Cuban cosmonaut Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez
Credit: Intercosmos

People in the United States observe National Hispanic Heritage Month each year from September 15 to October 15. During this period, Latin American countries celebrate their independence. These countries include Cuba, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, and Nicaragua.

Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez is a Cuban cosmonaut and politician. In Russia and the other former republics of the Soviet Union, astronauts are called cosmonauts. In 1980, Tamayo became the first Black person in space, when he spent a week docked at the Soviet Salyut 6 space station. That same year, he became a member of Cuba’s National Assembly.

Tamayo was born on Jan. 29, 1942, in Guantánamo. After being orphaned as a baby, he was raised by his maternal aunt and uncle. As a child, Tamayo worked many odd jobs, for example shining shoes, selling vegetables, and working as an apprentice carpenter.

After the Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista fled the country in 1959, Tamayo joined the country’s Revolutionary Army (see Cuba (The Castro revolution). In 1961, he completed studies at the Technical Institute to be an aviation technician. He was then selected to continue studying in the Soviet Union. Tamayo learned how to pilot fighter jets at the Yeisk Higher Military Aviation School in Russia, on the Sea of Azov. He returned to Cuba in 1962 to become a flight instructor for the Cuban Revolutionary Guard. During the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, he participated in reconnaissance missions. He also served in the Vietnam War (1957-1975). By 1976, Tamayo had reached the rank of lieutenant colonel in the Cuban air force.

The Soviet Union selected Tamayo to participate in its Intercosmos program in 1978. The program was established to send non-Soviets into space on Soviet spacecraft. Tamayo spent two and a half years training at the Yuri Gargarin Soviet Space Center. On Sept. 18, 1980, Tamayo and the Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Romanenko blasted off on the Soyuz 38 mission. Tamayo became the first person from the Caribbean, the first Cuban, the first Latin American, and the first Black person in space. On the space station Salyut 6, the crew of Soyuz 38 joined other cosmonauts and carried out various experiments designed by Cuban scientists. The mission lasted a little over a week.

Tamayo and Romanenko were both awarded honors after landing. Tamayo became the first person ever awarded the Hero of the Republic of Cuba medal. Additionally, he received medals for Hero of the Soviet Union and the Order of Lenin. Tamayo continued his military service, eventually attaining the rank of brigadier general and serving as director of Cuba’s civil defense. His space suit is displayed in the Museum of The Revolution in Havana.

Celia Cruz was born in Cuba and became internationally famous for her powerful voice, her exciting live performances, and her colorful costumes.
Credit: AP/Wide World

March is Women’s History Month, an annual observance of women’s achievements and contributions to society. This month, Behind the Headlines will feature woman pioneers in a variety of areas.

The Queen of Salsa will become the first Afro-Latina to appear on the United States quarter. As part of the American Women Quarters Program, Cuban-born singer Celia Cruz will be smiling back from quarters soon. Cruz is considered the greatest female singer in the salsa style of music.

Salsa is a style of Latin dance music that blends a variety of African and Spanish elements. The term salsa is Spanish for sauce, perhaps referring to the hot, spicy character of the music. Salsa is rooted in Cuban music of the early 1900’s, especially a style call son. Cuban immigrants carried son to the United States. There, it absorbed elements of Puerto Rican music as well as jazz and rock music, especially in the 1960’s and 1970’s. At this time, the resulting musical blend became known as salsa. Salsa music incorporates many different instruments, including bass, piano, trombone, trumpet, and several types of percussion instruments.

Popularly known as la Reina de la Salsa (the Queen of Salsa), Cruz performed for more than 50 years in both Cuba and the United States. Cruz became internationally famous for her powerful voice, her exciting scat singing (singing wordless syllables instead of lyrics), her colorful costumes, and her skill at engaging the audience during her performance. She recorded more than 70 albums.

Cruz was born in Havana, Cuba, on Oct. 21, 1925. Her full name was Ursula Hilaria Celia Caridad Cruz Alfonso. She began singing as a youngster. In 1950, she joined the band La Sonora Matancera, one of the top tropical bands of its day.

