Cubans

Information about Cubans

Cubans
Cubanos

Total population
11,177,743
Regions with significant populations
Cuba
Florida
Languages
Spanish American English
Religions
Predominantly Roman Catholic;
with Jewish, Protestant, Santeria, Atheist and Agnostic minorities
Related ethnic groups
Spaniards Portuguese Cuban American White CubanAfro-Cuban Jewish Cuban Chinese Cuban Canarian people Kongo people
Cubans (Spanish: Cubanos) are people inhabiting or originating from Cuba. Most Cubans live in Cuba, although there is also a large Cuban diaspora, especially in the United States.

Population

The largest urban populations of Cubans in Cuba are to be found in Havana (c. 3,073,000), Santiago de Cuba (c. 404,100), Camagüey (c. 294,000), Holguin (c. 242,100), Guantanamo (c. 208,000), Santa Clara (c. 205,900). Abroad, the United States is home to the largest number of Cubans outside Cuba, particularly in Miami and other major cities in Florida as well as in Union City and New York City. Smaller numbers of Cubans live in many other countries around the world, especially in Latin America and Europe.

With the Amerindian element almost completely vanished from the island, Cuba's population is mainly made up of descendants of Europeans mainly being Spanish. Altohugh in actuality the vast majority are of part Taino ancestry. According to Cuba's Oficina Nacional de Estadisticas ONE 2002 Census, the Cuban population was 11,177,743,[1] including:
  • 5,597,233 men and
  • 5,580,510 women.
The racial make-up was 7,271,926 whites, 1,126,894 blacks and 2,778,923 mulattoes (or mestizos).[2] The Chinese population in Cuba is descended mostly from indentured laborers who arrived in the 19th century to build railroads and work in mines. After the Industrial Revolution, many of these laborers stayed in Cuba because they could not afford return passage to China.

(Official 2002 Cuba Census)
Total Men Women % Of Total
White7,271,9263,618,3493,653,57765.05%
Black1,126,894593,876533,01810.08%
'''Mulatto/Mestizo2,778,9231,385,0081,393,91524.86%[3]


The population of Cuba has very complex origins and intermarriage between diverse groups is so general as to be the rule.

The ancestry of white Cubans (65.05%) comes primarily from the ethnically diverse Spanish nations: Other European people that have contributed include: Other Important sources (10.08% to 24.86%) is African The ancestry of black Cubans comes from the following groups:
  • African
  • Kongo (largest ethnic group brought to Cuba)
  • other ethnic groups from Africa.
People from Asia (1%): During the 18th, 19th and early part of the 20th century, large waves of Canary Islanders and catalan emigrated to Cuba. Minor but significant ethnic influx is derived from diverse peoples from Middle East Cuba's birth rate (9.88 births per thousand population in 2006)[4] is one of the lowest in the Western Hemisphere. Its overall population has increased continuously from around 7 million in 1961 to over 11 million now, but the rate of increase has stopped in the last few decades, and has recently turned to a decrease, with the Cuban government in 2006 reporting the first drop in the population since the Mariel boatlift. Immigration and emigration have had noticeable effects on the demographic profile of Cuba during the 20th century. Between 1900 and 1930, close to a million Spaniards arrived from Spain. Since 1959, over a million Cubans have left the island, primarily to Miami, Florida, where a vocal, well-educated and economically successful exile community exists (Cuban-American lobby).[5] The emigration that occurred immediately after the Cuban Revolution was primarily of the upper and middle classes that were predominantly white, thus contributing to a demographic shift along with changes in birth rates and racial identifications among the various ethnic groups.

History

Main article: History of Cuba


The first people known to have inhabited Cuba was the Ciboney, an Amerindian people. They were followed by another Amerindian people, the Taíno who were the main population both of Cuba and other islands in The Antilles when Christopher Columbus first sighted the island in 1492. He claimed the islands for Spain and Cuba became a Spanish colony. It was to remain so until 1902 apart from a brief occupation by Britain in 1762. before being returned in exchange for Florida. Towards the end of the 19th century, Spain had lost most of its American possessions and a series of rebellions had shaken Cuba. This, in combined with calls for annexation of Cuba in the United States, led to the Spanish-American War, and in 1902 Cuba gained formal independence.

During the first decades of the 20th century, US interests were dominant and in Cuba, leading to large influence over the island. This ended in 1959 when de facto leader Fulgencio Batista was ousted by revolutionaries led by Fidel Castro. Quickly deteriorating relations with the US led to Cuba's alliance with the Soviet Union and Castro's transformation of Cuba into a declared socialist republic. Castro has remained in power since 1959, first as Prime Minister then from 1976 as President of Cuba.

