Author: Shen Yunxi Source: "Diplomats Say Things"
About the Author
Shen Yunxi, born in July 1937, is a native of Cixi, Zhejiang; He graduated from Beijing Foreign Affairs University in 1960 and joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the same year. He has successively served as a staff member and attaché of the Chinese Embassy in Cuba, deputy director and director of the Department of Europe and the United States of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, first secretary and counselor of the Chinese Embassy in Peru, deputy director of the Department of American and Pacific Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Chinese ambassador to Argentina, Chinese ambassador to Brazil, president of World Knowledge Publishing House, and Chinese ambassador to Mexico. After his retirement in 2001, he served as Vice President of the China Latin America Friendship Association.
This is the most beautiful place that mankind has ever discovered.
—Christopher · Columbus
I have worked at the Chinese Embassy in Cuba for more than six years, during which I have only returned to China once for vacation. The splendid rivers and mountains of Cuba and the tragic history of the Cuban nation are unforgettable.
A tropical treasure island
Anyone who has been to Switzerland thinks Switzerland is beautiful, and anyone who has been to Cuba also thinks Cuba is beautiful. We flew from Switzerland to Cuba, and we couldn't help but compare the beauty of the two countries. I think that the beauty of Switzerland is delicate, graceful, gentle and subtle, while the beauty of Cuba is magnificent, simple and passionate.
Street scene of Cuba
Located in the northern part of the Caribbean Sea, Cuba is the largest island in the Antilles, with an area of 110,000 square kilometers, slightly larger than my home province of Zhejiang Province, and a population of more than 10 million.
Cuba is located south of the Tropic of Cancer, the latitude is similar to that of Hainan Island on the mainland, and it has a tropical savannah climate, with abundant sunshine, abundant rainfall, fertile land, and lush vegetation. Composed of more than 1,000 islands of all sizes, Cuba is the world's premier tourist and leisure destination, attracting countless domestic and foreign tourists.
Tall and straight palm trees are all over the island (Source: "Love on the Other Side of the Ocean")
Tall palm trees dot the island, dancing in the sea breeze, a stunning tropical landscape! No wonder Christopher Columbus wrote in his nautical diary upon his arrival in Cuba: "This is the most beautiful place that man has ever discovered." ”
Beaches in Cuba (Source: "Love Across the Ocean")
Cuba is the richest country in the Caribbean, rich in products and known as the "crown jewel of Spain". It is one of the world's major sugar producing countries, known as the "world's sugar tank", and its per capita production and export of cane sugar account for the first place in the world.
Sugar cane cultivation in Cuba
Cuban cigars are fragrant and fragrant, and are known as "Havana cigars" all over the world, ranking first in the world in terms of output and quality, and are essential high-end consumer goods for the personal use and hospitality of Western upper-class smokers.
Cuban cigars
The Caribbean is a strategic hub between North and South America and between the Pacific and the Atlantic. The Port of Havana is the largest natural harbor in the Caribbean and Central America.
Cuba is known as "the sweetest country in the world" due to its abundance of cane sugar. The beauty and richness of Cuba, combined with its strategic importance, made the great powers salivate. This blessed land was supposed to bring more joy and sweetness to the Cuban people, but for a long time they were rewarded with deep suffering and humiliation.
National doom
Anyone with a modicum of knowledge of world geography knows that Christopher Columbus discovered the New World of America in 1492 when he sailed west in an attempt to open a new route from Europe to the East. His first place of arrival was the Bahamas in the Caribbean and in Cuba that same year. This event, known as the "Great Geographical Discovery," changed the course of world history to a considerable extent.
Columbus arrives in the Bahamas
But Columbus himself———, the central figure of the incident, was ignorant of this, and he mistakenly believed that the place he had arrived was an island near India.
For Westerners, it is understandable to think that Columbus "discovered" the Americas, because before Columbus, they really did not know that the American continent existed. But in reality, it was the Native Americans who first arrived on the American continent. They didn't have to drive Columbus to "discover," they had been living there for more than 10,000 years.
It was only because of Columbus's ignorance that later generations mistakenly referred to these Native Americans as "Indians" and the Caribbean islands where Cuba is located as "West India".
For the Native Americans who had lived there for generations, Columbus's "discovery" not only violated their naming rights and the naming rights of the area they had lived in for generations, but also brought about the destruction of their lives and the splendid civilization they created.
Following in the footsteps of Columbus to Cuba were Spain's army and missionaries. Soon after the colonists discovered gold in Cuba, they rounded up the indigenous people and forced them to work for them to mine gold. Accustomed to freedom, the natives did not want to be enslaved, and some preferred to have their entire families hanged or poisoned.
Commemorative statue of the heroic and unyielding Indian tribal chief Aduai (Source: "Love Across the Ocean")
Their chieftain, Aduei, led the unwilling aborigines to resist valiantly and was captured. The Spain colonists tied him to a stake, and before setting him on fire, the priest wanted to convince him to convert to Catholicism, telling him that only in this way could he ascend to heaven after death. Aduai asked the priest rhetorically: "Are there Spain colonists in heaven?" The pastor replied in the affirmative. Aduai replied with his head held high that he would rather not go to heaven than be in the company of the colonists. So he was burned alive as an infidel.
A century of abuse and massacres, combined with the ravages of smallpox, tuberculosis and other new diseases that accompanied the colonizers, quickly brought Cuba's indigenous population to the brink of extinction. By the end of the 16th century, only a few indigenous people could be found in remote areas of Cuba, and very few indigenous artifacts had been preserved. Nowadays, one may only be able to glimpse some traces of the early Indian culture from the many local place names, some words unique to the locals, and the characteristic rural high-roofed thatched huts.
The decline of the gold mining industry led to the emergence of the sugar industry due to the attractive price of sugar. The production of cane sugar requires a lot of labor. With the demise of the indigenous population, large numbers of black slaves and Chinese laborers were trafficked from Africa and Asia to work in the sugar plantations of Cuba.
The slave trade
In the early 19th century, Spain's colonies in the New World generally rebelled against colonial rule and gained independence, with the exception of Cuba and Puerto Rico, because Spain was forced to abandon most of its colonies in Latin America and retreat to the Caribbean. The colonial authorities used Cuba as a major stronghold and bridgehead for future counter-attacks on the American continent in order to one day resume colonial rule over Central and South America. This geopolitical pattern allowed Cuba to become independent seventy or eighty years later than most Spanish-speaking Latin American United States.
- To be continued -
[Source: "Love on the Other Side of the Ocean" (published in October 2008)
Original title: Pearl of the Caribbean
Author: Shen Yunxi
Editor: "Diplomats Say Things" Fengfeng]