The largest island in the Caribbean Sea: Cuba

In this episode Hema discusses the Cuban currency, gives a brief history of people of Cuba, from the Indigenous Taino population through the Spanish settlements and the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, and how these points in history affect current day culture. Mireille shares a folklore story about the national dish of Cuba, the historical influences and how the dish is prepared.

Resources

https://www.revoluciondecuba.com/blog/the-ropa-vieja-story/

https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/cuba/
https://www.onei.gob.cu/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6954214/
https://www.britannica.com/place/Cuba/
https://blogs.loc.gov/law/2022/01/how-havana-became-british-for-eleven-months 

Recipes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8PSdgdV0tk

Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/andrey-rossi/jerk-sauce

Transcript

Hema

Hi, I'm Hema 

Mireille

and I'm Mireille. 

Hema

Mireille Last week we ended the episode with a little tidbit about the country we're gonna talk about today.  We said that this country had two  official  National currencies until 2021 when the government unified the currency.  So this week we are talking about  Cuba. 

 In Cuba, there are two, or there used to be two forms of currency. The Cuban convertible peso and the Cuban peso.  And the Cuban convertible peso has now been eliminated. And there is one official currency, which is the Cuban peso.  Now, I'm gonna just say, when I visited Cuba the first time, about 15 years ago, I was on a small group trip. We were traveling from Havana and then over land through the Western provinces.  Our tour leader, our trip leader, told us we should probably have a little bit of both currencies with us. There was one currency that the Cuban people used more often locally, and the other currency was more so for.  Foreign transactions.  There's a lot of history in the currency and why there was two currencies and why there's one. Now from what I've read, it hasn't been a very seamless transition to one currency. That's a whole nother conversation that we're not gonna talk about today. 

Mireille

Okay.  That's really interesting. 

Hema

It is an interesting situation and,  I hope I didn't get any of it incorrect, but there is now one official currency for Cuba and that hasn't been in place for very long.

So I imagine most people know a few things about Cuba overall and what do you think most people associate with?

Mireille

So associate with Cuba? Well, Fidel Castro and communism of course, I think is number 

one. But I think also it is a beautiful tropical island the music and definitely,  the food. I mean like Cuban sandwich is one of my all time favorite things to eat.

Hema

I'm sure you're gonna talk about the Cuban sandwich a little bit when we get to the food section of this episode. 

Mireille

Absolutely.  

Hema

I'm living in Canada and I grew up in Canada. Mireille is in the US and each country has a different relationship with Cuba. And I think we're gonna be approaching this slightly with slight nuances because of the different country relationships. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, Mireille but people from the United States are now allowed to travel to Cuba.

Is that correct?

Mireille

Yes, but okay. I haven't really kept abreast of it, but as far as I know, yes, you can travel to Cuba, but only in group trips. 

Like you can't just like book a trip by yourself and say, I'm going to Cuba. 

Hema

Okay. Whereas there have, there aren't any restrictions for Canadians. 

 So let's talk about Cuba. Cuba is an island located just south of Florida between Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean.  And for a small island, it has a lot of people about 11 million residents living in Cuba.  The makeup is estimated to be about 64% white, 26.6% mixed race, 9.3% black or Afro-Cuban. And then depending on who you're talking to or what sources,  the white people could be a mix of European and indigenous or European background, and they're called mestizo, so they might be listed under white or mixed race. 

The people with a European and African ancestry mixed would fall under what's categorized as the mixed race.  When you think about 64% white, which I think most people would be surprised at, that could be white European background or it could be a mix of white and indigenous background. 

Mireille

Actually, that doesn't surprise me one bit. 

I'm mostly know through my association of Cubans here in New York. You know, there's lots of Cubans, I went to school with them, et cetera. And I've met way more white Cubans than I ever have Afro Cubans or even mixed race Cubans.

