My parents are approaching their 90’s and it’s at that stage where it’s not too difficult to swallow the fact they won’t be around forever. There’s a probably a decent inheritance somewhere but when you get to be in your 90’s, your kids have most likely are well past the point when they really need it.
My claim on their empire that I protect vigilantly is not money but a ratty and well-used set of encyclopedias that have been in a book shelf at the front door since before I was brought into this world. The Illustrated Home Library Encyclopedia was issued by the Educational Book Guild in the 1950’s. Our set was dated 1957.
Back in my elementary school days in the late 1970’s, the information in these books was still up to date enough to use. Lately, when we go to visit my parents, I get a kick out of browsing these books for the simple fact that they have gone from books of current facts to books of history.
Cuba: A Look Back In Time
The above Cathedral of Havana is the same as on the top left of the scan from the encyclopedia. The above image was taken in January, 2012. The encyclopedia refers to it as the Cathedral of St. Christopher, which is an alternate name.
Caribbean tourism was basically non-existent at the time. For example, there are no entries for Turks and Caicos and St. Maarten. Many of the Caribbean islands are grouped into articles on the Greater or Lesser Antilles.
I pulled the section of Cuba word-for-word. When this was published, Fidel and the boys were just starting the fun in the Sierra Maestra. Batista was still in charge and the country was considered ‘wealthy’. The normal italic text is as-is from the encyclopedia. I’ve highlighted areas of interest. The red italics are my comments.
Taken from ‘The Illustrated Home Library Encyclopedia’ (book 6) – Copyright 1957 by Educational Book Guild, Inc.
Cuba is the largest island in the West Indies. It is nearly as large in area as the state of Pennsylvania. Cuba’s population is nearly five million people, which is only half that of Pennsylvania. It is a very beautiful and wealthy island known as the “Pearl of the Antilles”. It was discovered in 1492 by Christopher Columbus, who never learned that it was an island. Cuba remained a possession of Spain until the Spanish-American War in 1898. Since then it has had a democratic government except in times of revolt and under brief dictatorships.
Current population is over 11,000,000. The island is still known as the ‘Pearl of the Antilles’ but so is Haiti…
Cuba lies at the entrance to the Gulf of Mexico, between Florida and Central America. This location made it important to the Spaniards, who called it “the key to the New World.” The United States now has a naval base on the south coast of Cuba. It was built for the defense of the Panama Canal.
I assume we’re talking about Guantanamo Bay.
Cuba has long been dependent in many ways on the United States, principally for the sale of sugar, which is the island’s chief crop.
From Wikipedia: Until the 1960s, the USA received 33% of their sugar imports from Cuba. However, the sugar production in the cane sugar mills has fallen from approximately 8 million metric tons to 3.2 million metric tons in 2012.
THE PEOPLE OF CUBA
The original inhabitants of Cuba were Arawak Indians who were made slaves by the Spanish and treated very cruelly until most of the Indians died and the Spaniards then brought negro slaves over from Africa. About one-fourth of the present population is Negro. Most of the rest are descendants of Spanish immigrants, although about 200,000 were born in Spain. There are some Americans and Chinese. Spanish is the official language, but more and more people are learning English.
Some words just aren’t used anymore…
About forty per cent of the people cannot read or write, although there are more than 5,000 free public schools and five hundred private schools. The head of the public school system is the University of Havana. Most of the private schools are Roman Catholic, which is the principal religion of Cuba.
According to UNICEF, the literacy rate in Cuba is now 100%.
Although Cuba is a very rich country, many poor people are workers who are employed only during the short harvest season on the sugar plantations.
WHAT THE LAND IS LIKE
Most of Cuba is low, rolling country with few hilly parts. The eastern end is mountainous. Most of the south shore is very flat and suffers from hurricanes that drive in the waves. The highest mountain peak is Pico Turquino, in the west, whose altitude is 5,610 feet.
Apparently we have more accurate methods of measuring the altitude of a mountain in today’s day and age. Pico Turquino is now listed at 6,476 feet.
From the east the land drops suddenly under the sea. Most of the coastline is low and rocky, fringed with coral reefs. There are lagoons and salt marshes in many places, some so large that they resemble fine harbours. There are very few inland lakes, and the navigable river is the Rio Cauto.
