Cuban Culture Research Paper

For over the past half-century, the world has become fixated on a tiny island nation located just around ninety miles off the southeastern tip of the United States. As the borders of Cuba have become a tad more flexible than they once were, interest in Cuba has grown exponentially over the past couple of years and will only continue to grow as more business opportunities are established. Aboriginal groups known as the Guanahatabey, Ciboney, and the Taino originally inhabited the island. However, subsequent invasions by the Spanish eliminated not only the population of these aboriginal groups, but also any influence that these groups may have had on modern culture. Thus, modern Cuban culture, language, and religion still contain heavy influence

However, Spanish fleet ships largely ignored Cuba until the nineteenth century when the collapse of Spanish influence in Haiti led to an increase in Spanish interest in Cuba’s sugar production capability. While this ultimately led to an increased prosperity for the Cuban people, it also sparked a desire for independence from Spanish

This ultimately led to an alliance with the Soviet Union against the United States during the Cold War, which led to the notorious Bay of Pigs incident of 1961 and the Cuban Missile Crisis in October of 1962. While the crisis was resolved with the United States conceding any desire to attack Cuba further, that did not end the tension between the two countries. With the collapse of its USSR dependent in the 1990s, Cuba plunged into deep economic depression. Over a four-year span, gross national product decreased by over half and the standard of living plunged. Since then, the relationship between Cuba and the United States has been plagued by illegal emigration and increased economic sanctions on Cuba and their trading partners by the United States25. In recent years, however, President Obama has reopened Cuba to American visitors and thus has sparked a dramatic increase in Cuba from American business owners. With such a new and rapidly developing opportunity, American businesses must educate themselves on Cuba and its policies, in order to navigate Cuba’s ever-changing infrastructure and maximize total benefit for both