Hema, 

So historically Cuba was inhabited by the indigenous people, predominantly the Taino, but also the Sibonie and the Guanahatabey people. The Taino people were related to the Arawaks who we have spoken about in previous episode. They are peaceful people and they were known for agriculture.  So in around October, 1492, Christopher Columbus made landfall on the northern coast of Cuba and then a few years later, a Spanish conquistador in search of gold Diego  Velasquez Decuellar established the first Spanish settlement on the Northern coast of Cuba. He brought with him 300  Spaniards  and some enslaved people from Africa.  And within five years  of this settlement by the Spanish, they had divided the island into seven municipalities, each having their own town council  who saw oversaw legal and administrative matters.  So they had really taken  hold of the island and made it their own within a few years.  The town Council oversaw things like the legal system, the economy and the slave trade, which is a big part of Cuban history.  

By 1550,  the indigenous people who had. Inhabited the island for  many, many, many years.  The population was decimated by a few things. There was mistreatment, relocation or dislocation by the European settlers, and also the diseases the Europeans brought to the island.  The indigenous people just were decimated, the population at that point in time was Spanish settlers, enslaved Africans and indigenous people.  So Cuba became a hub for the Spanish, for the exploration of North America. They sort of used it as a sort of stopping point to go from place to place.  It is said that until  the 16th century,  the enslaved Africans had a higher social standing than the indigenous population.

The Spanish continued to rule Cuba even though there were attacks by other European nations and countries.  A few different industries that were really sort of the mainstay of Cuba was ranching, tobacco farming, and then sugarcane. And sugarcane became significantly more profitable and more popular on the island.  And in 1740, the Havana Company was formed to stimulate agricultural growth.

With the growth of agriculture and the sugar plantations.  Increased the transatlantic slave trade and for the Spanish, they weren't as successful with the slave trade as the British  in 21 years. they sold fewer enslaved people than the British did during their 10 month occupation of Havana in 1762.  So that kind of gives you an idea of who was more prolific in the transatlantic slave trade.

And that was the British. The British did capture Havana and occupied it for 10 or 11 months. They captured it during the seven years war, and Havana was an important city for the Spanish trade, and by the 1750s it was the third largest Spanish city in the Americas. So when I'm talking Spanish, I mean Spanish and Spain.  Just in case there's a little confusion. So between 1763 and 1860, the population continued to grow and roughly  one third of the 1.3 million people inhabiting the island were enslaved Africans. 

Mireille

Something triggered my brain when we were just talking about like how it didn't surprise me that more than 50% of the population was white.  And then now when you're going further into that, I think the reason is that  it has to do with communism and the people who wanted to escape because they were the landowners, the people who had, who generally had more economic wealth, and that is who Castro was going against. So I think because my connection with them is the people here I see in the United States, those were, not to say that we don't have Afro-Cubans here, but I think the vast majority of them in the United States are those that needed to escape quicker from Castro. 

Hema

That's interesting.   Let's talk about  where the people,  the enslaved Africans came from and what part of Africa. Because if they made up roughly one third of the population between 1763 and 1860, that was a large number of people. In the research that I did, it's a little bit harder to say exactly where they came from.  On the database that I looked at, most of the ships  said Africa port unspecified. However, I did find that the majority of the ones that were specified were from West Africa, but not exclusively so we had Nigeria, Lagos, Mozambique,  the Congo, Ghana,  and between 1526 and 1875 approximately 879,748  enslaved Africans were taken captive to travel to Cuba, and approximately 766,262  landed in Cuba. 

Mireille

When you were saying you weren't sure where they came from, I immediately thought that it might be Angola. Because Angola and be, and I'm really happy that you mentioned Mozambique because the Spanish tended to deal more with the Portuguese 'cause it was easier for them to communicate with each other than it was for them to communicate with the British.

Because you know, English is a totally different language group.  So places like Angola and Mozambique, where they speak Portuguese now to this day that makes a lot of sense to me. 

