Cuba Topics

Clear educational guides to the people, events, and ideas that shaped Cuba.

History

The Cuban Revolution

How the 1959 revolution overthrew Batista, what it promised, and how it became a one-party communist state.

The Cuban Missile Crisis

The thirteen days in October 1962 when Soviet missiles in Cuba brought the world to the brink of nuclear war.

The Bay of Pigs Invasion

The failed 1961 invasion became a defining Cold War defeat, strengthening Fidel Castro and deepening Cuba's alliance with the Soviet Union.

Exile Story

Why Cuban Exiles Left

The waves of Cuban migration since 1959 — and the repression, confiscation, and fear that drove families from the island.

The Mariel Boatlift

The 1980 exodus when roughly 125,000 Cubans left from the port of Mariel for the United States in just months.

Wet Foot, Dry Foot

Wet Foot, Dry Foot shaped Cuban migration for two decades by treating arrivals on U.S. soil differently from those intercepted at sea.

U.S.–Cuba Relations

The U.S. Embargo on Cuba

What the U.S. trade embargo is, why it began, and why it remains one of the most debated topics in U.S.–Cuba relations.

Guantánamo Bay

Guantánamo Bay combines a disputed U.S. naval lease, strategic military history, and a detention facility condemned for serious human-rights abuses.

Remittances and Travel Restrictions

Rules governing money and travel between the United States and Cuba affect family survival, private enterprise, and the regime's access to revenue.

Human Rights

Human Rights in Cuba

Censorship, political imprisonment, restrictions on assembly, and the long record documented by human-rights organizations.

Freedom of the Press and Censorship

Cuba's one-party state controls mass media, criminalizes independent reporting, and uses surveillance, detention, and internet restrictions to suppress public criticism.

Surveillance and the CDRs

The Committees for the Defense of the Revolution combine neighborhood services with a long record of political monitoring, intimidation, and social control.

Culture & Society

Patria y Vida

The 2021 protest anthem that turned a revolutionary slogan on its head and became a rallying cry for a freer Cuba.

Cuban Culture: Music, Food, and Memory

From son and salsa to ropa vieja and café cubano, the culture that exiles carried with them and that still thrives on the island.

Education and Healthcare: Promise and Reality

Cuba expanded literacy and universal public services, but political control, deteriorating infrastructure, shortages, and unequal access complicate the official success story.

Cuban-American Community

The Cuban-American Community

How exile shaped a distinct Cuban-American identity, especially in Miami, and why its politics are so personal.

Cuban-American Political Influence

Cuban Americans transformed South Florida politics and shaped national policy through voting, civic institutions, advocacy organizations, and elected leadership.

Cuban Cuisine in Exile

Cuban cuisine in exile preserves family memory while adapting island dishes, ingredients, restaurants, and rituals to new communities and generations.