LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Cuba: Havana Harbor
built 203 days ago
Cuba was a Spanish possession for 388 years, ruled by a governor in Havana, with an economy based on plantation agriculture and the export of sugar, coffee and tobacco to Europe, and later to North America. It was seized by the British in 1762 but restored to Spain the following year. The Spanish population was boosted by settlers leaving Haiti when that territory was ceded to France. As in other parts of the Spanish Empire, a small land-owning elite of Spanish-descended settlers held social and economic power, served by a mixed-race population of small farmers, labourers and slaves.
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The main Cuba holiday destination is Varadero which has a stunning 20 kilometre white sand beach and clear blue waters. Varadero is a modern, developing area with good facilities, low key but distinctly Latin nightlife and a new championship golf course to keep you entertained during your Cuba holiday. Situated on the North West coast of Cuba, only 2 hours from Havana, it is an excellent base for a Cuba holiday.
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Cuba's photographic history parallels the world's. The first Havana views, by Pedro Tellez de Giron, date from March 1840. In the next decade, international itinerants like G. W. Halsy, R. W. Hoit, and Antonio Rezzonico produced conventional portraits. A Spaniard, José Gómez de la Carrera (c.1840-1908) established a Havana business in 1865, photographing primarily for newspapers. The work of another, Elias Ibañez, who photographed the Ten Years War (1868-78), was published in Album de La Paz (1878). By the 1880s, as tourism increased, so did souvenir views and images of picturesque agricultural workers by Gómez de la Carrera and others.
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Despite anti-Israel sentiment that existed in Cuba, the only time blatant anti-Semitic attacks occurred in all of Cuban history was during the Gulf War. Arab students threw stones at Adas Israel Synagogue in Havana, but the violence was quelled immediately and no one was physically harmed.
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Cuba's precarious economic position is complicated by the high price it must pay for foreign financing. The Cuban Government defaulted on most of its international debt in 1986 and does not have access to credit from international financial institutions like the World Bank, which means Havana must rely heavily on short-term loans to finance imports, chiefly food and fuel. Because of its poor credit rating, an $11 billion hard currency debt, and the risks associated with Cuban investment, interest rates have reportedly been as high as 22%. In 2002, citing chronic delinquencies and mounting short-term debts, Moody's lowered Cuba's credit rating to Caa1--"speculative grade, very poor." Dunn and Bradstreet rate Cuba as one of the riskiest economies in the world.
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It is unclear when the first Jews arrived in Cuba, some arrived after the expulsion from Spain in 1492. According to popular lore, three came with Columbus: Luis de Torres on the Santa Maria, Juan de Cabrera on La Pinta, and Rodrigo de Triana on La Nina. All three were Marranos, or forced Jewish converts to Catholicism. Francisco Gomez de Leon, a Jew, was put on trial during the Inquisition in Havana. He was later executed in Cartagena and his large fortune was confiscated. There is little information about Jews in Cuba until the late 19th century, when a larger Jewish community was formed.
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