Portal:Cuba

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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.

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...)

Cuba and the United States restored diplomatic relations on July 20, 2015, after relations had been severed in 1961 during the Cold War. U.S. diplomatic representation in Cuba is handled by the United States Embassy in Havana, and there is a similar Cuban Embassy in Washington, D.C. The United States, however, continues to maintain its commercial, economic, and financial embargo, making it illegal for U.S. corporations to do business with Cuba.

Relations began in early colonial times and were focused around extensive trade. In the 19th century, manifest destiny increasingly led to an American desire to buy, conquer, or otherwise take control of Cuba. This included an attempt to buy it from Spain in 1848 during the Polk administration, and a secret attempt to buy it in 1854 during the Pierce administration known as the Ostend Manifesto, which backfired, causing a scandal and severely weakening Pierce's administration. The hold of the Spanish Empire on its possessions in the Americas had already been reduced in the 1820s as a result of the Spanish American wars of independence; only Cuba and Puerto Rico remained under Spanish rule until the Spanish–American War (1898) that resulted from the Cuban War of Independence. Under the Treaty of Paris, Cuba became a U.S. protectorate from 1898 to 1902; the U.S. gained a position of economic and political dominance over the island, which persisted after Cuba became formally independent in 1902. (Full article...)
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Solo is a studio album by Cuban jazz performer Gonzalo Rubalcaba. It was released by Blue Note Records on March 7, 2006, and peaked at number 22 in the Billboard Top Jazz Albums chart. The album is titled Solo since no additional performers were included on the recording as in Rubalcaba's previous albums.

Also produced by Rubalcaba, Solo was released following his second collaborative work with Charlie Haden on the album Land of the Sun, which resulted in a Grammy Award for Haden.

The album includes fifteen tracks and met with mostly positive reviews by critics, most commenting on the ability of the performer and the simplicity of the arrangements. The album was nominated for a Billboard Latin Music Award, and won the Latin Grammy for Best Latin Jazz Album. (Full article...)

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Estefan in 2017

Gloria María Milagrosa Estefan (née Fajardo García; born September 1, 1957) (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈɡloɾja esˈtefan]) is a Cuban-American singer, actress, and businesswoman. Estefan is an eight-time Grammy Award winner, a Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient, and has been named one of the Top 100 greatest artists of all time by both VH1 and Billboard. Estefan's record sales exceed 100 million worldwide, making her one of the best-selling female singers of all-time. Many of Estefan's songs became international chart-topping hits, including "1-2-3", "Don't Wanna Lose You", "Coming Out of the Dark", "Turn the Beat Around", and "Heaven's What I Feel". Other hits include "Bad Boy", "Rhythm Is Gonna Get You", "Get On Your Feet", and "You'll Be Mine (Party Time)".

A contralto, Estefan started her career as lead singer of Miami Latin Boys, which was later renamed Miami Sound Machine. She and Miami Sound Machine earned worldwide success with their 1985 single "Conga", which became Estefan's signature song and led to Miami Sound Machine winning the 15th annual Tokyo Music Festival's grand prix in 1986. In 1988, she and Miami Sound Machine achieved their first number-one hit with "Anything for You". (Full article...)
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Cuban schoolchildren in a classroom in the province of Guantánamo
Cuban schoolchildren in a classroom in the province of Guantánamo
Credit: Mikhail Evstafiev
Cuban schoolchildren in a classroom in the province of Guantánamo.

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  • ...that La Coubre was a French vessel carrying munitions from the port of Antwerp in 1960, which exploded while it was being unloaded in Havana harbor leaving at least 75 dead?
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Spanish settlers' urgent appeal to the authorities in Santiago de Cuba for more slaves, 1542.
Hubert H. S. Aimes: A History of Slavery in Cuba, 1511 to 1868 p.11

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