Here Are 15 Things You Probably Don’t Know About Our Mysterious Neighbor, Cuba
After 56 years of harsh, hostile relations with Cuba, President Obama has finally lifted the trade embargo that kept us separate. It started out as a prisoner-for-prisoner trade, but now it seems that Cuba and the U.S. might finally try being friends again.
But most people have no idea what Cuba’s really like; after all, we haven’t been able to visit in a long time. Except for Cuban immigrants coming in on lifeboats and Cuban sandwiches, there’s a lot that the American people have to learn about Cuban life! It’s a perfect time to go over some fast facts about our southern neighbor.
1.) At age 12, Fidel Castro asked Franklin Roosevelt to send him a $10 bill, since he didn’t know what one looked like.
2.) There are two countries where Coca-Cola is forbidden: Cuba and North Korea.
3.) President JFK stocked up before closing down trade with Cuba; he bought over 1,000 cigars.
4.) As part of an intelligence-gathering effort, in 2009, the U.S. government made up a fake social media site, similar to Twitter, for Cuba.
5.) Fidel Castro doesn’t shave for efficiency: apparently, keeping his bear long saved him 10 days of work every year.
6.) Cuba is more literate than the U.S., with a literacy rate of 99.8% vs 99% in the U.S.
7.) Cuba has so many doctors that they literally can’t keep them all; Cuban doctors travel to needy areas all over the world.
8.) Hitchhiker’s paradise: if you’re thumbing through Cuba and a government vehicle goes by, they are required to stop and give you a lift.
9.) The CIA had some wacky ideas: one included making Castro’s beard fall out, which they hoped would hurt his image.
10.) No monopolies: one of Castro’s first acts was to ban the capitalist game.
11.) Until 2008, cell phones were strictly forbidden in Cuba.
12.) 95% of Cubans don’t have Internet access. If you other 5% are reading this, hi!
13.) During the Cuban Missile Crisis, the country was stocked with over 150 nuclear weapons.
14.) Fidel Castro loved John Lennon so much that he commissioned a statue of him. He believed Lennon was a “true revolutionary.”
15.) Until Pope John Paul II visited in 1997, Christmas was not an officially recognized holiday.