In 1960, La Sonora Matancera left Cuba for a job in Mexico. Rather than return to Cuba, which had come under the dictatorship of Fidel Castro the year before, Cruz and the band went to the United States. She became a permanent U.S. resident in the early 1960’s and a U.S. citizen in 1977. Cruz left La Sonora Matancera to begin her career as a soloist in 1965. She recorded albums with such Latin bandleaders as Willie Colon, Ray Barretto, Johnny Pacheco, and Tito Puente. At the end of her career, Cruz was also performing disco and hip hop music. Cruz died on July 16, 2003.

The Brazilian samba, like a number of Latin American dances, combines African and European artistic influences. These dancers are performing the samba at a nightclub in Rio de Janeiro.
© Günter Gräfenhain, SIME/4Corners Images

It’s time to put on your dancing shoes because National Ballroom Dancing Week is here. From September 16th to the 25th, try out the following fun dance styles in your living room. There are 12 types of ballroom dance: 1) bolero, 2) cha-cha, 3) East Coast swing, 4) fox trot, 5) jive, 6) mambo, 7) paso double, 8) rumba, 9) samba, 10) tango, 11) Viennese waltz, and 12) waltz. Let’s look at a few of these.

Samba is a popular Afro-Brazilian style of music and dance. The term Afro-Brazilian is used to refer to Brazilians of largely African descent. Samba is best known for the central role it plays in the famous Carnival festival in Brazil. Samba music consists of layers of syncopated (irregularly accented) rhythms played in 2/4 or 4/4 time. Samba can be danced solo, in pairs, or in groups. It involves quick forward and backward steps. Dancers sway their hips while stepping and use various sweeping or energetic arm movements.

In Brazil, samba styles vary by region. For example, the samba de roda is a style performed in Brazil’s northern states. This style of samba usually involves women dancing in a circle. Samba-lenço is popular in Brazil’s central and southern states. Samba-lenço dancers hold a handkerchief while performing. Samba carnavalesca is the most internationally recognized style of samba. Dancers perform the samba carnavalesca each year during the Carnival festival.

Samba has its roots in the music and dance of the African nation of Angola. Scholars think the word samba comes from the Kimbundu word semba, which describes a belly-bumping dance move used in some styles of samba. Enslaved African people brought the music and dance style to Brazil. Around 1900, samba became associated with the Carnival celebration in Rio de Janeiro. Soon it became a symbol of national identity in Brazil.

Ballroom dancing is a form of dancing for couples. Various ballroom dances originated in Europe, the United States, and Latin America. These dances then spread throughout the rest of the world as both a popular social activity and a competitive sport.
© Jeffrey Dunn, The Viesti Collection

Rumba, also spelled rhumba, is a Latin ballroom dance that originated in Africa and achieved its modern form in Cuba. Couples perform the rumba in 4/4 time with a quick-quick-slow rhythm. The rumba emphasizes a swaying hip motion that is achieved by taking small steps with the knees relaxed. Steps are typically performed in a square pattern. The rumba is most often accompanied by music with a repeated beat played on percussion instruments.

A version of the rumba was first introduced into the United States from Cuba about 1914. However, the dance’s exaggerated hip movements were considered too sexually suggestive and the dance did not gain acceptance. A more refined version was introduced about 1930. The dance maintained its popularity in the 1930′s and 1940′s, especially in England, where ballroom dance teachers standardized the figures and step rhythms. Rumbas also appear in music not intended for ballroom dancing, as in Darius Milhaud‘s ballet La creation du monde (1923).

Tango is the national dance and music of Argentina. These couples are dancing at a milonga in Plaza Dorrego, in the San Telmo neighborhood of Buenos Aires. Milongas are social events for dancing tango. They have their own special etiquette. For example, couples circulate around the dance floor in a counterclockwise direction.
© Jeff Greenberg, UIG/Getty Images

Tango was the first Latin American dance to gain great international popularity. The tango is a ballroom dance for a couple in slow 2/4 or 4/4 time. The dancers alternate long, slow steps with short, quick steps, sometimes making sudden turns and striking dramatic poses.

The tango was danced in the United States about 1912 by Vernon and Irene Castle, a famous ballroom dancing team. It also became popular in Paris and London. Today’s tango is related to an Argentine dance called the milonga, a Cuban dance called the habanera, and a tango from Spain‘s Andalusian region.

