r/cuba • u/nipsych • 17d ago

Ayuda i want to start learning about cuba

hello, i am from the united states. my biological father was cuban but dipped so i have only been raised with my white family. but now i really want to learn as much as i can about cuba!

im trying to learn spanish (need to get onto that again ive been slipping) and i have no clue where to start on learning about a whole country. should i start with the specific people that are important to cuba? do i start with the beginning of the timeline and work my way up? are there any sources or media i can read or watch that may help me understand the culture more?

unfortunately all i know is a little about che guvera, cigars, and communism đŸ«© other than that i dont have much to work with. my mother doesnt want to help understand it either so im just on my own for this one lol.

id love to hear anything about cuba, and thank you for your time! ❀

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u/TerribleSyntax Mayabeque 17d ago

All the best resources to learn about Cuba are in Spanish so I would recommend you start with focusing hard on that. Unfortunately a lot of what you will find online will be rife with dictatorship propaganda. If you want to experience our culture firsthand, Miami and Tampa are where the biggest Cuban enclaves are in the US. Good luck!

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u/ChampionPopular3931 17d ago

You live in a different reality.

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u/Illustrator_Moist 16d ago

They will never admit to their disgusting ideology. It's all "super obvious" to them, and everyone who disagrees is because they're actually a bootlicking communist! There's no space for nuance with extremists. I can show people 1000 videos of people in Cuba agreeing with me but those are "communists who work for the government!" Apparently the communist party in Cuba is so powerful that you actually can't talk with a Cuban that agrees with them, as soon as you do they transform into a little comrade with a little comrade hat, and their whole lives evaporate away like they got Thanos snapped.

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u/ChampionPopular3931 16d ago

I agree with you. Like these people are just living in different realities which is “nothing ever happened before the revolution in Cuba, and it was paradise until those communist came gave rights, free healthcare and free schools”. 

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u/ChampionPopular3931 16d ago

And they are not Cubans. They are mostly people that left Cuba as soon as better options for wealth were offered. They didn’t care about the culture or the people. Most of them are white corporate like Rubio. They killed any inner thought to accept reality, so they live on this made up narrative that they were the good people stolen of a land they were owed to. 

Cubans in Florida are the biggest conservative and constantly voted against Cuban freedom to put more sanctions and embargo on the island. It’s been 60 years, most of them only go to see family or to pass vacations. They return home and start rambling about communist and how much Cubans suffer. They manufactured this reality. They dont hesitate to vote against immigrants, when Cubans are escaping the horrible conditions they fomented and pushed to be put on the island. 

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u/Illustrator_Moist 16d ago

I'm a Miami Cuban, born and raised surrounded by Cubans, Cuban teachers, Cuban coworkers, classmates, etc. What I see vs what Ive been taught are two different worlds. My understanding was that Cuba was super totalitarian, and that people were dying of hunger, and everyone is in constant misery. These things are always true to some degree but exaggerated in some ways.

1) Cuba is poor. There aren't enough resources around so Cubans have to "resolver" - pretty much do whatever is needed to survive. The overwhelming reason for this is the embargo. The embargo has cost Cuba potentially trillions of dollars. Every nation needs to trade to survive. Especially a tiny island nation like Cuba.

2) Cubas natural trading partner, the giant landmass north of Cuba, is not only not trading with it, but also aggressively stopping Cuba from being able to trade with other countries, effectively killing whatever economy Cuba could have. Cuba's assets get frozen, production of commodities and tourism gets ground to a standstill. Things slow down and people have to focus on their bare necessities.

3) Any other country under this much pressure would have fallen. The is the longest embargo IN HISTORY! An illegal embargo, voted against by every country on the planet except for the US and Israel (lol) and now with the oil blockade literal genocidal intent from the US government. Babies in Cuba are dying because they need machines to run 24/7 and the US has stopped ALL OIL FROM ENTERING THE COUNTRY.

4) Because of all of this, the Cuban government has had to stay on high alert, constantly working on its military and creating alliances with whichever country it can. Observers come from all over the world to look at Cuba and take note of several indicators of how countries are doing. EVERY MIAMI CUBAN, and I mean every single one, from conservative to liberal, will tell you all the countries in the world are lying on their reports on Cuba. EVERY SINGLE ONE, with a straight face will tell you "yeah the education and health reports done by official reporting agencies that track this world wide are just straight up lying about Cuba". The concept of looking at actual data about Cuba, actual stats and figures they will burn you at the stake. This sub is the prime example. There isn't even a middle ground with these guys. Every video of people having a good time in Cuba is COMMUNIST PROPAGANDA, the people partying in the streets are GOVERNMENT AGENTS being paid to act like it's possible to have a good time, even when you're poor. The vanilla icing on the cake is that older people from Cuba, that I've known my whole life do have fond memories of being kids in Cuba, having friends, being good at figuring things out and being resourceful. I was taught Cuban poetry and sang la Guantanamera whenever I had the chance. I love calle 8, I love Hialeah and Kendall. Cubans are the most beautiful people on the planet. The difference I see as a teacher between kids raised in the US and the balseritos is that the balseritos have chispa, tienen cojones, and can add and multiply like nobody's business. Is it impossible that your tias in Cuba can be having a good time sometimes?

