Culture

Cuban culture is a combination of Spanish and African traditions, present in literature, music, painting, poetry, cinema, crafts and other artistic and cultural expressions.

However, in the conformation of the Cuban nation three roots are fused, which were slowly incorporated into the integration of ethnic society: the roots of the aboriginal settlers, whose ethnic legacy was reduced by the impact of the conquest process and Spanish colonization; and Spanish and African roots. The first, the result of a migration from what was once the metropolis of Cuba; and the African roots that left a very particular mark on the formative process of Cuban culture. Coming from different ethnic groups (Yorubas, Mandingas, Congos, Carabalíes, Bantú), as slaves they were mixed in Cuban plantations, causing new cultural associations among the African communities themselves. Added to this is the ethnic influence of the Chinese, introduced as hired coolies, and who have left their mark on miscegenation and Cuban cuisine. In the current definition of Cuban culture, these roots form the basis of traditions, culture and popular religiosity.

Music

In music genres such as contradanza, son, danzón, bolero, guaguancó, trova, feeling, mambo, cha-cha-chá and salsa stand out. The mixture of the Spanish guitar and the African drum brings their most distinctive forms to the rumba and the son. Some of the folk music of Cuba, such as the Cuban point, the zapateo and the guajira, has been influenced by European music.

Painting

painting is the most genuine plastic expression in the country. Its evolution could not follow a coherent development process, because its first expressions, made by the aborigines in the caves, were interrupted with the disappearance of these populations. After the Spanish conquest and evangelization of Cuba, a religious painting predominated, associated with the Catholic liturgy. In the 19th century, with the founding of the San Alejandro Academy (1818), a painting made by Creoles began to take shape in the country, aimed at satisfying the European taste of the Cuban bourgeoisie. Towards the 1880s, a new orientation trend took place, which had the landscape as its main theme. Among the most important figures, Esteban Chartrand and Valentín Sanz Carta stand out. Expressions of manners painting followed in the work of Víctor Patricio de Landaluze. The avant-garde reaction of the 20s (of the 20th century), inaugurated a new moment in Cuban painting. The Modern Movement had its first and most important exhibition in 1927, sponsored by the Revista de Avance. Initiators of the Cuban avant-garde were Eduardo Abela, Víctor Manuel, Antonio Gattorno and Carlos Enríquez, among others. Young artists were already indicating a new moment in Cuban art, which would materialize with the so-called School of Havana, in the 1940s. Figures such as René Portocarrero, Amelia Peláez and Mariano Rodríguez, are part of this movement. In 1942 Wilfredo Lam returned to Cuba, after a long stay in Europe and a workshop experience with Pablo Picasso. In 1943, Lam made the work that has immortalized him “The jungle”, which was acquired by the MOMA in New York. The plastic movement was strengthened after the creation, in 1962, of the National School of Plastic Arts, with important figures such as Raúl Martínez and Antonia Eiriz. A few years later, in 1976, the Faculty of Plastic Arts of the Higher Institute of Art was founded. Works by Roberto Fabelo, Zaida del Río, Tomás Sánchez, Pedro Pablo Oliva, Manuel Mendive, Flora Fong, Nelson Domínguez, among many others, make up the heritage of the last decades. We must add the names of younger artists such as José Bedia, Kcho and Flavio Garciandía, who have occupied a privileged place at the forefront of the new paths of art. Cuban painting during the last 30 years has shown great capacity to receive the most important influences of international art with its own and creative sense, assuming at the same time, a critical stance on its subjects, in order to continue defining the features of Cuban identity.

The National Museum of Fine Arts in Havana, treasures collections of classic and modern art, and relics of native cultures from before the 16th century. Other important museums are the Colonial Art Museum and the Anthropological Museum, in Havana, the Emilio Bacardi Moreau Museum and the Natural History Museum, both in Santiago de Cuba, as well as the Oscar María de Rojas Museum, in Cárdenas.

Literature

The first versified literary work of Cuba, Espejo de patciencia, was written by Silvestre de Balboa and dates from 1608. In the first half of the 18th century, the first theatrical work by a Cuban author, of which there is news: “The Gardener Prince and Fingido Cloridano”, by Santiago de Pita. In 1790, with the appearance of the Papel Periódico de La Habana, the Creole bourgeoisie achieved an important space. Manuel de Zequeira and Manuel Justo de Ruvalcaba are considered the most representative poets of the 18th century. It is in the 19th century that the tradition in Cuban poetry begins to consolidate, with verses as deep and beautiful as those of Julián del Casal, Plácido, El Cucalambé, Juan Clemente Zenea, Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda, Juana Borrero, José Jacinto Milanés, Luisa Pérez de Zambrana, José María Heredia and José Martí, who leave the mark of an exquisite lyric that, although romantic, in some cases knew how to go beyond the limits of feeling to offer verses of absolute commitment. In the 19th century, Cirilo Villaverde wrote the first great Cuban novel, Cecilia Valdés, one of the most vital legacies. Other important novelists are Ramón Meza and Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda. This island of poets grew in the 20th century with the names of José Zacarías Tallet, Regino Pedroso, Regino Botti, Nicolás Guillén, Carilda Oliver, José Lezama Lima, Eliseo Diego, Cintio Vitier, Fina García Marrúz, Pablo Armando Fernández, and Dulce María Loynaz, among other important writers, who also quickly began to obtain important international recognitions. At present, narrative is one of the genres that has developed the most in writers such as Alberto Garrido and Ronaldo Menéndez, attesting to the vitality of Cuban literature.

