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Geography of Cuba
Cuba is an
archipelago composed of one large island and several small islands, The Greater Cuba island looks like a giant shrimp swimming toward the
mouth of the Gulf of Mexico.
It extends approximately 1260 Kilometers east-west and its width ranges from 193 to 80
kilometers. Tucked under the shrimp's chin is the Isle of Pines (Isla de la Juventud - Island of the Youth). The other island of the
archipelago are on the back and the tail of shrimp. The Cuban archipelago which has a land area of 110861 km2 and a shoreline of 5500 km bathed by the Atlantic Ocean on the North and East, the Caribbean sea on the South and the mouth of the Gulf of Mexico on the West.
Cuba map
click on the map to see a larger version
Physicography
Cuba is part of the limestone platform linked to surrounding platforms of the Yucatan Peninsula, Florida and the Bahamas. By Looking at the main mountain system of the Caribbean which is the Central American Antillean System, one can see that it crosses southeastern Cuba creating the Sierra Maestra. This
mountainous structure continues to the southeast and gives birth to the Islands of Hispagnola,
Puerto Rico and the arc shape structure of the Antillean archipelago which finishes in the south
American mainland with the Margarita island of Venezuela.
Mountain range image
The image shows Cuba and its relation to the
surrounding geologic structures of Florida on the north,
The Bahamas on the northeast, Jamaica on the southwest
and Hispanola on the southeast..
Click on the map to view a larger version.
Although
most of the Island is low, there are several Mountains that increase in height from the west to the east. The shrimp shape island appear like its head is under the sea as its body rises gradually from the extreme west point of the eroded limestone beach of
Guanaha cabibe to the
extreme east. Just west of Havana (the Capital) one encounters the narrow Sierra de los Organos, which has elevations of 150 to 750 m. Many of the hills decorating the
Cuban landscape resemble isolated haystacks and border magnificent valleys, rich in vegetation and endowed with a great variety of beautiful and exotic orchids. One such valley, the magnificent Viñales Valley, contains various steep, dome-shaped hills rising some 300 to 400 m, many of which
are honey-combed with caves.
Cuba Vinales
click on picture
to see larger version
Several mountain formations are found in central Cuba, the most important being the Sierra del Escambray, with Pico San Juan, its highest peak, at 1,160 m. The Extreme eastern Cuba is a mountainous area divided into northern and southern ranges by the Guantánamo Valley. North of the valley are the Sierra de Cristal, Sierra Nipe, Cuchillas de Toar, and Sierra de Purial, with elevations up to 1,230 m. South
of Guantánamo Valley is the Sierra Maestra, which holds Cuba's highest peak, Pico Turquino (1,974 m).
Population
Cuba's population is about 11.64 million according to a 1993 estimate. It is the second most populated island in the Antilles. The honor of being the
most populated island goes to Hispanola which has a population of about 16.millions and is occupied by two countries,
Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
Two-thirds of Cubans are of European descent, mainly Spanish, nearly one-third are of African origin or mestizo, and about one percent are of Chinese roots. Cuba's population is growing at about 1.1 percent a year. The birth rate is about 17.6 per 1,000 and the mortality rate about 9.4
per 1,000. Life expectancy at birth is around 76 years, the highest in Latin America. About 12 percent of Cuba's population is over 60 years old. It is about the same than what one finds in the developed western industrial countries.
The large presence of
Hispanic white in the
Cuban population has been
a very important empirical
fact which has helped
biologic historian of the
Caribbean find arguments
about the biologic
fitness of the
Iberian regarding the
pathogenic environment
that faced the Caribbean
population during the
formative years of slavery
and colonization.
This fitness could very well explain
the fact that the Iberian
or their racial phenotypes
have dominated the
populations of the Spanish
Caribbean countries like
Cuba, the Dominican
Republic and Puerto
Rico.
Kenneth F. Kiple, has conjectured that the
Iberian (Spanish and
Portuguese) have
been in contact with all
the diseases of the world
since the time of the
Roman Empire. As a
matter of fact, Spanish
and Portuguese, as
soldiers of the Empire
marched on foreign soils
and "return with the
foreign
parasites". It
is like they were being
trained by historical
circumstances to become
the immunologic heavy weigh
champions of Europe.
The invasion of the Moors
in 711 A.D. put them in
contact with the African
pathogens. This exposure
will be solidified by the
exploration of Africa by
Portugal and the
enslavement of African
people that were brought
to the peninsula. Spain get its exposure
indirectly through Portugal
and also directly as it
also became a possessor of
African Slaves.
The African
pathogens brutally
decimated all the European
that came in contact
with them in the Caribbean
and in Africa. The
Spanish were not spared by
the ravages of the
epidemics that swept
through the Caribbean with
a vengeance but they did
better than the other
Europeans. The
picture of the Caribbean
today where the former
English, French and Dutch
colonies are almost 99%
black while the former
Spanish colonies are
dominated but the Spanish
phenotypes fits well with
what the Abbe Raynal wrote
at the end of the 18th
century when yellow fever
and malaria (falciparum)
were dancing on the graves
of the white men of the
Caribbean. He wrote
that "of ten that go
to the island, (by
nationality) four English
die, three French, three
Dutch, three Danes and
one Spaniard".
Further
studies are needed,
but some important facts
can right now be
considered as important steps
in the long ladder leading
to the difficult
construction of the
scientific truth.
One of them is that the
Spanish came to the West Indies
and the New World with
diseases that kill the Indians
in great number. The
other is that the African
Slave who was introduced
very early in the Americas
had a another set of germs
for which neither the
Europeans nor the Indians
were prepared, but the Iberian
(the Spanish in the
Caribbean and the Portuguese in
Brazil) appeared to
have done better than the
other Europeans.
A comprehensive discussion
of the biologic history of
the Caribbean will be
published very soon at
kwabs.com. Subscribe
to our news letter to
follow the evolution of
this project.
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