Cuban Mexicans

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Cuban Mexicans
cubano-mexicanos
Total population
22,604 Cuban-born residents (2016) [1] Unknown number of Mexicans of Cuban descent
Regions with significant populations
Mexico CityQuintana RooVeracruzYucatan
Languages
Mexican Spanish and Cuban Spanish
Religion
Roman CatholicismSanteria
Related ethnic groups
Cuban diaspora

There is a significant Cuban diaspora in Mexico. Cubans have been a presence in Mexico since the Viceregal era and they have made notable contributions to the culture and politics of the country.

Cuba Country in the Caribbean

Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is a country comprising the island of Cuba as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located in the northern Caribbean where the Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean meet. It is east of the Yucatán Peninsula (Mexico), south of both the U.S. state of Florida and the Bahamas, west of Haiti and north of both Jamaica and the Cayman Islands. Havana is the largest city and capital; other major cities include Santiago de Cuba and Camagüey. The area of the Republic of Cuba is 110,860 square kilometers (42,800 sq mi). The island of Cuba is the largest island in Cuba and in the Caribbean, with an area of 105,006 square kilometers (40,543 sq mi), and the second-most populous after Hispaniola, with over 11 million inhabitants.

Mexico Country in the southern portion of North America

Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and to the east by the Gulf of Mexico. Covering almost 2,000,000 square kilometers (770,000 sq mi), the nation is the fifth largest country in the Americas by total area and the 13th largest independent state in the world. With an estimated population of over 129 million people, Mexico is the tenth most populous country and the most populous Spanish-speaking country in the world, while being the second most populous nation in Latin America after Brazil. Mexico is a federation comprising 31 states plus Mexico City (CDMX), which is the capital city and its most populous city. Other metropolises in the country include Guadalajara, Monterrey, Puebla, Toluca, Tijuana, and León.

New Spain kingdom of the Spanish Empire (1535–1821)

The Viceroyalty of New Spain was an integral territorial entity of the Spanish Empire, established by Habsburg Spain during the Spanish colonization of the Americas. It covered a huge area that included territories in North America, South America, Asia and Oceania. It originated in 1521 after the fall of Tenochtitlan, the main event of the Spanish conquest, which did not properly end until much later, as its territory continued to grow to the north. It was officially created on 8 March 1535 as a Kingdom, the first of four viceroyalties Spain created in the Americas. Its first viceroy was Antonio de Mendoza y Pacheco, and the capital of the kingdom was Mexico City, established on the ancient Tenochtitlan.

Contents

Migration history

Professor Rodolfo Menendez de la Pena (1850-1928) Rodolfo Menendez de la Pena VO.jpg
Professor Rodolfo Menéndez de la Peña (1850-1928)
Pedro de Ampudia, prominent military officer and politician who served as Governor of Tabasco, Yucatan, and Nuevo Leon. Pedro de Ampudia photo.jpg
Pedro de Ampudia, prominent military officer and politician who served as Governor of Tabasco, Yucatán, and Nuevo León.

Hernan Cortes and his crew of soldiers and sailors used Cuba as a launching point for the conquest of the Aztec Empire. Cuba-born individuals began arriving during the colonial era and have continued into the post-independence era. Many arrived fleeing from the chaos caused by the Cuban War of Independence. Fidel Castro and his followers used Mexico as a launching point for the Cuban Revolution. The majority of modern Cuban migrants have been exiles or refugees fleeing from the Communist regime in Cuba. Both countries share the Spanish language; their historical origins are common (part of the Spanish Empire).

The Cuban War of Independence was the last of three liberation wars that Cuba fought against Spain, the other two being the Ten Years' War (1868–1878) and the Little War (1879–1880). The final three months of the conflict escalated to become the Spanish–American War, with United States forces being deployed in Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippine Islands against Spain. Historians disagree as to the extent that United States officials were motivated to intervene for humanitarian reasons but agree that yellow journalism exaggerated atrocities attributed to Spanish forces against Cuban civilians.