Cinema

The first tape filmed in Cuba, “Simulacro de un fuego”, dates from 1897. During the Cuban Republican period, more than eighty fiction feature films were shot. However, it is not until the triumph of the Cuban Revolution that the foundations are laid for a film industry that supports the development of national cinema. The founding in 1959 of the Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry (ICAIC), meant a fundamental change for the creators of the moving image. In 1960 the Cuban Cinema magazine was founded, sponsored by ICAIC, which carried out vital work in the dissemination of theoretical and creative activity. That same year, Tomás Gutiérrez Alea premiered “Histories of the Revolution”, the first fiction film. Julio García Espinosa, also premieres “Cuba Baila”. In this first stage, called “the golden decade of Cuban cinema,” important and well-known films are released. The exceptional work of Santiago Álvarez, as a documentary filmmaker, revealed his peculiar virtuosity through almost forty years of uninterrupted work, with important premieres. “Strawberry and Chocolate”, the most successful film in Cuban film history, was nominated for an Oscar for best foreign film and made it possible for Cuba to penetrate the world film market. Many of Cuban films have obtained numerous awards and recognitions at national and international festivals.

Photography

Cuba has been reflected in the photograph. On April 5, 1840, El Noticioso y Lucero , a Havana daily, announced the introduction of the first photographic apparatus in Cuba. Pedro Téllez de Girón took the first photo of which there are references, but it seems that this photograph was lost. In the initial period of the Cuban War of Independence, the contributions made by the photographer José Gómez de la Carrera can be signified, whose photo-reportage of the war offers the foundations for contemporary photojournalism, setting standards that have not yet been exceeded. In 1882 the first specialized publication was founded: Photographic Bulletin. In 1887 the book published in Soler Álvarez’s printing house in Havana, Photography within the reach of everyone. The period that spans from the early twentieth century to the 30s is reflected by authors of the transcendence of Generoso Funcasta, López Ortiz, Martínez Hilla, Ernesto Ocaña, among others. It is a period in which the image acquires great importance, through the different periodicals. Special mention requires the work of Joaquín Blez, a photographer of the upper bourgeoisie, with an exquisite taste in the treatment of the nude and the portrait. In the years preceding the Revolution, the cameras of Constantino Arias, Moisés Hernández, the archives of the Diario de Cuba , in Santiago; the funds from the Revista Bohemia or the Diario de la Marina , from Havana, give us a complete vision of the agitated social process that Cuba was experiencing. The Revolution arrives and another group of photographers takes the images that are among the most widely disseminated in history. Photographers such as Alberto Díaz (Korda), Raúl Corrales, Osvaldo Salas and Ernesto Fernández are among the most recognized of these decades. From the period after the Revolution we get a vision reflected in the work of authors such as “Marucha”, “Mayito” and Roberto Salas. The First Sample of Cuban Culture, held in 1966, under the auspices of the Casa de las Américas, integrates photography into the concert of all the arts. The first exhibition of Cuban photography was presented in 1976, in Mexico, and was so well received that the following year the exhibition “History of Cuban Photography” was reorganized in the city itself. In the last period, the authors are carrying out a work from the photographic essay or staging, and they stand out for the beauty and content of their compositions. Many of the current works tend more towards illustration than documentary; others alternate between the poetic and the ironic.

Architecture

In the environmental identity of Cuba, its architecture stands out, especially that which defines the historical spaces of colonial cities. The Hispanic model, coming from the popular architecture of southern Spain, acquired strong characteristics of climatic adaptability, to satisfy the requirements of a way of life in tropical conditions. It is an architecture with large windows and balconies, which made the house communicative and open. The use of light sifting elements would give the house a very peculiar tone, through its bars and colored semicircular stained glass windows. Wide arcades in the squares and main avenues, would make the great writer Alejo Carpentier call Havana “the city of columns”.

During the 19th century, the neoclassical style will give a touch of distinction to the architecture of the Creole bourgeoisie. The Aldama Palace or the Calzada del Cerro in Havana show the high artistic level that these constructions reached. Throughout the 20th century, various architectural influences did not cease to intervene in the urban space. Art Nouveau, brought by the Catalan masters; eclecticism, which is imposed and generalizes; the neohistoricisms; and Art Deco, which inaugurates the modern rationalist movement, make our cities, and especially Havana, spaces of high heritage value due to the coexistence of multiple styles, which participate in the urban visual delight.

Of particular interest is the city’s military fortress system, and in general the entire country as a whole. In the capital is the fortress of La Cabaña, the largest in America; and the Castillo de la Real Fuerza, the first bastioned castle on the continent. You can also visit the Castillo de los Tres Reyes del Morro and the Castillo de La Punta (both in Havana), the Castillo de Jagua (in Cienfuegos), San Pedro de la Roca (in Santiago de Cuba) and the Fuerte de Matachín (in Baracoa). Cuba also has two cities that were declared a World Heritage Site for their high architectural conservation value: Old Havana, Cienfuegos and Trinidad.