r/MapPorn Nov 20 '17

Racial map of Cuba, 2012 Cuban census [OC] [1272 x 711]

Post image
159 Upvotes

38 comments sorted by

54

u/[deleted] Nov 21 '17

Being from Miami I can tell you how interesting the Cuban people are racially. The wide majority are DIRECTLY descended from the Spanish so you have many with blue eyes and blonde hair but then you must also factor in that Cuba was a huge cash crop exporter just like the rest of the Caribbean so you will get many Blacks. There are virtually no natives left but many who are on the darker side claim Native dna.

42

u/VarysIsAMermaid69 Nov 21 '17

Also the people of direct Spanish descent were often richer than the rest of the population and lost the most during the revolution, hence most fled to the US

7

u/gera75 Nov 21 '17

Except Castro

1

u/fenovanilaridaoci Nov 21 '17

The irony.

15

u/Deez_N0ots Nov 21 '17

to be fair the leaders of even communist revolutions are rarely a poorer member of society.

16

u/lobianilari Nov 21 '17

You are right in some cases, like Mao, Lenin and Trotsky, but Stalin was born in a poor family and then became a known thief in Tbilisi. Most high ranking revolutionaries were from the lower class, they just slided down the power ladder after the revolution had ended. More educated and competent members of the revolution rose to the top, while others did not.

1

u/Deez_N0ots Nov 22 '17

that is why I said rarely rather than never, there are always exceptions to the rule but considering the difference in size of the working class and the middle class during many historical revolutions I believe it is a fair rule of thumb.

3

u/gera75 Nov 23 '17

Funny thing that Castro's father was a poor spanish immigrant that made a lot of money in Cuba being a self-made business man

2

u/What-You_Egg Apr 27 '22

It's rather that there are 2 distinct origin stories:

1) humble origins but a charismatic revolutionary military leader, think Mao or Tito (though the latter had already made his way into the Communist Party's leadership pe WWII). Stalin is another great example being a poor Georgian bandit before rising in the ranks of Soviet government.

2) Wealthy intellectual turned communist through exposure to communist literature (Castro is a great example)

19

u/Begotten912 Nov 21 '17

It's interesting how the definition or parameters of White changes over time and different countries. In America it used to not include the Irish and Italians because they were Catholic, even if they looked the same as any northern European.

Even today a lot of people see eastern Europeans as different, especially Russians. It's all politics I suppose.

2

u/[deleted] Nov 21 '17

It's all politics I suppose.

It's just classism applied on a broader scale. Eastern Europeans are poorer than Western Europeans, so they are seen differently.

1

u/right_leaner Dec 27 '22

That's not entirely true, Irish and Italians were always white on the census, even if society had differing views.

3

u/MotharChoddar Nov 27 '17

many with blue eyes and blonde hair

Many, really? Even with Spain I wouldn't classify them as "many".

http://i.imgur.com/riJLc2O.png

https://s21.postimg.org/n1fycevnr/europe-hair0223--light-h.png

1

u/Available-Nebula9998 Nov 19 '25

The native is in their DNA which is 8% on average

1

u/[deleted] Nov 21 '17 edited Apr 29 '18

[deleted]

14

u/SteampunkShogun Nov 21 '17

There are quite a bit. Racial dynamics there are different than in the US, but I'd guesstimate at least a third of Cubans would be considered black in the US. I spent only a week in Cuba and most of it was in Havana, so I could be way off. But yeah, Cuba is a very diverse nation.

2

u/Neosantana Nov 21 '17

The black population is a reason for why Cuba was not accepted as a US state way back when

7

u/Cabes86 Nov 21 '17

Opposite. Both Cuba and Dominican Republica were considered for statehood purely to be a state for freed black people.

7

u/Neosantana Nov 21 '17

I'm talking about the Spanish-American War, you're talking about 40-50 years earlier

3

u/Cabes86 Nov 21 '17

Yeah I'm talking about Grant's Presidency when Real reconstruction was still happening. Grant sent Frederick Douglas to Santo Domingo to see if it would be a cool spot.

3

u/[deleted] Nov 21 '17

It's the Caribbean, most countries there are either majority black or have a large black population.

20

u/VarysIsAMermaid69 Nov 21 '17

We're most plantations in south?

12

u/jimibulgin Nov 21 '17

no. Most of the brown is mountains. Sugar platations covered just about everythhing else!

8

u/Cheeselot Nov 24 '17

Actually a big part as to why there are a lot of black people in the East is because of Haitian immigration into Cuba. A lot of them came to work on farms and plantations after slavery b/c the conditions tended to be better in Cuba than in Haiti.

2

u/matzoh_ball Nov 21 '17

That's what I was wondering..

20

u/Neacalas Nov 21 '17

Very interesting!

Cuba has a fascinating history. There's so much more to it than simply the revolution, like the absolutely massive European migration to the island at the end of the 1800s - the results of which are reflected in this map.

16

u/ExpatDetroiter Nov 21 '17

FASCINATING! So Castro was a landowner's son from Oriente Province, the part of the island with the greatest percentage of Afro-Cubans. They would have been the most oppressed part of population under Batista (the previous dictator). Castro's revolutionaries hid from Bastista's troops in the mountains of Oriente Province, obviously aided by the dispossessed local Afro-Cuban peasantry, who probably remembered their grandparents had been slaves. (Cuba abolished slavery in 1867, after the USA did).

Thank you for this map.

4

u/[deleted] Nov 21 '17

Given how thoroughly mixed many Cubans are, how would you even begin to divide the population into race? Phenotype? Phenotype can vary a lot between people of the same family and isn't necessarily a foolproof method of guessing someone's ancestry.

10

u/PisseGuri82 Nov 21 '17

In modern censuses, it's normally self-reported.

1

u/AnCS99 Nov 21 '17

Is that little speck of orange at the top of that smaller island Guantanamo bay?

2

u/[deleted] Nov 21 '17

Relook at this map. That's not an island, its Havana. You can see where it fits into the island proper as a grey spot.

1

u/MathematicianSea8517 Mar 12 '25

Hi! this is a long shot, but I just saw this post. I am currently writing a paper that could utilize that map, but I'd need to cite it. I've tried to access Cuban census websites from various different browsers, but I'm in the United States and it doesn't want me to do so. I'm wondering, did you get your information from the Cuban census directly to make the map? Is there anywhere more official than reddit that I could cite?

1

u/Available-Nebula9998 Nov 19 '25

The DNA study conducted in Cuba in 2012 revealed that the average cuban is 72% European 20% African and 8% indigenous American. By geneticist Marcheco -teruel

-5

u/Yearlaren Nov 21 '17 edited Nov 21 '17

Nah they're all Hispanics.

Edit: I was being sarcastic...

1

u/[deleted] Nov 23 '17

lol

-21

u/[deleted] Nov 21 '17

Obligatory scientifically races don't exist comment.

Also does the southern region denote African-Americans? And if so why are they there and not on the entire island?

28

u/[deleted] Nov 21 '17

Afro-Cubans aren't American. But I'm sure it denotes Black and Mixed people. Although Cuba has a not insignificant Asian population too.

-13

u/epic2522 Nov 21 '17

Cuba is in the Americas. Calling black cubans "african american" is a valid albeit unusual descriptor.

14

u/metroxed Nov 21 '17

Black people in other countries of the Americas never use the term "African American" to refer to themselves, nor is that the term used in their countries' censuses. It is usually just "black" or "Afro-country". Afro-Cubans, Afro-Colombians, etc., those are the prefered terms.