Fidel Castro Former First Secretary of the Communist Party and President of Cuba

Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz was a Cuban communist revolutionary and politician who governed the Republic of Cuba as Prime Minister from 1959 to 1976 and then as President from 1976 to 2008. A Marxist–Leninist and Cuban nationalist, Castro also served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from 1961 until 2011. Under his administration, Cuba became a one-party communist state, while industry and business were nationalized and state socialist policies were implemented throughout society.

Cuban Revolution Revolution in Cuba between 1953 and 1959

The Cuban Revolution was an armed revolt conducted by Fidel Castro's revolutionary 26th of July Movement and its allies against the military dictatorship of Cuban President Fulgencio Batista. The revolution began in July 1953, and continued sporadically until the rebels finally ousted Batista on 31 December 1958, replacing his government with a revolutionary socialist state. 26 July 1953 is celebrated in Cuba as the Day of the Revolution . The 26th of July Movement later reformed along communist lines, becoming the Communist Party in October 1965.

As of 2012, there were 14,637 Cuban-born individuals registered with the Mexican government as living in Mexico. [2] However, the number is likely larger as not all Cubans in the country are legal residents. [3]

The number of registered Cuban residents increased 560% between 2010 and 2016, from 4,033 to 22,604 individuals. [1] During the same period, there was a 710% increase in the Cuban presence in Quintana Roo; a fourth of the population (5,569 individuals) live in that state. [1]

Quintana Roo State of Mexico

Quintana Roo, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Quintana Roo, is one of the 31 states which, with Mexico City, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 11 municipalities and its capital city is Chetumal.

Culture

Cuban musicians in Coyoacan, Mexico City. Musicos cubanos en restaurante de Coyocan, Ciudad de Mexico.JPG
Cuban musicians in Coyoacán, Mexico City.

The danzón arrived with traders and refugees of the Ten Years' War through the ports in Veracruz and Yucatan. [4] While the genre has gone out of style in Cuba, it continues to be popular in Mexico. It reached its peak in popularity in the ballrooms of Mexico City in the 1940s, then went through a decline and afterwards entered a renaissance in the late 20th century. The most famous Mexican danzón piece is Danzón No. 2 .

Danzón is the official musical genre and dance of Cuba. It is also an active musical form in Mexico, and is much loved in Puerto Rico as well. Written in 2
4
time
, the danzón is a slow, formal partner dance, requiring set footwork around syncopated beats, and incorporating elegant pauses while the couples stand listening to virtuoso instrumental passages, as characteristically played by a charanga or tipica ensemble.

Ten Years War armed conflict in Cuba between 1868 and 1878

The Ten Years' War (1868–1878), also known as the Great War and the War of '68, was part of Cuba's fight for independence from Spain. The uprising was led by Cuban-born planters and other wealthy natives. On October 10, 1868 sugar mill owner Carlos Manuel de Céspedes and his followers proclaimed independence, beginning the conflict. This was the first of three liberation wars that Cuba fought against Spain, the other two being the Little War (1879–1880) and the Cuban War of Independence (1895–1898). The final three months of the last conflict escalated with United States involvement, leading to the Spanish–American War.

Danzón No. 2 is an orchestral composition by Mexican composer Arturo Márquez. Along with Carlos Chávez's Sinfonia India and Silvestre Revueltas' Sensemaya, Danzón No. 2 is one of the most popular and most frequently performed orchestral Mexican contemporary classical music compositions. Danzón No. 2 gained great popularity worldwide when the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela under Gustavo Dudamel included it on their programme for their 2007 European and American tour.

Cuban music also influenced Mexican Cinema, with a genre known as rumberas .

See also

Related Research Articles

Diaspora involuntary mass dispersions of a population from its indigenous territories

A diaspora is a scattered population whose origin lies in a separate geographic locale. In particular, diaspora has come to refer to involuntary mass dispersions of a population from its indigenous territories, most notably the expulsion of Jews from the Land of Israel and the fleeing of Greeks after the fall of Constantinople. Other examples are the African transatlantic slave trade, the southern Chinese or Indians during the coolie trade, the Irish during and after the Irish Famine, the Romani from India, the Italian diaspora, the exile and deportation of Circassians, Expulsion of the Acadians, and the emigration of Anglo-Saxon warriors and their families after the Norman Conquest of England.

