Cuba has a long history with Christmas traditions despite it not being an official holiday until 1997. Families would celebrate on Christmas Eve, called Noche Buena, with a large feast centered around a roasted pig and buñuelos, a fried sweet dough. Though celebrated as a Catholic holiday, the communist government initially frowned upon Christmas festivities.

1. THINGS ABOUT CUBA YOU
DIDN’T KNOW BEFORE
FFORFUN.COM

2. Cuba is one of two countries forbidden to sell Coca-Cola
products. The other is North Korea.
Since 1962, there has been no legal sale of Coca-Cola
products in Cuba. As one of the most widely recognized
brands in the world, Coca-Cola is sold nearly everywhere,
but Cuba has been without it for nearly 50 years.
When Fidel Castro came to power he started seizing
private businesses, and the Coke plants in Cuba moved
out, never to return. The U.S. trade embargo put on Cuba
during the Cold War meant shipment of all American
goods halted — including Coke.
Cuba is one of three countries to have had this sort of
embargo implemented for such a long period of time, the
others being Burma and North Korea. It is a little bit ironic
in this case because Cuba was one of the first three
countries to start bottling Coke products at all, way back
in 1906. That means that Cubans had been used to having
Coke available for nearly a generation when it was
suddenly

3. BACARDI RUM WAS ORIGINALLY MANUFACTURED IN CUBA.
HOWEVER, THE BRAND MOVED TO PUERTO RICO AFTER FIDEL
CASTRO’S TAKEOVER.
BACARDI TO THIS DAY IDENTIFIES STRONGLY WITH ITS CUBAN
ROOTS. ON THEIR SITE YOU CAN EVEN LISTEN TO REAL TRACKS OF
BACARDI FAMILY MEMBERS TELLING THEIR STORY OF STARTING
BACARDI PRODUCTION IN A BARN, OF EMILIO BACARDI’S
UNWILLINGNESS TO STOP FIGHTING FOR CUBAN INDEPENDENCE,
AND HIS JOYFUL RETURN AFTER TWO EXILES TO BECOME A FREELY
ELECTED MAYOR.
BACARDI RUM ALSO GAINED A NAME FOR ITSELF DURING THE
AMERICAN PROHIBITION. THE WISE BACARDI FAMILY DECIDED THAT,
RATHER THAN GIVE UP ON AMERICAN CUSTOMERS, THEY WOULD
SIMPLY INVITE EVERYONE DOWN TO CUBA FOR A GOOD DRINK AND
AN EPIC WEEKEND. IT TURNED OUT TO BE AN INCREDIBLY POPULAR
MOVE AND THE PROHIBITION ERA PARTIES IN CUBA HAVE AN
INFAMOUS AND GLORIOUS REPUTATION TO THIS DAY.
THE STORY ENDED SADLY HOWEVER, WHEN CASTRO CAME TO
POWER AND SEIZED ALL OF BACARDI’S CUBAN ASSETS WITHOUT
COMPENSATION AND DROVE THEM OUT OF THE COUNTRY. THEY
HAVE OPERATED FROM PUERTO RICO EVER SINCE.

4. Cuba has one of the lowest birth rates in all of the Western Hemisphere.
Even though Cuba was overwhelmingly a Roman Catholic country, they break the mold
as far as Catholic families go. Cuba has a birth rate of 10 per 1000 and the country has a
population growth rate of -.14%, meaning it is slowly shrinking.
The average age for both men and women in the country is 39 and the average life
expectancy is 78 years. The reason for the low birth rate might be Soviet inspired health
programs that were large proponents of the use of contraceptives.

5. Cuba is full of U.S. cars from the 1950s, because they’re the only cars
Cuban citizens can legally own.
Prepare for a flashback, this is the land of old cars. Only pre-1959 cars
that were seized from their original owners can be privately owned and
worked on, as all newer cars are owned by the government.
Many auto enthusiasts dream of a place where people only drive classic
cars, but they might not have known they were dreaming of Cuba.
There are an estimated 60,000 classic American cars still ranging the
roads of Cuba today.
When Castro came to power and the US started its embargo on Cuba,
Cubans (who had of course always driven American cars) were suddenly
left in a strange in-between place where no replacement parts for
American cars could be imported, and they only had access to Soviet
auto supplies. The only cars being brought into the country were
Russian made Volgas and Ladas.
To keep their American cars going, Cubans have had to be very creative
and work with what they have. Today it is seen as such a draw for
Western tourists that anyone who owns a classic American car is
automatically licensed to drive tourists around for tours. They earned it.

6. It isn’t Australia by any means, but at nearly
110,000 square kilometers, it isn’t just a spit of
land in the Atlantic either.
For a bit of comparison, it has about the same land
mass as the state of Pennsylvania and has just over
2,300 miles of coastline. Located between the
Caribbean Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, it is
only 150 kilometers south of Key West, FL.
Its size could be partially responsible for the
unforgettable role Cuba played in history during
the Cold War. It was large enough for the Soviets
to be interested in it when Fidel Castro came to
power. Since then it has always somehow or other
played a larger role in world affairs than most
countries of its size.
The world watched Cuba again only a few years
ago as the home of the much contested
Guantanamo Bay prison and naval base. Now, as
President Obama has opened up the possibility of
restarting American interaction with Cuba, the
island has once again made its way to our
headlines.