The waltz became the most fashionable social dance of the late 1800′s. It originated in Germany and Austria and soon spread to other countries. The waltz inspired some of the finest dance music of the period and also added beauty and elegence to many romantic ballets of the 1800′s.
Emperor Franz Joseph at a Ball in Vienna(about 1900), a gouache painting on canvas by Wilhelm Gause; Museum der Stadt, Vienna/ET Archive, London from Superstock

Waltz is a ballroom dance in 3/4 time characterized by its swift gliding turns. The dance was enormously popular throughout the 1800′s. The term waltz is also used for the music that accompanies this dance. The waltz has been danced in two distinct styles, the three-step and the two-step. In Europe, especially in Vienna, the dancers waltzed much faster than they waltzed in North America.

The waltz developed rapidly in the last years of the 1700′s. It emerged from a group of south German and Austrian dances involving the turning motion of the dancers in a close embrace position. The popularity of waltzes among young people led some authorities to outlaw the dance because it was thought to be immoral for couples to dance so closely.

November 15, 2019

Tomorrow, November 16, is the 500th anniversary of the founding of Havana, the capital, chief port, and largest city of the Caribbean Island nation of Cuba. Havana lies on the island’s northwest coast, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) south of Key West, Florida. Havana’s name in Spanish, the language of Cuba, is La Habana.

Havana, Cuba’s capital and largest city, turns 500 years old on Nov. 16, 2019. Credit: © Sean Pavone, Shutterstock

To prepare for Havana’s 500th birthday, city officials renovated El Capitolio (Cuba’s National Capital Building), the Castillo de los Tres Reyes Magos del Morro (Castle of the Three Wise Men of the Wall), and many other historic structures of the Old Havana city center. A series of anniversary concerts and performances are taking place at the city’s Gran Teatro (Grand National Theater). The city also gave a fresh coat of paint and installed new baseball-themed decorations in the barrio azul (blue neighborhood), the area surrounding Cerro Latinoamericano Stadium, home of the city’s beloved royal-blue clad team, los Industriales (the Industrialists).

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Havana, Cuba. Credit: WORLD BOOK map

Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar, the first Spanish governor of Cuba, founded San Cristóbal de la Habana on the island’s south coast in 1515. The city failed to flourish, however, probably because of pirate attacks, and Velázquez reestablished the city as Puerto de Carenas on the island’s northwest coast on Nov. 16, 1519. The city soon regained its earlier name, shortened to La Habana. The city’s location and its harbor attracted many trading ships. Havana soon developed into an important commercial center. Havana became the capital of Cuba in 1552. The city steadily grew over the years and also withstood attacks from pirates and invading armies.

A street scene in Havana, Cuba’s capital, features colorful buildings and old-fashioned cars. Credit: © Shutterstock

In the first half of the 1900’s, Havana was developed into a resort center, but many of its people lived in poverty. Since the Cuban Revolution of 1959, the city has been somewhat neglected, but Havana—particularly Old Havana—remains the heart of Cuban culture, government, and tourism.

Havana is one of three major Latin American cities that celebrated their 500th birthdays in 2019. Veracruz, Mexico, hit the 500 mark in April; and Panama City, the capital of Panama, turned 500 in August. The quincentenaries marked the founding of permanent European settlements in the New World shortly after the Spanish arrived in 1492.

January 2, 2019

On Jan. 1, 1959, 60 years ago yesterday, Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista fled Havana for the Dominican Republic, leaving control of Cuba to rebel forces led by Fidel Castro. Batista’s exit marked the end of the Cuban Revolution, which had started in 1953, and the beginning of the Communist Castro Era in the Caribbean island nation. 

Fidel Castro speaks before a Cuban flag in 1966. Castro led a rebel movement that took control of Cuba 60 years ago on Jan. 1, 1959. Credit: AP Photo

On July 26, 1953, Fidel Castro, a young lawyer, tried to start a revolution against Batista by leading an attack on the Moncada army barracks in the city of Santiago de Cuba. Fidel and his brother Raúl were captured and imprisoned. Many of their followers were either imprisoned or murdered.

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Cuba. Credit: WORLD BOOK map

The Castro brothers were released from prison in 1955. They then traveled to Mexico, where they met the Argentine revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara. In 1956, while in Mexico, the brothers organized the 26th of July Movement, named for the date of their first revolt. The revolutionary forces landed in Oriente Province in late 1956. Most of the rebels were imprisoned or killed. However, the brothers and about a dozen of their followers escaped to the nearby Sierra Maestra mountains.

