Genetics. An autosomal study from 2014 found the genetic ancestry in Cuba to be 72% European, 20% African and 8% Amerindian. This study was of Cubans in Cuba, not the Cuban exile community in United States or other parts of the world, who may have different genetic profiles.
Cuba is a Caribbean island nation with a population of 11 million. It is a significantly diverse country, with 64% of the country identifying as white, 27% identifying as mixed race, and 9% identifying as Afro-Cuban. There are a significant number of Asians as well.
Cuba is a multiracial society with a population of mainly Spanish and African origins. The largest organized religion is the Roman Catholic Church.
Cubans themselves are, as recent DNA studies prove, partially Africans. But Cuba's expression of African culture evolved primarily as a mechanism of existential survival and adaptation for the African men and women that experienced slavery, dehumanization, and racism on the island for 350 years.
The original inhabitants of Cuba were the indigenous Ciboney and other Arawak speaking groups.
Cubans (Spanish: Cubanos) are people from Cuba or people with Cuban citizenship. Cuba is a multi-ethnic nation, home to people of different ethnic, religious and national backgrounds.
Two out of 132 male samples belonged to East Asian haplogroup O2, which is found in significant frequencies among Cantonese people and is found in 1.5% of the Cuban population. In the 1920s, an additional 30,000 Chinese arrived; the immigrants were exclusively male.
The official language of Cuba is Spanish or Cuban Spanish, a form of Caribbean Spanish , that the vast majority of Cubans speak.
Cuba was first settled by the Guanahatabey and Taino Native Americans. They were farmers, hunters, and fishers. Christopher Columbus landed at Cuba in 1492 and claimed the land for Spain. Columbus named the land Isla Juana, but later it would be called Cuba, which comes from the local Native American name of coabana.
Cuba participated heavily in the slave trade to obtain cheap labor for the sugar plantations beginning in the 16th century. Cuba stopped officially participating in the slave trade in 1867 but the institution of slavery was not abolished on the island until 1886.
People in Cuba are called cubanos.
Yet Cuba remained one of Spain's two colonies in the New World. (The other was Puerto Rico.) It was governed from Madrid much as it had been governed since it was first occupied and settled by the Spaniards in 1511.
Today, there are only 150 Chinese-born residents living in the Latin country, but somewhere around 114,000 Cubans with mixed Chinese heritage. Most do not speak Chinese and have never been to China, yet feel a strong connection to their Asian heritage.
The European heritage of Cubans comes primarily from one source: the Spaniards (including Canarians, Asturians, Catalans, Galicians, Andalusians, and Castilians). The native white population are nearly all descendants of the Spaniards and most non-white Cubans also have Spanish ancestry.
The majority of the population (around 70 per cent) are of mixed African and European (Spanish) descent, with the remainder black (around 16 per cent) and white (14 per cent). During the early colonial period indigenous Taíno-Arawak communities were also part of the overall population.
Although it's commonly believed that the indigenous Taíno were extirpated after Spanish conquest in 1511, their bloodlines, identity and customs were never completely extinguished.
There are estimates that up to 1% of Cuban DNA is Chinese. Although the veracity of these census records cannot be adequately evaluated, in actuality, the most recent estimates places Cubans as 37% white, 51% mixed race, 11% black, and 1% Asian.
It is not surprising that the official language of Cuba is Spanish, since it is what most of the states in South and Central America have in common: 20 countries in these areas use it as their official language.
When Christopher Columbus first arrived in Cuba in 1492, he discovered an island already inhabited by three different groups of indigenous peoples: the Taínos, the Ciboneys, and the Guanajatabeyes. Currently, scholars estimate that there were between 50,000-300,000 indigenous people occupying the island at the time.
Hola is the Spanish word for hello. This is perfect for saying hello to someone in Cuba, since it's a fairly informal society. If you want to be more specific, you can impress by using Buenos días (Good morning), Buenas tardes (Good afternoon/evening) and Buenas noches (Good night).
Cuba is a mainly Catholic country, although the mixture of cultures and origins create a real syncretic religious panorama where African religions and Catholicism have given rise to the well-known “Santería.”
Cubano is most similar to the accent of native speakers in La Palma, one of Spain's Canary Island located off the northwest coast of Africa. This influence is primarily due to large waves of immigrants from the Canary Islands in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Italian Cubans (Italian: italo-cubani; Spanish: ítalo-cubanos) are Cuban citizens who are of Italian ancestry. Italian emigration into Cuba was minor (a few thousand emigrates) in comparison with other waves of Italian emigration to the Americas (millions went to Argentina, Venezuela, Brazil and the United States).
Although Afro-Cubans can be found throughout Cuba, Eastern Cuba has a higher concentration of Afro-Cubans than other parts of the island and Havana has the largest population of Afro-Cubans of any city in Cuba. Recently, many native African immigrants have been coming to Cuba, especially from Angola.
The Cuban Chinese Today
It's estimated that Chinese Cubans (those who were born in China) only number about 400 today. Many are elderly residents who live near the run-down Barrio Chino.