Talk:Culture of Cuba

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The NPOV message was removed previously, however an edit conflict caused it to stay, and I have now removed it again. DO'Neil 06:12, May 27, 2004 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] VANDALISM DETECTED

I believe that this is a clear example of vandalism.. yet i think that originally it wasn't.. so can someone revert it ??

"There is also a candy community in Cuba, primarily made of up descendants of Sephardic sweet chocolate fleeing the Spanish Inquisitonenjoy. In the early 20th century, they were joined by bakerys around the world from Eastern Europe. Though the candy community is small, the taste is amazing." —Preceding unsigned comment added by Yagami Kurono (talk • contribs) 07:01, 7 October 2007 (UTC)


[edit] MAJOR CHANGES

  • added the spanish acronym for "Schools of Higher Athletic Performance" which is ESPA
  • added two more TV stations recently created with a brief explanation about the reasons for their creation (for content information purposes)
  • added a paragraph about the movies, theatres, ballet and music. very brief tough

i will also like to add info on art schools in Cuba and other large hobbies like Chess and activities closely conected with their weather, being a tropical country they have a lot of beach activity and the summer its quite a largely active and exciting entertainment time for the cubans. i will try to make a good addition soon... --Gotten 05:42, 22 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Added Alejo Carpentier -- one of Cuba's foremost writers. Mig 01:00, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Havana Carnivals

"The Havana Carnivals of 1960 were the hottest in all the revolutionary period under Fidel Castro. People were not only celebrating freedom but it was the first anniversary of a government that seemed to promise a better future." If anyone thinks this info is worth merging, please do. Babajobu 15:34, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Link To Son

Hi, I am unsure if it is correct but the link to son under the heading "music of cuba" links to the word "son" which I think is incorrect, but I'm not a music expert so I don't know for sure. Can anyone fix the link? Skuzabut 17:41, 22 April 2006 (EST)

[edit] Street Impressions?

what does street impressions have to do with culture? specially those old cars.. does the 1900s cars appears in the Culture of United States, or England, France etc.? every single page you read of Cuba politics is always involved

[edit] Cuisine

I'm meditating to correct this section. Saying that cuban cuisine lacks seasonings or sauces is downright wrong. Cuban cuisine is mainly not peppery (however, if you intend to eat things like rabo encendido better have a fire extinguisher handy!) nevertheless a wide variety of seasonings are used: garlic, cummings, onion, parsley, etc. Sauces are equally popular in most meat dishes.

Cuban cuisine also has some noticeable chinese influences, soy sauce is commonly used in several recipes and some dishes are downright chinese in origin, such as arroz salteado. Cuban cuisine has also large regional variety, moros y cristianos is oriental in origin, while Havana has culinary specialties such as croquetas, the arroz and picadillo a la habanera and Guanabacoa's papas rellenas. No mention whatsoever to the fact that, being a sugar producing country, Cuba has as well a long time tradition in desserts.

Fact is that criollo dishes usually came from the poorer, less "sophisticated" areas of countryside Cuba, and reflected a simpler way of eating, as in all deserts based on fruits and sugar (coco rallado being a quick example), whereas Havana and the largest cities had a more refined and "continental" way of cooking, although it still made use of the local ingredients.

This is mainly cultural talk, of course the everyday cuisine for a cuban family is drastically different to this picture (and relies mainly on rice and beans, eggs and occasionally chicken, grinded meat or fish, steaks being a yearly rarity at best). However, saying caviar is from Russia does not imply all russians eat caviar or even know how it looks like...

"Lack of fuel for agricultural machinery meant crops could not be harvested" is as well not exactly correct. Lack of fuel ment crops started to be harvested by hand, or with the aid of animal force, with a sensible loss in productivity. Also, aside from the libreta and the black market, there's the mercado paralelo, where mainly agricultural products can be acquired. Prices are several times those of the libreta. Officially sanctioned by Castro's government in the mid 80s, this parallel market has never been rationed, so saying "all cuban food is rationed" is imprecise. Having high prices, the parallel market does determine a difference between those capable of buying its products and those that can't.

All comments are welcome before I put these changes on. -- EmirCalabuch 13:21, 1 August 2006 (UTC)

I agree with everything you say. This page is in a poor state, please add your proposed changes, and add any links and references you can. Anything is an improvement! --Zleitzen 13:38, 1 August 2006 (UTC)
I thought of forming a separate article with the libreta description and purpose, as well as some information about what products get distributed in this fashion, to be later linked from the "Cuisine" page (I think is probably better organized this way). You can find it in a sandbox here. If El Jigue or somebody else could take a look and provide some sources and arguments for the "detractors" comment, it would be much appreciated, as well as any other sort of constructive criticism. Feel free to directly modify the sandbox.--EmirCalabuch 21:24, 1 August 2006 (UTC)
That's great Emir, I'll also be formatting the page in the sandbox if that's OK by you (linking the article to other pages and so on). You might want to look at the Ubre Blanca page where I touched upon the issue of milk. Feel free to make any amendments to that page.--Zleitzen 21:36, 1 August 2006 (UTC)
I don't recall any free glass of milk at school (I was however on a semi-internado, a full-day school, which did provide free lunch, so maybe we just ran out of freebies, there). Perhaps checking your source on that sentence is a good idea. However, milk is sold at subsidized prices to families having children under 7, perhaps this is the milk you're refering to (in which case, it is one liter per day, not one glass, and is not given at school, but on milk stores). A curious note, lunch was free, but the snack was not, go figure (anyway, those were the 70s-80s, now I doubt lunch is being given, and I even doubt semi-internados exist anymore). You can edit the page as you see fit, its just a quick draft that needs work. -- EmirCalabuch 22:46, 1 August 2006 (UTC)
I've taken that material out of Ubre Blanca. I don't remember now how I came up with it and it's not in the source. It must have been something lodged in my mind. Thanks for bringing that up.--Zleitzen 23:35, 1 August 2006 (UTC)