In 1957, the rebel forces began to wage a guerrilla war against the Cuban government. The same year, university students stormed the presidential palace in an attempt to assassinate Batista. Government efforts to crush dissent increased the people’s support of the rebels. Continued poor economic conditions also led to growing support for the rebels, particularly among workers, peasants, students, and the middle class. By mid-1958, Batista’s government had lost the support of the United States and most Cubans.

U.S. President Barack Obama meets with Cuban President Raúl Castro in Havana in 2016, the year after diplomatic relations were restored between the two nations. Credit: © Pablo Martinez Monsivais, AP Photo

After the revolution, Fidel Castro became prime minister and later president of Cuba. Under Castro, U.S.-Cuba relations quickly became strained, and Cuba developed stronger ties with the Soviet Union. War between Cuba and the United States was narrowly averted during the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion and the 1962 Cuban missile crisis. Decades of hostility finally eased during the U.S. presidency of Barack Obama, and U.S.-Cuba diplomatic relations were restored in 2015. Fidel Castro died in late 2016, and his brother Raúl, who had succeeded Fidel as president, stepped down in April 2018, ending 59 years of Castro rule in Cuba.

April 25, 2018

Last week, on April 19, 59 years of Castro rule ended in the Caribbean Island nation of Cuba. In January 1959, Communist revolutionary leader Fidel Castro took control of Cuba. Castro dominated Cuban life and politics until February 2008, when he handed power to his younger brother, Raúl. Raúl Castro continued his brother’s legacy, ruling Cuba until his planned retirement last week at age 86. Miguel Díaz-Canel, the 57-year old first vice president, became Cuba’s new president.

The Castro brothers controlled Cuba’s government for about 59 years. Fidel, right, ruled the nation from 1959 to 2008, when Raúl, left, succeeded him. Raúl stepped down as president in 2018. Credit: © Reuters/Landov

The end of Castro Cuba is significant historically, but it does not represent a significant change for the nation or its people. Díaz-Canel has promised to continue longstanding Castro policies as well as the nation’s one-party Communist system. Raúl Castro will continue as leader of Cuba’s Communist Party until 2021.

Miguel Díaz-Canel became president of Cuba in April 2018. Credit: Public Domain

The Castro era in Cuba began in 1953, when Fidel, a young lawyer, started a revolution against the military dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. The rebellion failed, however, and Fidel and Raúl were captured and imprisoned. The Castro brothers were released from prison in 1955, and they started another revolution in 1956. In 1957, the rebel forces gained momentum in Cuba as Batista’s power faltered. By mid-1958, Batista’s government had lost the support of most Cubans as well as the government of the nearby United States.

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Cuba. Credit: WORLD BOOK map

On Jan. 1, 1959, Batista fled Cuba. Castro’s rebel forces then took control of the government and Fidel Castro became prime minister (and later president). Communist reforms and Castro’s dictatorial rule soured Cuba’s relations with the United States. A U.S. economic embargo on Cuba began in 1960, and diplomatic relations between the countries were severed in 1961. Tensions between Cuba and the United States then remained high for many years. No real attempts were made to reconcile the countries while Fidel Castro remained in power. After Raúl Castro became president in 2008, U.S. President Barack Obama encouraged friendlier ties with Cuba, and the two countries officially resumed diplomatic relations in 2015.

February 9, 2018

Next week, on February 14, Major League Baseball (MLB) pitchers and catchers report to spring training camps in Arizona and Florida to begin the professional baseball season in the United States and Canada. South of the U.S. border, however, professional baseball’s premier winter event, the Caribbean Series (Serie del Caribe in Spanish), just wrapped up in Mexico. And this weekend, much further south in Australia, the Australian Baseball League (ABL) will end its season with the annual ABL Championship Series.

The Caribbean Series (Serie del Caribe) is an annual tournament between the professional baseball league champions of Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela. Credit: © Serie del Caribe

Last night, on February 8, at the Estadio de Béisbol Charros de Jalisco outside Guadalajara, Mexico, Puerto Rico’s Criollos de Caguas defeated the Águilas Cibaeñas of the Dominican Republic 9-4 for a second-straight Caribbean Series title. The annual tournament is a fierce competition between the top pro baseball teams of Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela. A product of the Caribbean Professional Baseball Confederation, the series was first played in 1949. Cuba’s Alazanes de Granma, Mexico’s Tomateros de Culiacán, and Venezuela’s Caribes de Anzoátegui—all champions of their national professional leagues—also participated in the 2018 Caribbean Series.