Mambo is a genre of Cuban dance music pioneered by the charanga Arcaño y sus Maravillas in the late 1930s and later popularized in the big band style by Pérez Prado. It originated as a syncopated form of the danzón, known as danzón-mambo, with a final, improvised section, which incorporated the guajeos typical of son cubano. These guajeos became the essence of the genre when it was played by big bands, which did not perform the traditional sections of the danzón and instead leaned towards swing and jazz. By the late 1940s and early 1950s, mambo had become a "dance craze" in the United States as its associated dance took over the East Coast thanks to Pérez Prado, Tito Puente, Tito Rodríguez and others. In the mid-1950s, a slower ballroom style, also derived from the danzón, cha-cha-cha, replaced mambo as the most popular dance genre in North America. Nonetheless, mambo continued to enjoy some degree of popularity into the 1960s and new derivative styles appeared, such as dengue; by the 1970s it had been largely incorporated into salsa.

The music of Cuba, including its instruments, performance and dance, comprises a large set of unique traditions influenced mostly by west African and European music. Due to the syncretic nature of most of its genres, Cuban music is often considered one of the richest and most influential regional musics of the world. For instance, the son cubano merges an adapted Spanish guitar (tres), melody, harmony, and lyrical traditions with Afro-Cuban percussion and rhythms. Almost nothing remains of the original native traditions, since the native population was exterminated in the 16th century.

Chinese Cubans are Cubans of full or mixed Chinese ancestry who were born in or have immigrated to Cuba. They are part of the ethnic Chinese diaspora.

Contradanza is the Spanish and Spanish-American version of the contradanse, which was an internationally popular style of music and dance in the 18th century, derived from the English country dance and adopted at the court of France. Contradanza was brought to America and there took on folkloric forms that still exist in Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Panama and Ecuador.

Basque diaspora ethnic diaspora

The Basque diaspora is the name given to describe people of Basque origin living outside their traditional homeland on the borders between Spain and France. Many Basques have left the Basque Country for other parts of the globe for economic and political reasons, with substantial populations in Colombia, Argentina and Chile with those of Basque ancestry in the hundreds of thousands; Mexico, Cuba, Venezuela and Uruguay, Canada, and the United States.

Russian Americans are Americans who trace their ancestry to Russia, the former Russian Empire, or the former Soviet Union. The definition can be applied to recent Russian immigrants to the United States, as well as to settlers of 19th-century Russian settlements in northwestern America.

Haitian diaspora

Haiti has a sizable diaspora, present chiefly in the Dominican Republic, the United States, Canada, Cuba, the Bahamas, and France. They also live in other countries like Belgium, Jamaica, Turks and Caicos, Mexico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Brazil and Chile, among others.

European emigration can be defined as subsequent emigration waves from the European continent to other continents. The origins of the various European diasporas can be traced to the people who left the European nation states or stateless ethnic communities on the European continent.

The Vietnamese people in France consists of people of Vietnamese ancestry who were born in or immigrated to France. Their population was over 300,000 as of 2014.

Dance in Cuba

Cuban culture encompasses a wide range of dance forms. The island's indigenous people performed rituals known as areíto, which included dancing, although little information is known about such ceremonies. After the colonization of Cuba by the Spanish Kingdom, European dance forms were introduced such as the French contredanse, which gave rise to the Cuban contradanza. Contradanza itself spawned a series of ballroom dances between the 19th and 20th centuries, including the danzón, mambo and cha-cha-cha. Rural dances of European origin, such as the zapateo and styles associated with punto guajiro also became established by the 19th century, and in the 20th century son became very popular. In addition, numerous dance traditions were brought by black slaves from West Africa and the Congo basin, giving rise to religious dances such as Santería, yuka and abakuá, as well as secular forms such as rumba. Many of these dance elements from European dance and religious dances were fused together to form the basis of la técnica cubana. Cuban music also contributed to the emergence of Latin dance styles in the United States, namely rhumba and salsa.