Hema

The sugar industry in Cuba really took off, as I mentioned earlier so ranching and tobacco sort of took a little bit of a backseat and the sugar industry took off. And by 1860  interestingly enough, the sugar grown  in and manufactured in Cuba accounted for ⅓ of the world's sugar.  This meant that there was more need for labor.  This also meant that there was a very definitive wealthy class of plantation owners,  so as a result of  requiring more labor, they had people from Mexico and China who were enlisted for labor as indentured servants. However, the conditions that they worked under  were  almost as dangerous and degrading as those of the enslaved people.  

Mireille

Absolutely.  That's probably where we get Cuban Chinese food from. 

Here in New York, we have a third generation Cuban Chinese restaurant that was started by like his grandfather, and the grandson still runs it to this day. 

Hema

You'll have to head over there one day and take some pictures of some of the goods and show

us what that looks like. 

Mireille

yes.

Hema

like.  The African slave trade in Cuba ended in 1865, but slavery officially was not abolished until 1886.   There's a lot here to talk about when it comes to Cuba and the history and it was essentially under the Spanish rule for a very, very long time, with the exception of that little 10 or 11 month period that Havana was under control by the British, the Spanish really ruled Cuba and set the tone for Cuba. And they were the ones that brought over different people. So the enslaved Africans, they brought over the indentured laborers, as you mentioned, Chinese or people from Mexico.  They were the ones that really  cultivated the island to this point.  

It's also important to note that because of the Spanish, a lot of the indigenous population suffered and was decimated. So this Spanish occupation of Cuba changed the trajectory of the island.  So Cuba had a Spanish administration,  strained economic conditions, and at that time,  the United States began having a growing interest in Cuba, and they had expeditions to the island and tried to purchase it many times, unsuccessfully.  In 1868 began the 10 years war, which was the first war for Cuban independence. The Spanish refused to give Cubans political autonomy and on October 10th, 1868, Carlos Manuel de Cespedes issued  the Cry of Yara, which was declaring Cuban independence.  So it's important to note who Carlos was. He was born in 1517 to a prominent plantation owner. He studied law in Spain and then came back to Cuba. So he wasn't one of the working class, he was one of the wealthy class. But he wanted to free the enslaved people so that they could fight in the revolution. And he did have the support of some landowners, farmers and laborers who wanted to share the political power and abolish slavery in Cuba.  

Not everyone agreed with his plans and his call for the US to annex Cuba and come in and take over.  In 1878 as a result of this revolution, so 10 years later, Spain promised reform and this is what ended the 10 years war, but they actually didn't carry out any of the things that they had promised or most of the things that they had promised.  At that time, trade between Cuba and the US was about a hundred million dollars. But in 1894, Spain canceled the Cuban US Trade Pact  imposed more taxes and more trade restrictions.  So what you're gonna notice in this conversation that we're having today is there has been so much unrest in Cuba. And that's not even talking about what's happened in our lifetime.

Under the control of Spanish. But there were interests from other nations, other European nations and the US. As a result of  the cancellation of the Cuban US Trade Pact there was more unrest. And Jose Marti, which is a name that some people will probably know in connection with Cuba.  When I was there, I'm pretty sure I saw some statues dedicated to him. Jose Marti coordinated and mobilized political actions while in exile. So while not in Cuba, and a war broke out in February, 1895. Jose Martti, along with another revolutionary leader, Maximo Gomez, led an invasion.  

The Republic of Cuba was declared in September of 1895 and then in 1896, Spain had a new general lead, more than 200,000 troops who moved rural residents in Cuba into what they called re concentration camps, where tens of thousands of people that they moved died of.  disease, starvation and the conditions.  There was this invasion, this revolution. Spain retaliated against all of this and moved people, decimated the population. There was a lot of destruction to towns, a lot of destruction to the plantations.  And in 1897, the Spanish government, as a result of all of this, offered autonomy. to Cuba And ended their re concentration program.  

