Eastern Europe and used Cuba as a stopover en route to the United States, which had a strict quota system at that time. Many decided to stay since there was little anti-Semitism in Cuba, as well as good weather. Many of the new immigrants from Europe prospered in Cuban’s garment industry. By 1924, there were 24,000 Jews living in Cuba. Jews continued to seek asylum in Cuba during the Holocaust.
Approximately 94 percent of Cuba’s Jewish population fled after the Revolution. Some settled in Israel, thanks to secret diplomatic efforts made by the Canadian government. While the Revolution did not target Jews specifically, they did suffer economically along with other members of Cuba’s middle class.
Source: Jewish Virtual Library
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Black Cubans (Afro-Cubans) are often overlooked in the conversation regarding the nation of Cuba
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Report on the Census of Cuba, 1899
University libraries -University of South Carolina
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Black Hispanics/Latinos….Yes, Hispanic/Latino is not a race and it is not an ethnicity. It’s a place of origin only.
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The Cuban Refugee Program
How the United States aided Cuban Americans financially
By William L. Mitchell
United States Commissioner of Social Security 1959-1962
Social Security Bulletin, March 1962
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Video: Black in Latin America -Cuba The Next Revolution
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Discrimination and Segregation in Cuba under U.S. Occupation
http://video.pbs.org/video/1890916064/
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Trade in goods with Cuba
US trade with Cuba
Trade during the last few years with Cuba
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Cuba has the lowest rate of HIV/AIDS infection in the Western Hemisphere
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Understanding the difference between Hispanic/Latino and one’s racial classification