Cuba has a tropical climate with enough rain for most agricultural purposes. It is generally healthy, mostly due to the conquest of malaria by Carlos J. Finlay and Walter Reed early in this century.
There is still no threat of Malaria in Cuba, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada. However, the rains don’t come like they used to, according to personal conversations with locals in Cuba. Drought is becoming more and more prominent.
Cuba has many natural resources, such as copper and iron. But most of these are difficult to mine and the iron ore in particular is held in reserve by American steel companies. Agriculture is the leading industry. Cane sugar is the most important farm product and Cuba is the chief producer. After World War I, Cuba suffered from overproduction because the United States bought less and Europe revived its own beet-sugar industry.
Now, the most important mineral resource in Cuba in nickel. Cuba holds the world’s second highest reserve, behind Russia. Cuba is also the fifth highest producer of Cobalt in the world.
Tobacco is the second leading industry, and the famous Vuelta-Abajo district in the Pinar del Rio province is the most important tobacco-growing region in the world. Other products of Cuba are coffee, bananas, pineapples and citrus fruit. There is also much cattle and poultry raising and vegetable growing.
If you’ve been through the Cuban countryside, you would never use much and cattle side by side in a sentence.
The sugar plantations are crisscrossed with about three thousand miles of private railway lines, and there are about the same number of miles of public railways connecting the chief cities. There are about two thousand miles of roads and highways that are constantly being improved. In 1931, a 700 mile long central east-west highway was built across the island.
Rail is still prominent with 4,225 km of rail lines. The east-west highway is now around 780 miles long and is dubbed ‘Carretera Central’.
THE GOVERNMENT OF CUBA
The government of Cuba is a constitutional republic. The president and vice-president are elected for four-year terms, and neither may be re-elected for eight years after completing his term. Both must be at least 35, and must be Cuban-born or have served in Cuba’s wars of independence.
Fidel Castro was 33 when he took over as Prime Minister of Cuba after his successful revolution. Obviously, the eight year rule disappeared.
The congress is composed of a senate of 54 members (nine from each province) and a house of representatives, with one member representing every 35,000 persons. All members of congress are elected for four-year terms. Governors of provinces are also elected for four-year terms. Voting is compulsory for all adult citizens. Failure to vote brings penalties, including being barred from holding office for the next two years.
The courts of Cuba are the supreme court, a superior electoral court, a tribunal of constitutional and social guarantees, provincial courts of appeal, and civil and criminal courts.
CUBA IN THE PAST
Cuba was discovered by Columbus in 1492. It was settled in 1511 by his son, Diego Columbus, who founded the city Santiago three years later. Spain ruled the wealthy island with such cruelty that many insurrections broke out until finally it became free when the United States helped Cubans win the Spanish-American War in 1898.
The country has had several presidents. However, many revolts have occurred so that the United States had to send special commissions and even troops. The last time was in 1917 during World War I. In 1934 the United States promised never to interfere again.
Apparently, a partial embargo in 1960 and a full embargo from 1962 to the present is not classified as interference…
Since then there been more troubles, most recently in 1952 when Colonel Fulgencio Batista overthrew the government and had himself elected president. This is perhaps not the best way to run a republic, but most Americans in North and South America believe that it is better for people to run their own country, even when they do it badly, than to have outsiders run it for them.
This is an interesting bit of opinion for an encylopedia – a book that is supposed to just state the facts. To correct that final statement about letting people run their own country, ‘unless there is oil’ should be added.
Personal Update
It’s now February, 2017 and both my parents have since passed away. I will forever miss them but am glad I was able to travel with them throughout Canada and parts of Europe, along with sunshine locales like Panama, Dominican Republic and Cuba, throughout our time together.
This past summer, 2016, not long after my Dad left us, we took a road trip across Canada and into the United States. Along the way, we revisited places I’d been to with my Mom and Dad decades before. Often, we would go through places that I was pretty sure I’d visited with my parents, so many years ago. I would catch myself saying, “I have to ask my parents about this place when we get home.”
And, yes, that encylopedia set is set up on my desk. Maybe, just maybe, I’ll use them to take us back in time to some other locations…