7. Cuba is famous worldwide for its cigars, but have been illegal in
America.
Cuban cigars. We have all heard of them but rarely seen them. The
name carries with it a respected and elusive flair as they are almost
always a symbol of slightly less than legal luxury. It was one aspect
of the embargo that many Americans felt directly — Cuban Cigars
were suddenly illegal.
Since then, they have been considered contraband and immediately
destroyed if found by border police or customs agents. There has
been a new surge of hope though, as Obama and Raul talk of
openness, that we might be able to trade Coca Cola for cigars again
one day soon

8. The Manjuari is a fish not found anywhere else in the world.
Cuba, like many islands and tropical places, is home to many creatures
that are not found anywhere else in the world. The fish pictured above
is the Manjuari, also known as the Cuban Gar and is a swamp-dwelling
fish that has been under study by many evolutionists as a possible link
between fish and mammals.
They are quite large, growing to 6 feet in length. They also are covered
with a natural oil that lets them slide through the muddy waters of their
homes even faster than a normal fish. Good news for this fish, in recent
years Cuba has taken steps to protect its biodiversity and tropical
environment, which was very abused during the rule of Fidel Castro
and during Soviet presence. Cuba has signed many environmental
treaties and is in the process of joining the monumental Marine Life
Conservation Action as well.

9. Cuba is the most populated country in all of the
Carribean, with more than 11 million residents.
The population of Cuba is currently 11 million,
47 thousand people, far more than any other
Caribbean country. This is in part due to it
being by far the largest country in the Caribbean
by land mass.
The island of Cuba is about 20 thousand square
kilometers larger than the island of Hispaniola,
the second largest island in the Caribbean, which
is shared by Haiti and the Dominican
Republic. The population density in Cuba is
actually only marginally higher than other
Caribbean nations.

10. Cuba has one of the highest literacy rates in the world at
99.8 percent. The U.S. is slightly less at just 99 percent.
On an island with very little access to the internet or the
wider world, what is there to do? Read and study,
apparently. Cuban schools are attended religiously and
literacy rates are some of the highest in the world.
One of the positive effects of Fidel Castro’s rise to power
was an island-wide Cuban Literacy Program, which jump-
started the literacy rates from middling between 60 and 70
percent to the nearly 100% that it is today in just one year.
The program is recognized as one of the most ambitious
and organized literacy programs to ever have been
implemented across a whole country. 1961 became the
Cuban “Year of Literacy”, during which teams of teachers
spread across the island, visiting every community to make
sure everyone had the chance to learn to read and write.
The result was that 707,212 adults were taught basic
literacy and the national literacy rate jumped from 75% to
96% in just under 12 months.

11. There are almost no animals or plants in Cuba that are
poisonous or lethal to humans.
Imagine a place where no spider or snake or other
creature, creepy crawly or otherwise meant any real
danger? It sounds like an unreal paradise, a fantasy, but in
fact it is Cuba.
Most tropical places are home to amazing creatures and
are wealthy in biodiversity, but also rich in some fairly
terrifying plants and animals. It is quite amazing then, to
go to the main Cuban wildlife resource site and find a “list”
of dangerous animals. The list contains two things; the first
is mosquitos, the second is crocodiles. Mosquitos
themselves, as we all know, are more of nuisance than a
life-threatening insect, but in Cuba they do carry
potentially deadly diseases like Dengue Fever. Overall
though, Cuban wildlife is pretty human-friendly, and Cuba
is trying to make changes to become more wildlife-
friendly.

12. Very few people are allowed internet access, and violators
are given a 5-year prison sentence.
Labeled an “Internet Enemy” by Reporters without Borders,
Cuba has one of the most tightly controlled and censored
internet policies in the world. In 2012, the internet had
only spread into 25% of the population, meaning only a
quarter of Cuba’s 11 million people had any sort of
interaction with the internet at all.
Cubans are beginning to get around the government
policies using satellite connections and cell phones that
are often provided by friends and family outside of Cuba,
but the punishment is still high for anyone caught with
illegal access.

13. There are so many doctors in Cuba that they are often sent to other
countries that have a shortage.
If nearly everyone in your country is literate, what is the next biggest
goal for kids? That they all become doctors, of course. Except that
Cuba as a middle-sized and isolated island can only employ so many
health care professionals, Cuban doctors often end up in places like
Sub-Saharan Africa and other countries much in need of medical
personnel.
During the ebola crisis last year, Cuba sent their most valuable
resource to help contend with the deadly disease directly — they
sent doctors. In fact, Cuba is highly advanced in the medical field
and holds an incredible 1200 international medical patents,
including a vaccine for lung cancer that have been very popular all
over the world but unavailable in countries like America because of
the embargo.

14. Approximately 22% of the country is protected natural
areas.
As part of many environmental initiatives in Cuba, many
lands became protected as natural reserves. Almost 30% of
the country is still forest or unused land and is now
protected from development.
Cuba signed the Biodiversity and Climate Change
international environmental agreements and has been
making steady progress towards upholding those
promises. They have created a National Biodiversity
Strategy and Action Plan, and have done extensive wildlife
counts and studies as part of the Convention for
Biodiversity. Though progress has been made, information
on the ecological state of Cuban reserves is not readily
available.

15. Christmas did not become an official holiday in Cuba until 1997.
Though it didn’t become an official holiday until the late 90s, Cuba was
not a land without Christmas festivities. Christmas was celebrated as a
Roman Catholic holiday for many years, though it was frowned upon
especially during the early years of communism in Cuba.
Traditionally, Cubans have their biggest celebration on Christmas Eve, or
Noche Buena, as they call it. Families get together and have a huge feast
that is days in the making and almost always centered around a roasted
whole pig. There are also copious amounts of buñuelos, a fried sweet
dough.