Cuba, 1947

[Music] The largest and most important island of the West Indies is Cuba. 150 mi south of Florida, the island of Cuba was discovered by Columbus in 1492 and was under the control of Spain for most of the period up to 1898 when she gained her independence. Capital and largest city of the Cuban Republic is Havana. Strikingly picturesque metropolis of 3/4 of a million people, Havana is a blend of the cosmopolitan and the native, the ancient and the modern. Watchdog of Havana Harbor is Moral Castle, built in 1597 as a defense against the British. Today, it is one of Cuba's main tourist attractions. Much of Havana is typically old world with narrow crooked streets with vendors pedling a variety of wares. Coffee for instance serve piping hot and lottery tickets too. A chance at fame and fortune. Cuba has always been deeply religious. Center of her religious activities is Columbus Cathedral. So named because the remains of Christopher Columbus are alleged to have rested here before they were taken to Spain in 1898. Cuba's most important center of higher learning is the University of Havana. Founded more than two centuries ago, the university has one of the most extensive libraries in the Western Hemisphere and is well known for its schools of law, education, medicine, agriculture, and sugar engineering. The capital building is patterned after the capital building at Washington. Likewise, Cuba's Congress is patterned after the Congress of the United States, being composed of a Senate and a House of Representatives elected by popular votes. Park Avenue of Havana is the Praville, one of the city's principal streets. Its wide pre-shaded prominade bordered by buildings of Spanish Moorish architecture extends from the capital to Havana Harbor. Honoring the men who lost their lives in the explosion of the battleship Maine, which started the Spanishame war is this monument facing Havana Harbor, scene of the ill- fated explosion. Pride of every Cuban is Havana Harbor. By far the island's busiest port. bulk of its traffic with the United States, the import of manufactured goods, the export of agricultural products, and the main export crop, sugar. Cuba's second largest city is Santiago on a landlocked bay at the eastern end of the island 604 miles from Havana. Santiago with a population today in excess of 100,000 was once Cuba's capital and chief city. Santiago is often referred to as the most Cuban city of Cuba. Its narrow winding streets are lined with moorish colonial houses and occasionally there are stone stairways ascending the steep hillsides. 2 mi east of Santiago is San Juan Hill where Teddy Roosevelt led the rough riders in the famous charge which helped break Spain's 400year rule of the island of Cuba. The famous battlefield with the original churches is visited by thousands of tourists each year. And there are monuments to honor those who fell in battle to Teddy Roosevelt, idol of the Cuban people. Agriculture is the principal industry in Cuba, and tobacco is one of the island's most important crops. Famous the world over for its cigars, the sunrown Cuban tobacco is used for the inside filler, while the shade grown tobacco furnishes the outside wrapper leaf. Pineapples can be grown in even the driest parts of the island because the plant leaves possess tissue that stores the water necessary for the growth of the plant. [Music] Coffee is another of Cuba's many crops. The finest coffee beans being grown in the higher elevations. Cuba's chief crop is sugar and upon it depends the prosperity of the republic. Due to her favorable climate and rich soil, Cuba is by far the world's leading producer of high-grade refined sugar. The bambooike cane is grown in every province. The cane is cut with broad sharp machetes. It is then loaded onto ox cart to be carried to the narrow gauge railroads which transport the freshly cut cane to the mill. The countryside is dotted with these mills where the cane is crushed and boiled down to sugar and then sacked for shipment to the four corners of the globe. And so there you have Cuba, the pearl of the Antillies, her capital and largest city, Havana. Combining a once impregnable fortress and time-honored cathedrals with a sumptious modern capital and fine wide boulevard. Havana University, prominent educator in law, education, medicine, and sugar engineering. and her harbor, Cuba's busiest port of call. Travel 604 miles to the other end of the island to Santiago. Her name is indelibly written into the pages of history as the scene of the famous charge of Teddy Roosevelt and his rough riders at San Juan Hill. Then there's the agricultural side of Cuba and her number one crop, sugar. Sugar for Cuban prosperity. Sugar for the entire world. For Cuba is the world's leader in the production of refined sugar. For centuries, Cuba has been the gateway to the new world. Her nearness to the United States, responsible for a great share of her export business and her tourist trade. Today, her people, her products, her foreign trade combined to give Cuba a position of increasing importance in this world of ours.