7/30/2019 LAS310

1/2

The course is interested in debate, in the right of an opinion, in knowing what one is

talking about

What are the historical and social reasons behind cuba being so singular. There have been

5 social revolutions, French, Russian, American, Chinese, Cuban. A social revolution is a

change of class and power.

Cuba has multiple identities. It is a latin American country, a Caribbean country and a

north American country. It is even (according to the prof) an African country butCaribbean suffices.

cuba is the only country in the world with sustainable development and the only to pass

the two indices that count, human development index and ecological footprint. Cuba isstudied because it offers a deeo spcial experiment that has lasted almost half a century. It

is a human experiment full of trials and errors but with some successes. One can learn

from the errors as much as from the successes, but one can only grasp what is right and

what is wrong if one takes a comprehensive view of the whole society. This is why thereis such a variety of topics

cuba is not being cuba because it is interesting, but because one wants to understand how

our own society works. It provides a counterpoint and reference.

11.2 million people. The percentage of the population that is mixed is 66%, black and

mixed is 66%. This overlap is because of the debate on mixed race. Years of life

expectancy is 78, highest in the world. Cost of healthcare is 0. percentage of literacy is

99.8 cost of public education is 0. percentage of gdp is 14%, second in the world. Cost ofadmissions to sports events is 0. political prisoners by amnesty international state 171, all

in Guantanamo bay, making them American prisoners. Tourist visits estimated fromCanada are 1m. average monthly salary in national pesos is 400, less than 20 cad. Thecost in pesos for 20 tablets for oral antibiotics is 20 cad cents

The language that is used in class will be a respectful language of the revolution, castroregime is not going to be used as slang, castro didnt make the revolution, it was made by

the people.

The purpose of studying cuba is to see behind the appearances of a highly complexsociety. It is highly educated but with very little high paying jobs. A society of rising

gender equality, 40% of women parliament, but still patriarchal. Nobody owns a gun.

Low criminality, but a wide amount of minor illegal activities. There is high job securitybut low wages. There is a fluid relationship between races butthere is still racial and

social discrimination. A high quality of healthcare but not enough medications even if a

lot are produced in cuba. Cuba is a world model in childcare and there are no commercialadvertisements in tv, but there is broad political propaganda. Ther is no foreign

ownership of property, but too much state property. There is a high quality of agricultural

production, but not enough produced. High consumption of alcohol and tobacco, but no

7/30/2019 LAS310

2/2

other drugs. Sexual behavior is quite open, but there is still some homophobia in less

cosmopolitan places in the country.

cuba, defending itself from a big neighbor, became a closed society, but has been opening

with tourism and the new us administration, as obama has allowed a certain opening of

traffic between the two countries.

TRIP: 3RD TO THE 9TH OF JULY. It takes place in Santiago de cuba. Consul del caribe

hosts the conference.

Soveringty of Guantanamo bay is Cuban, it was leased to the US in 1902 but because of

the power of the US, the ending of the lease was never established, in international law, it

is ridiculous.

One of the interest behind slavery is because of the 13m enslaved Africans, 4m to brazil,

1m to cuba. Cuba was one of the major slave society in the world, one of the major

societies in the importation of slaves. 400,000 were sent to north America, only this manybecause the importation of slaves was banned by Britain so only 400,000 came to north

America, but since they could not import, it became a breeding society, whereas in theCaribbean the life of a slave lasted only 7 years, when that slave died another was bought

into that place. Families were disrupted, the majority of slaves were male. It is incorrect

to call black peoples, African American. They are less African because of distance fromtheir home departure. Slavery ended in cuba and brazil in 1886-88. slavery ended in the

us at the end of the civil war in 1865, but the slave trade stopped in the states in 1808,

while in cuba and brazil the slave trade ended in circa 1870. if anyone deserves to be

called African American, it should be the Brazilians who are also geographically closer toAfrica. 5m went to cuba/brazil, 0.4m went to the states, but by the time of Lincoln 5-6m

slaves were in the states.

Brainwashing with the bible happened. In the Caribbean, the violence of the plantation

allowed more leeway to the slaves.

Esnest hemingway got the nobel in literature in 1955 and the gold medal of the nobel

prize was donated to cuba, to the catholic church. Hemingway used to called the Gulf

Stream the Big Blue River

There is a divide between eastern cuba and the capital, Santiago, and the capital is

Havana in western cuba. Many problems of interpretation in Cuban history stem from

eastern or western cuba. Cuba has had 5 social revolutions. They started in oriente (nameof the original province), in Santiago.