A lot happened, but Spanish finally gave in.  news of the Spanish atrocities and what they had done to the people in the inhabitants of the island reached the US and many Cubans sided with the rebels and this led to an anti Spanish sentiment on the island.   It may sound like I'm really speeding through a lot of this and I am. There are a lot of rebellions and uprising and things that happened in, in the timeframe that I'm talking about, but we are really scratching the surface here and talking about where the people came from and a little bit of the history. There's so much more to know  and we will link some resources in the show notes if you wanted to do a bit of a deeper dive  In February of 1898, the US and Spain fought in the Spanish American War, and at this time, the US captured Cuba along with Puerto Rico and the Philippines.  Cuban independence was officially granted in December of 1898,  but the US  occupied the country. Spanish were gone. The US was in.  

January 1st, 1899.  US General John R Brook was designated the military governor.  He tried to exclude Cubans from being a part of the government. He disbanded the Cuban army and very quickly within that year, he was replaced by US General Leonard Wood and Wood really change things up and through his work. Cuba elected its first President, Toma Estrada Palma.  The US while they were occupying Cuba did a lot for modernizing the infrastructure,  the roads, and the buildings and building schools.  Their goal was to bring the culture of the US to  Cuba.  

However,  although this sounds really great, and they did a lot for modernizing the infrastructure,  they really effectively wanted to remove Afro-Cubans from politics.  In 1901, the Platt Agreement gave the US rights to oversee Cuba's International Affairs, and it was at that time that Guantanamo Bay Naval Station was established.  Throughout the history of Cuba, there were different regimes, more rebellions. The economy grew, but there was still corruption and Afro-Cubans were still not afforded the same rights as some of the other inhabitants.  

Of course there is so much more to the history of Cuba and Cuban history. There is the Cuban Revolution from 1959, which led to the establishment of communism. There have been many changes over the last 20 years, but this is really where I'm going to stop.  This gives us a base for the history of the people and where they came from, which led to the basis of the Cuban culture currently now because there have been so many changes in modern history.   With all of that established Mireille's gonna talk a little bit about the food of Cuba, the national dish, and the origins. 

Mireille

Cuban American cuisine and Cuban cuisine are two very different things because as a result of the way the government is in present day Cuba. 

A lot of the traditional dishes and dishes that people would love to make, they're the average. Cuban just isn't able to.  There's rations on basic food necessities.  So this really limits their diet.  We had mentioned the Cuban sandwich before. For me, that was pretty much probably my first introduction to Cuban food.

In New York, you know, we have, it's very popular because we have a big Hispanic population here.  And I was really surprised to learn a few months back that most Cubans in Cuba have never even heard of it.

They don't know what a Cuban sandwich is, you know, because can they afford, there's pork and there's ham and you know, it's a layered sandwich of roast pork, ham, mustard, cheese, mustard on French bread, just in case anyone doesn't know what a Cuban sandwich is.

Little Cuba, for those who don't know is in Miami  and specifically, Calle Ocho which is 8th Street. We even have a Cuban restaurant and bar here in New York called Calle Ocho  and that is the hub of the population there. And so a lot of the foods that we associate with Cuban food were developed there. They weren't actually developed in Cuba. And so it's just really challenging to find these traditional cultural foods.

Because when you, when you think about Cuban and Cuban history, I'm sure looking back there are amazing dishes, but many of them have sadly died out in Cuba because of lack of resources.

Hema

And you know, you're absolutely right is the Cuban American food is different than the Cuban food. And you were talking about the lack of resources and the limited amount of foods and food stuffs that people in Cuba could get. And I'll say I've had, having been, I've been to Cuba twice, once on that, about 15 years ago on that short small group trip where we traveled through Havana and West. And then once that, I just went for a few days, stayed in Havana, but on that small group trip, we had this home stay and they were not allowed to serve fish or seafood to tourists. There was a limited supply of fish and seafood because they wanted to restrict the number of fishermen that left the island to fish because the thought was the more people out there, the more people that might escape and not come back. We couldn't go to the local stores  that were meant for the locals. We were only allowed to go to specific places to shop. 

Mireille

Yes. And even there are things that tourists are allowed to do, food and drink, and even.  personal activities that are limited for local Cubans that are really there solely for tourists. 

