CASTRO'S CUBA

The history of Cuba goes way back to the days of Christopher Columbus! Columbus and his three ships..La Pinta, La Nina and the Sancta Maria landed in Cuba on 10/28/1492. In 1511 the first Spanish settlement was recorded at Habana. Explorer Hernando Desoto was in Cuba as were the British. The Brits invaded Cuba in 1762.


The Spanish government reigned until 1868 when Cuba declared their independence from Spain. This tropical island in the Carribean is steamy in the summer.Anything and everything grows in the 16 Cuban Provinces. Cuban "hand-rolled" cigars are coveted by the world's elite!


The part I like about the Cuban Culture are the surviving vintage automobiles of the fifties. Truly amazing.




Castro lived his life as a controversial  and diverse world figure. I recently met a lady in Sturbridge, an old blogger who admits seeing Castro in Boston in the Fifties! In the early Sixties Khrushchev and Castro faced up to the U.S.A. and JFK. Kennedy had missiles in Turkey aimed towards the Soviet Union. Castro invited the Russians to come to Cuba and set up missiles aimed for he USA. It was a "head-to-head" confrontation between the USSR and the USA.




Further, 'since 1959 , Cuba regarded the U.S.A. presence in Guantanamo Bay illegal.'


The Cold War persisted. The Cuban Missile crisis was the most dangerous period in our history. Kennedy adroitly got Khrushchev to remove the missiles and head back to the USSR. Castro stood by Khrushchev all the way.




All relations with the Island Country ended. Vacations to Cuba ceased.. so near (90) miles yet so far away. Obama opened up Cuban relations a while back.


Mark my word... "Made in Cuba" will become part of the American lexicon in the future.Many of the 11 million Cuban population are very poor. The beaches invite is to Cuba now that it is winter in the Northern Hemisphere!




Much information comes from WIKIPEDIA.

Robert Louis Potvin
Chief Blogger-in-Charge
West Brookfield, MA