Culture and traditions

Main article: Culture of Cuba
The culture of Cuba reflects the island's influences from various different cultures, such as European (particularly Spanish). After the Cuban revolution in 1959, the island's brand of socialism has had an influence on its culture while Cuban-Americans residing in the US have received influences from this country.

Arguably the most distinctive part of Cuban culture is the Cuban music and dancing, being well-known far outside the country. Latin-American music styles such as salsa and son trace their roots back to Cuba, while reggaeton has become increasingly popular, especially among the younger generations. The origins of much of the Cuban music can be found in the mix of Spanish and West African music, while more modern music from the US has added to the mix. Cuban literature includes some of the most well-known names of the islands, such as writer and independence hero José Martí in the late 19th century. More contemporary Cuban authors include Daína Chaviano, Zoé Valdés and Leonardo Padura.

The Spanish language is spoken by virtually all Cubans on the island itself. Cuban Spanish is characterised by the reduction of several consonants, a feature that it shares with other dialects of Caribbean Spanish. Many Cuban-Americans, while remaining fluent in Spanish, use American English as one of their daily languages. In addition, a spoken mix of both languages is called Spanglish.

Cuban Spanish

Of all the regional variations of the Spanish language, traditional Cuban Spanish is most similar to, and originates largely from the Spanish spoken in the Canary Islands. Cuba owes much of their speech patterns to the Canarian migration, which in the 19th and early 20th Century was heavy and continuous. There was also migrations of Galicians and Asturians as well, but they did not leave a mirror image on their accent on the Cuban accent like the Canarian people did. Much of the typical Cuban replacements for standard Spanish vocabulary stems from Canarian lexicon. For example, guagua (bus) differs from standard Spanish autobús the former originated in the Canaries and is an onomatopoeia stemming from the sound of a Klaxon horn (wah-wah!). An example of Canarian usage for a Spanish word is the verb fajarse [6] ("to fight"). In standard Spanish the verb would be pelearse, while fajar'' exists as a non-reflexive verb related to the hemming of a skirt.

Symbols

Enlarge picture
The flag of Cuba


The flag of Cuba is red, white and blue and was first adopted by Narciso López on a suggestion by the poet Miguel Teurbe Tolón. The design incorporates three blue stripes, representing the sea that surrounds the island of Cuba, and two white stripes symbolizing the purity of the patriotic cause. The red triangle stands for the blood shed to free the nation. The white star in the triangle stands for independence.

See also

References

1. ^ Government of Cuba (2002). Cuban Census. Retrieved on 2007-01-29.
2. ^ DePalma, Anthony (July 5 1998). Cuban Site Casts Light on an Extinct People. New York Times. Retrieved on 2006-07-09.
3. ^ [1]
4. ^ [2]
5. ^ Quiñones, Rolando García Quiñones. International Migrations in Cuba: persinting trends and changes. Technical Corporation. Retrieved on 2006-07-09.
6. ^ fajar at Diccionario de la Real Academia Española.

External links

Motto
Patria y Libertad   (Spanish)
"Patriotism and Liberty" a
Anthem
La Bayamesa  
..... Click the link for more information.
Editing of this page by unregistered or newly registered users is currently disabled due to vandalism.
If you are prevented from editing this page, and you wish to make a change, please discuss changes on the talk page, request unprotection, log in, or .
..... Click the link for more information.

 Spanish, Castilian}}} 
Writing system: Latin (Spanish variant)
Language codes
ISO 639-1: none
ISO 639-2: —
ISO 639-3: —

Spanish (
..... Click the link for more information.
American English (AmE, AE, AmEng, USEng, en-US), also known as United States English or U.S. English, is a set of dialects of the English language used mostly in the United States.
..... Click the link for more information.
Christianity

Foundations
Jesus Christ
Church Theology
New Covenant Supersessionism
Dispensationalism
Apostles Kingdom Gospel
History of Christianity Timeline
Bible
Old Testament New Testament
Books Canon Apocrypha
..... Click the link for more information.
Historical Jewish languages
Hebrew, Yiddish, Ladino, others
Liturgical languages:
Hebrew and Aramaic
Predominant spoken languages:
The vernacular language of the home nation in the Diaspora, significantly including English, Hebrew, Yiddish, and
..... Click the link for more information.
Protestantism encompasses the forms of Christian faith and practice that originated with the doctrines of the Reformation. The word Protestant is derived from the Latin protestatio meaning declaration
..... Click the link for more information.
Santería also known as "La Regla de Lukumi," is an Afro-Caribbean religious tradition derived from traditional beliefs of the Yoruba people of Nigeria. The Santería/Yoruba tradition is comprised of a hierarchical structure according to priesthood level and authority.
..... Click the link for more information.
Atheism