The location of the Caribbean Series is rotated annually among the participating nations and is played after the end of each country’s national tournament. In 2018, the series was supposed to be played in Venezuela. Political and social unrest prevented that from happening, however, and the tournament returned to Mexico for a second-straight year. For now, the 2019 Caribbean Series is scheduled to take place in the Venezuelan city of Barquisimeto, about 217 miles (350 kilometers) from Caracas, Venezuela’s capital.

Brisbane Bandits center fielder Tommy Milone slides safely into second base during game two of the 2017 Australian Baseball League Championship Series in Melbourne, Australia. Credit: © SMP Images

Tonight (February 9), tomorrow, and Sunday (if necessary) in Australia, the Brisbane Bandits and Canberra Cavalry will duke it out in the best-of-three 2018 ABL Championship Series, Australia’s version of the MLB World Series. Brisbane is looking for its third-straight Claxton Shield as ABL champions. Canberra last won an ABL title in 2013. Six professional baseball teams compete in the ABL, playing 40 games over a season that runs from November through January during the Australian summer. In addition to the Brisbane and Canberra ball clubs, the league includes the Adelaide Bite, Melbourne Aces, Perth Heat, and Sydney Blue Sox.

November 28, 2016

Early this morning, November 28, tens of thousands of Cubans began lining up ahead of a mass gathering in Havana’s Revolution Square to honor the life of former dictator and president, Fidel Castro. Castro, a guerrilla leader who led a Communist revolution in Cuba and ruled the island from 1959 to 2008, died on Friday, November 25, at the age of 90. Castro’s younger brother, Raúl, has ruled Cuba since 2008.

Cuban President Fidel Castro. Credit: © AP Photo

Castro was cremated on Saturday, November 26. An urn containing his ashes is on display in Havana, the capital, until late tomorrow night. From there, a cortege will carry Castro’s remains 750 miles (1,200 kilometers) to a final resting place in Santiago de Cuba, the city in eastern Cuba where Castro launched the revolution. Castro will be buried on Sunday, December 4, ending the government’s nine-day period of mourning.

After word of Castro’s death spread on Friday, music was quieted in the capital, and flags were lowered to half-staff. The government temporarily banned alcohol sales and suspended the professional baseball season. Commenting carefully on the controversial Castro, U.S. President Barack Obama said it was up to history to “record and judge the enormous impact of this singular figure on the people and world around him.” Obama also reassured Cubans that they would always “have a friend and partner in the United States of America.” Conversely, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump called Castro “a brutal dictator who oppressed his own people for nearly six decades.” Trump has pledged to “reverse” the efforts of the Obama administration to normalize relations between Cuba and the United States.

Fidel Castro was born on Aug. 13, 1926, in Biran, near Mayari, Cuba. He graduated with a law degree from the University of Havana in 1950 and briefly practiced law in the capital. In 1952, he ran for election to the Cuban House of Representatives. But troops led by former president Fulgencio Batista halted the election and ended democracy in Cuba.

As a result of Batista’s actions, Castro tried to start a revolution against the Batista dictatorship. On July 26, 1953, Castro’s forces attacked the Moncada army barracks in Santiago de Cuba. Castro was captured and sentenced to 15 years in prison. Batista released him in 1955, however. Castro then formed the 26th of July Movement, a group of revolutionaries named after the date of his first revolt. He then went into exile in Mexico. Castro’s forces landed in Cuba in December 1956. Many rebels were killed, and Castro and other survivors fled to the Sierra Maestra, a mountain range in southeast Cuba. People from the surrounding countryside joined the rebellion. Batista fled from Cuba on Jan. 1, 1959, and Castro took control of the government.

Castro seized property owned by Americans and other foreigners as well as Cubans. In 1960, the Castro government took over United States oil refineries in Cuba. The United States then stopped buying Cuban sugar. Castro responded by taking over all United States businesses in Cuba.