Cause we have to remember prior to the Cuban Revolution, Cuba was a party place. That is where  American wealthy people would go to vacation and party and it, you know, it's so close to United States, it was a quick plane and here you have this tropical paradise and it's only the Cuban revolution that ended that. So there was a lot of influence being brought back and forth from Cuba to the United States prior to the Cuban Revolution.

The National Dish of Cuba is really representative of Cuba's Spanish history and culture. 

Like we said you know, a large percentage of the populations are European descent people. So,  it's not  surprising that that is their national dish. So the national Dish of Cuba is Ropa Vieja.  Now Ropa Vieja literally means old clothes  so there's a folklore story of how the recipe was created, but with a lot of folklore, I say take it with a grain of salt, and I'm gonna leave it up to you to decide whether you wanna believe it or not.  Supposedly there was an old man who couldn't afford to feed his family.  He shredded up some old clothes and started boiling them in a big pot. 

And then he prayed over the pot.  A miracle happened and it was transformed into a rich, meaty stew.  Take that story with a grain of salt, I think. The Ropa Vieja recipe is pretty simple. The meat recipe, not the old clothes version, because I'm not telling you to make that one. I don't know if the miracle will occur for you Okay. So it actually originated in Spain over 500 years ago with the Sephardic Jewish community of the Iberian Peninsula, particularly in Spain. The Iberian Peninsula consists of Spain, Portugal, et cetera.  Since cooking was not allowed on the Sabbath, they would make this slow cooked stew the night before,  and somehow through slavery and colonization, the dish then traveled to the Americas where it became especially popular in Cuba.

Today's Ropa Vieja is made by slow cooking large pieces of beef for a few hours until the meat can easily be shredded with a fork. Then this meat is simmered in an aromatic tomato-based sauce. This super soft and tender saucy stew beef is just absolutely delicious over a bed of rice.  So as you can see, this is one recipe that came  directly from Spain to Cuba.

I am sure there are a lot more Cuban recipes that definitely belie its African heritage and the enslaved people. But like I said, number one it's really hard to come by because they have really done so much to try to eradicate the African culture in Cuba throughout their history. It's only since Castro that some of, you know, like the music, the Africanness has been able to come out, but at the same time, because of the, you know, the way that country is run under communism, people don't have access to many of the food ingredients they would need to create those traditional African dishes.

Hema

I think Cuba is a unique one. As you mentioned, because of the communist regime, because of the limited resources.  In addition to trying to sort of not have the African culture or the Afro-Cuban culture be a part of the mainstream culture, I think a lot of the restrictions on foods and resources has a direct impact on the food and the national dishes. So while in a lot of the other countries that we're gonna talk about, the national dish is probably something people make on a regular basis, in Cuba, it may not be the case.

Mireille

Correct. 

Hema

That's really, it's really an interesting  situation. And again, Cuba has a very rich history. Not only going back hundreds of years, but also in the last 50 years, there's been so much change  within the regime. There is, you know,  the relations between Cuba and the US have changed in the last 10 years so I don't know what it would be like today going to Cuba, but what I do know is as a tourist and a visitor,  my Cuban experience would be very different than somebody that lives there.

Mireille

Absolutely. And just to note guys, if you wanna like get a little bit more into the Cuban American experience I, there is a show many of you may have heard of called Street Eats on Netflix and they just came out with an American version, and one episode features Miami, so of course it features some Cuban American food history. 

Hema

Excellent. So we will be sharing all of our resources that we used for today's episode. In the show notes, we'll share some additional  resources in case you wanna dive a little bit more into the Cuban culture, the Cuban American culture.  We'll be sharing links to a few different recipes that you might wanna try.  , 

Mireille

thank you so much for joining us this week as we explored Cuba on the Moreish Podcast. You can find us on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube at the Moreish Podcast. 

Hema

Come back next week where we'll be talking about a country that officially  changed the name of the indigenous people back from Carib to Kalinago back in 2015.  If you've been listening to our all of our episodes, we have mentioned this one before.  If you know which country we're talking about, head over to Instagram at The Moreish, Podcast and leave us a comment. 

Mireille

Bye