The Glory That Was CUBA, Part 1

This next National Geographic Magazine article will indeed be interesting,  Enrique C. Canova will describe a Cuba probably few alive today would have known.  To refresh our memories, Fidel Castro and his band overthrew the dictator Batista in 1959.  I, a teenager, remember how betrayed I felt when Castro declared Cuba would be a Communist state, aligned with Russia.

While studying Spanish in college (the first time), I met a young man from Cuba.  He and his family had survived escaping Cuba the year before, in 1960.  His English was not good and I was just beginning to learn Spanish, so we tutored each other.  He said his dad was a teacher and they were killing teachers, doctors, and clergy so the family sneaked out of the island in a small boat, leaving everything they ever owned in Cuba.

This article, September, 1933, is titled, Cuba, the Isle of Romance.  Let's explore it.  "Like a gaily attired Spanish senorita, Cuba charms the eye, and the glamour of a lurid past, with its pages of piratical plundering, pomp, and high adventure with which it is so romantically linked, quickens interest from the moment it is sighted on the horizon.  The island presents many contrasts.  Sea defenses of time-mellowed rock are relentlessly attacked by jealous waves; yet within these stern barriers are green, rolling hills dotted with royal palms.  Luxurious valleys bursting with verdure are shadowed by towering mountains where rock and jungle stand guard in secondary defense against man's onslaught.  Even to-day, more than one-third its area remains primeval forest!" (p. 345).

"Of the larger Latin-American republics, the island is nearest to Europe, and, next to Mexico, nearest to the United States.  It is the crossroads for shipping between many ports of Europe or the United States and Central or South America," (p. 346).  Cuba is a long island, over 600 miles, with the widest point at 124 miles, and only 90 miles off the coast of Florida, U.S.A.

"To most people Cuba of course suggests sugar and tobacco.  While these two commodities are the chief products, yet by no means unimportant are the mining districts, oil fields, asphalt deposits, and numerous other natural resources, including a delightful climate," (p. 365).  Very well-known even now are the Havana cigars from Cuba.

Let's leave it at that for tonight and resume our story tomorrow!