Spanish attempts to reconquer Mexico

The Spanish attempts to reconquer Mexico were an effort by the Spanish government to regain possession of its former colony of Mexico, resulting in episodes of war comprised in clashes between the newly born Mexican nation and Spain. The designation mainly covers two periods: the first attempts occurred from 1821 to 1825 and involved the defense of Mexico's territorial waters, while the second period had two stages, including the Mexican expansion plan to take the Spanish-held island of Cuba between 1826 and 1828, and the 1829 expedition of Spanish General Isidro Barradas, which landed on Mexican soil with the object of reconquering Mexican territory. Although the Spanish never regained control of the country they did damage the fledgling Mexican economy.

The Spanish diaspora consists of Spanish people and their descendants who emigrated from Spain. The diaspora is concentrated in places that were part of the Spanish Empire. Countries such as Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela, Chile, Colombia, Argentina, Paraguay, Cuba, Nicaragua and, to a lesser extent, Brazil, the United States, Canada and continental Europe.

New diaspora displacement, migration, and dispersion of individuals away from their homelands by forces such as globalization, neoliberalism, and imperialism

A neo/new diaspora is the displacement, migration, and dispersion of individuals away from their homelands by forces such as globalization, neoliberalism, and imperialism. Such forces create economic, social, political, and cultural difficulties for individuals in their homeland that forces them to displace and migrate.

Colombian Mexicans Mexican citizens of Colombian descent

There is a significant Colombian diaspora in Mexico. According to the 2010 census, there were 13,922 Colombian citizens residing in Mexico, making them the largest South American immigrant community in Mexico.

Chilean Mexicans

There is a small Chilean diaspora in Mexico. According to the 2010 census, there were 5,267 registered Chilean citizens living in Mexico, an increase from the 3,848 registered in the 2000 census. Chilean immigrants constitute the fifth largest community of South Americans in Mexico and the fifteenth largest immigrant community overall.

Venezuelan refugee crisis Venezuelan refugee crisis or Bolivarian diaspora.

The Venezuelan refugee crisis, the largest recorded refugee crisis in the Americas, refers to the emigration of millions of Venezuelans from their native country during the presidencies of Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro because of the Bolivarian Revolution. The revolution was an attempt by Chávez and later Maduro to establish a cultural and political hegemony, which culminated in the crisis in Bolivarian Venezuela. The resulting refugee crisis has been compared to those faced by Cuban exiles, Syrian refugees and those affected by the European migrant crisis. The Bolivarian government has denied any migratory crisis, stating that the United Nations and others are attempting to justify foreign intervention within Venezuela.

As of the 2011 census, the number of immigrants in Costa Rica totaled about 390,000 individuals, or about 9% of the country's population. Following a considerable drop from 1950 through 1980, immigration to Costa Rica has increased in recent decades.

Venezuelan Mexicans

Venezuelan Mexicans are Mexicans who trace their heritage, or part of their heritage, to the nation of Venezuela. As of 2015, Venezuelans were the fifth largest immigrant group in Mexico, following Americans, Guatemalans, Spaniards and Colombians.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Arredondo, Íñigo. "Cubanos en México: los que no llegan a EU". El Universal (in Spanish). Retrieved 16 May 2017.
  2. Ernesto Rodríguez Chávez (2013). "CUBANS IN MEXICO. INTERNATIONAL MOBILITY AND SOCIO-DEMOGRAPHIC AND LABOR PARTICIPATION PATTERNS" (PDF). Florida International University. Retrieved 21 December 2014.
  3. "The Cuban expats are celebrating — the ones in Mexico, that is". Global Post. Retrieved 22 December 2014.
  4. "Young Mexicans embrace the seductive charms of the dance that Cuba forgot". The Guardian. Retrieved 27 July 2015.

Further reading