Maybe the cherry on top is when they want you to believe that the embargo will be dropped if the Cuban government changes. Heck no. Why should a sovereign country have to do anything because of some other nation?? Why do we have to be the world police with these guys when we've been friends with evil ass countries before?? This is exceptional pleading. Hate the Castros, hate the Cuban government, pero why do you have to be in favor of the embargo? Even if you believe it's just an excuse WHY NOT JUST SHOW US AND DROP THE EMBARGO. Normalize relations like how we did with Obama, when I was able to start calling family in Cuba through Whatsapp. Y ya que theres no excuse, everyone can go... So why are you in FAVOR of stopping a country from doing what it wants if it's not even your business to begin with??

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u/TerribleSyntax Mayabeque 17d ago

Thank you for your take random redditor, very reddit

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u/Ok_Salamander_8436 17d ago

Ah yes, Florida cubans, definitivamente el mejor lugar para aprender una version no parcializada de la historia. Ya le dijiste que no lea propaganda de la dictadura, pero despues que lea la otra propaganda que te cae mejor đŸ˜‚đŸ«©

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u/TerribleSyntax Mayabeque 17d ago

Te guste o no la comunidad cubana de miami es la mas grande del mundo fuera de la isla, eso es simplemente un hecho. Y que propaganda? Las palabras de los cubanos que pueden hablar libremente? Que vaya a cuba tambien, a los barrios y poblados fuera del nido de clarias de miramar y el vedado, que le van a decir lo mismo. No me vengas a decir a mi que un cubano por haberse escapado de ese infierno es menos cubano.

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u/Illustrator_Moist 16d ago

Cubans in Cuba are very different from Cubans in Miami. Cubans in Cuba hate Trump, Cubans in Miami love Trump. I wonder why that is? Hmmm đŸ€”

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u/SomeDudesBro 14d ago

To be fair cubas extremely old population seems to be the only one to really hate trump , most younger people seem in favor of American Intervention

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u/Illustrator_Moist 14d ago

Uh... No lol. Id love to meet these people because all my cousins hate Trump (he's literally killing Cuban babies and not letting them have electricity? Also no one on this planet wants American intervention wtf lol)

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u/SomeDudesBro 14d ago

Says the cuban living in Florida , come here mate , see the REAL Cuba

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u/Illustrator_Moist 14d ago

Dale give me like a couple months. So real quick, do you think watching videos counts? If I showed you a video of someone saying something different from your narrative, does that have any value whatsoever? The only to know about what's happening in a country is to live there, right?

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u/SomeDudesBro 14d ago

Good point really , thing is we are talking about Cuba , the information about the current cuban situation can be manipulated by the Americans or by the PCC alike to fit whatever narrative

For example if you told me egg prices where high in the US I would believe you , but if I told you egg prices where high in cuba , it would be harder to prove in my opinion

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u/Illustrator_Moist 14d ago

Pero bro, if I show you a video of someone walking up to a random person in Cuba and asking their opinion, is it that easy to manipulate? The government just has people waiting by tourists so they can tell them how much they dislike Trump, just to do what? Support communism or whatever? Idk bro, this stuff is tough and I agree Im never going to have a shut and case opinion until I go in person by myself but bro Idk what to tell you. What do you think about Belly of the Beast YT channel?

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u/TerribleSyntax Mayabeque 16d ago

Cubans in Cuba hate trump? Lmaoooo

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u/Illustrator_Moist 16d ago

You really haven't talk to anyone on the island in a minute huh?

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u/Illustrator_Moist 16d ago

And they love Obama

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u/SomeDudesBro 14d ago

Obama was called a Cheap hotdog seller when he arrives in cuba

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u/Illustrator_Moist 14d ago

? By who? Not my family lol. Every conversation with a Miami Cuban becomes a purity test because everyone who disagrees with y'all is a communist lmfao

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u/SomeDudesBro 14d ago

I'm cuban , my ideals are anti-communist so everyone who disagrees with me is pretty obviously a communist , that's like basic math

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u/ChampionPopular3931 16d ago

Are you serious right now? Are you even from Cuba? You are totally brainwashed. No one in Cuba likes Trump even one bit. 

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u/TheZuccster 16d ago

the downvoting let’s you know you’re right.