Concepts
ReligionNontheism
AntireligionAntitheism
AgnosticismHumanism
Metaphysical naturalism
Weak and strong atheism
Implicit and explicit atheism
History
History of atheism
EnlightenmentFreethought

..... Click the link for more information.
God

General approaches
Agnosticism Atheism
Deism Dystheism
Henotheism Ignosticism
Monism Monotheism
Natural theology Nontheism
Pandeism Panentheism
Pantheism Polytheism
Theism Theology
Transtheism
Specific conceptions
..... Click the link for more information.
Spanish people or more properly Spaniards are a nation native to Spain, in the Iberian Peninsula of southwestern Europe. The Spanish people have varied origins, due to Spaniards long history of invasions and migrations.
..... Click the link for more information.
Portuguese people (Portuguese: os portugueses; literally the Portuguese) are the ethnic group or nation native to the country of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian peninsula of south-west Europe.
..... Click the link for more information.
Cuban
1,241,685
0.4% of the US population (2000)
Regions with significant populations Florida
(Miami; Hialeah; Key West; Orlando; Tampa) New Jersey
(Union City; West New York)
New York
(New York City)
North Carolina
..... Click the link for more information.
White Cuban
7,271,926
(65.5% of total Cuban population)
Regions with significant populations
 Cuba
United States
Spain

Languages Spanish  • Cuban Spanish Religions Predominantly
..... Click the link for more information.
Afro-Cuban refers to Cubans of African ancestry, and to historical or cultural elements in Cuba thought to emanate from this community. The term can refer to the combining of African and other cultural elements found in Cuban society such as religion, music, language, the arts, and
..... Click the link for more information.
Jewish Cubans, Cuban Jews, or Cubans of Jewish heritage, have lived on the island of Cuba for centuries. Some Cubans trace Jewish ancestry to Marranos who fled the Spanish Inquisition, though few of these practice Judaism today.
..... Click the link for more information.
Chinese Cuban (Traditional Chinese: 古巴華人; Pinyin: gǔ bā húa rén; Cantonese Jyutping: Gu2 Baa1 Waa4 jan4; Spanish: chino-cubano
..... Click the link for more information.
Canary Islands
1,995,833 Spanish
up to 4.5% of total Spanish population

Regions with significant populations
 Spain
Cuba
 Puerto Rico
Venezuela
 United States

Languages Spanish language Religions Predominantly
..... Click the link for more information.
Bakongo or the Kongo people (meaning "hunter") live along the Atlantic coast of Africa from Pointe-Noire (Brazzaville) to Luanda, Angola. In Kikongo their ethnonym is usually given as Besikongo, singular Mwisikongo, though Bakongo is linguistically possible and gaining
..... Click the link for more information.

 Spanish, Castilian}}} 
Writing system: Latin (Spanish variant)
Language codes
ISO 639-1: none
ISO 639-2: —
ISO 639-3: —

Spanish (
..... Click the link for more information.
Motto
Patria y Libertad   (Spanish)
"Patriotism and Liberty" a
Anthem
La Bayamesa  
..... Click the link for more information.
Cuban exile" refers to the many Cubans who have sought alternative political or economic conditions outside the island, dating back to the Ten Years' War and the struggle for Cuban independence during the 19th century.
..... Click the link for more information.
Motto
"In God We Trust"   (since 1956)
"E Pluribus Unum"   ("From Many, One"; Latin, traditional)
Anthem
..... Click the link for more information.
Havana
La Habana
Havana skyline

Coat of arms
Nickname:
..... Click the link for more information.
Santiago de Cuba
Cathedral in Santiago de Cuba

..... Click the link for more information.
Camagüey
Rooftops of Camagüey

..... Click the link for more information.
Holguín
Calixto García park

..... Click the link for more information.
Guantánamo or Guantanamo may refer to:
  • Guantánamo Province in southeastern Cuba
  • Guantánamo, a city and seat of Guantánamo Province
  • Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, a body of water on the south shore of Cuba

..... Click the link for more information.
Santa Clara
Street in Parque Vidal

Coat of arms

..... Click the link for more information.
Miami, Florida
Miami's downtown skyline

Flag
Seal
Nickname: The Magic City
Location in Miami-Dade County and the state of Florida
Coordinates:
Country
..... Click the link for more information.

This article is copied from an article on Wikipedia.org - the free encyclopedia created and edited by online user community. The text was not checked or edited by anyone on our staff. Although the vast majority of the wikipedia encyclopedia articles provide accurate and timely information please do not assume the accuracy of any particular article. This article is distributed under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License.