Castro supported a number of revolutionary movements in South America, Central America, and Africa. The Castro government provided improved education and health facilities for many Cubans. But the economy often was troubled. In the early 1960′s, Cuba began depending heavily on the Soviet Union for economic support. This support ended in 1991, when the Soviet Union was dissolved. Castro vowed that Cuba would remain a Communist country. However, in the early 1990′s, Cuba undertook limited reforms that loosened state control over parts of the country’s economy.

In the 2010′s, relations improved significantly between Cuba and the United States. The U.S. government under President Obama eased some economic and travel restrictions regarding Cuba. The Cuban government made it easier for Cubans to leave the country. It also released some prisoners considered political dissidents (people who disagree with the government). In 2015, Cuba and the United States reopened their foreign embassies in each other’s capitals, officially restoring diplomatic relations after more than 50 years. In 2016, Obama visited Cuba and met with President Raúl Castro. It was the first visit by a sitting U.S. president in almost 90 years.

March 22, 2016

On Sunday afternoon, March 20, U.S. President Barack Obama arrived on Air Force One with the First Family for a three-day visit to Havana, Cuba. Obama’s arrival made him the first sitting U.S. president to visit the country since Calvin Coolidge in 1928. The historic visit is the latest step in the accelerating rapprochement (renewal of friendly relations) between Cuba and the United States. The president and his family toured Old Havana in the rain and met with Cardinal Jaime Ortega, who has been a key part of the negotiations bringing the nations back together.

U.S. President Barack Obama meets with Cuban President Raúl Castro at the Revolution Palace on March 21, 2016, in Havana, Cuba.
Credit: © Pablo Martinez Monsivais, AP Photo

On Monday, Obama laid a wreath at the memorial to Cuban national hero José Julián Martí in the Plaza de la Revolución. A military honor guard then welcomed Obama to the Revolution Palace, where he met Cuban President Raúl Castro. The two leaders discussed trade and political reforms aimed at lifting longstanding U.S. sanctions against the Communist island country. Obama pressed Castro to provide greater Internet access for Cubans, while the Cuban delegation repeated the goal of reclaiming Cuba’s Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, which has been under formal U.S. control since 1903.

Today, March 22, Obama is to address the Cuban people on live television before joining President Castro for an exhibition game between the Tampa Bay Rays of Major League Baseball (MLB) and the Cuban National Team at Havana’s Estadio Latinoamericano. The Rays’ visit to Cuba is the first by an MLB team since the Baltimore Orioles played a similar exhibition in 1999. President Obama will then fly to Buenos Aires, Argentina, for his first visit with President Mauricio Macri.

September 22, 2015

Pope Francis stands with Cuba’s president, Raúl Castro, in the Revolution Palace in Havana, Cuba, on September 20, 2015. Francis and Castro met in Cuba’s seat of government for a state meeting. Credit: © Tony Gentile, AP Photo

Pope Francis celebrated Mass on Monday, September 21, before more than 100,000 people in the eastern Cuban city of Holguín. Francis arrived in the Caribbean nation on Saturday, September 19, meeting with President Raúl Castro and his famous older brother, Fidel. Francis held Mass on Sunday in Havana’s Revolution Square, the scene of many blustery Castro speeches in the past. The Pope’s visit came at a time of political change between Cuba and the United States—change brought on largely by Francis himself. The Pope played an important intermediary role in the rapprochement (renewal of friendly relations) between the two countries earlier this year. For the first time since 1961, Cuba and the United States have open embassies in each other’s capital cities—Havana and Washington, D.C., respectively.

A native of Argentina, Francis and his words carry tremendous weight throughout largely Catholic Latin America. Huge crowds of people attended his spiritual sermons, but—to the disappointment of some anti-Castro dissidents—Francis was careful not to directly criticize the Cuban government. He did, however, get in a few veiled shots. Francis targeted the Communist—rather than “Christian”—ideals that have dominated Cuba since 1959.  “Service is never ideological,” he said, “for we do not serve ideas. We serve people.” He also offered an embrace to all “those who, for various reasons, I will not be able to meet,” a reference to political prisoners, exiles, and others unable to freely attend the papal gatherings. Today, Pope Francis leaves Cuba for the United States.

Other World Book articles and Behind the headlines

• Cuba In From the Cold-July 21, 2015
• The Cold War’s Last Front: The United States and Cuba (2000-a Special report)
• Cuba (1958-a Back in time article)
• Cuba (1959-a Back in time article)
• Cuba (1962-a Back in time article)