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The Cuban Census
an afrodescendiente undercount

Cuba's census, carried out about every 10 years, bases its racial identification on self identification. Since being black in Cuba carries a social stigma to this day, anyone with a drop of white blood can and does consider themselves mixed or white, as is common throughout Latin America.

The current figures from the 2012 Census are: white 64.1%, mulatto or mixed 26.6%, black 9.3%.

Prior to August 2009, as can be seen in archive.org's Way Back Machine, the CIA Factbook had: mulatto 51%, white 37%, black 11%, Chinese 1%. Numerous observers, including various Cuban government officials, concurred. The current figures from the EXECUTIVE OFFICE FOR IMMIGRATION REVIEW, US Dept of Justice, Cuba - Afro Cubans, are from 2015 and suggest a 70% afrodescendant count.

The 2002 Cuban census was widely use to counter previous estimates of the percentages of afrodescendientes, descendants of Africans.  Previous figures from outside Cuba and even from some Cuban official sources had descendants of Africans (negro, mestizo) at about 60% while the 2002 Census put the white population at 65%. However, this was not much of a change from the previous official census of 1980-1981, which had whites at 70% and which was commonly discounted. It's just that these 2002 numbers were more accepted by all sides on an official level. Interestingly, this coincided with an increased focus on race by US funded dissidents and by Miami groups. So one can understand why Cuban officials wished to minimize the problems, but why would American officials concur?

The 1980-1981 census:

whites: 66.1%  blacks: 12%  mixed: 21.9%

The 2002 census:

whites: 65%  blacks: 10.1%  mixed: 24.9%

The 2012 census:

whites: 64.1%  blacks: 9.3%  mixed: 26.6%

The figures come from a table in the report on the 2012 census.

Some Cuban government bodies put the percentage of Blacks in Cuba at around 60% after the 1980 census, but not after the 2002 census (that we have been able to determine). There have been constant efforts at "blanqueamiento" that go back to the 19th century but have been more pronounced in recent years after the rise of tourism, an enterprise dominated by ibero-spanish Cubans.

The image presented in Miami is quite different, where whites complain about how black Cuba has become since "all the whites left for Miami."

The reliance on people's self-identification as white, black, or mestizo (mixed) is a traditional feature of the census.  Many people opt to be white rather than mestizo. Such self identification is now shunned by professional demographers around the globe as it is notoriously unreliable. Another factor may have been deliberate attempts to undercount blacks, reported for both the 1980 and the 2002 census. These reports are of course controversial.

Cuba is no different than many other Latin American countries, where the same racial dynamics and undercounts are at play.

The census figures have an impact in Cuban society as they are used to determine the percentages that should hold sway in various institutions such as schools, work places, etc., in unofficial quotas. Administrators can say, see we have blacks represented at their percentage in the population, we are not discriminating against them. This is structural racism, widely denied, yet very obvious.

(Official 2002 Cuba Census)
Race Total Men Women  % Of Total
White 7,271,926 3,618,349 3,653,577 65.05%
Black 1,126,894 593,876 533,018 10.08%
Mestizo 2,658,675 1,385,008 1,393,915 23.84%
Asian 112,268 56,098 56,170 1.02%

-- see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cubans.  Note the differences with the 2002 results reported in the 2012 census above.

The CIA Fact Book pre-2002 census entry, as noted at the time in AfroCubaWeb:  "Ethnic groups: mulatto 51%, white 37%, black 11%, Chinese 1%"  [51+11=62%] .  This entry can still be found in the June 12, 2007 snapshot (the latest one) of the CIA Fact Book site by Archive.org which states that the page was last updated May 31, 2007: web.archive.org/web/20070612205459/https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/cu.html

According to Archive.org, some time between July 9, 2008 and August 13th of that year, the entry accepted the official 2002 results while noting that they depended on self identification:

CIA Fact Book entry (August 13, 2008): "Ethnic groups: white 65.1%, mulatto and mestizo 24.8%, black 10.1% (2002 census)"

CIA Fact Book entry (2020): "white 64.1%, mulatto or mixed 26.6%, black 9.3% (2012 est.)"

However, internal cables from the US Interests Section in Havana shows that the US government knew better:

OBSERVATIONS OF THE STATE OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND CIVIL SOCIETY IN CUBA 7/28/2009 Wikileaks - US Interests Section Cable: "In spite of official statistics to the contrary, African descendent Cubans probably constitute a majority of the population."

What is puzzling is why did CIA stop reporting more correct figures at a time when they had finally discovered the importance of Afro Cuba and had started somewhat courting it, as best they knew how?

Further back in history, we can see large periods when there were as many blacks as white, as in this entry from Wikipedia:

Official 1775-1899 Cuba Census
White Non-white
Census Number Percentage Number Percentage
1775 96,440 56.2 75,180 43.8
1792 153,559 56.4 118,741 43.6
1817 257,380 45.0 314,983 55.0
1827 311,051 44.2 393,435 55.8
1841 418,291 41.5 589,333 58.5
1861 793,484 56.8 603,046 43.2
1877 1,023,394 67.8 485,897 32.2
1887 1,102,889 67.6 528,798 32.4
1899 1,067,354 67.9 505,443 32.1
According to the Census, the Chinese were counted as white.

The large dip in non-whites from 1841 to 1877 does not appear plausible given than this was a period of massive importation of slaves.  The Mambi Army that fought the Spanish Kings in the late 19th century is now widely believed in Cuba to have been overwhelmingly Black, perhaps as much as 85%.

One study shows official Cuban census figures to be 7 points off and was led by Katrin Hansing, who has been a consultant to Open Society Fundations' Cuba efforts.

Cuba's New Social Structure: Assessing the Re-Stratification of Cuban Society 60 Years after Revolution  2/1/2019 GIGA:

In our survey we only used two categories – namely, “white” and “Afro-Cuban."
The former category includes all Cubans who are phenotypically “white,” while the
latter includes all Cubans who are phenotypically of African descent. As to our method of
racial identification: each interviewee was asked to self-identify him-/herself, and the interviewers
were also asked to note down their classification of the person being interviewed. In
all 1,049 cases, there was not one single discrepancy between the interviewees’ and interviewers’
responses. We are well aware that neither of these categories does justice to the complexity of
“race” nor to the wide variety of racial identifications in Cuba. They cannot be more than a
rough approximation, with all the deficits such a reduction of complexity entails. But given
the societal relevance “race” has historically had and continues to have today, coping with the
deficiencies of such categories is in our view better than not using them at all and, by doing
so, being blind to the current social realities.

As mentioned, the survey sought to reflect a semi-representative cross section of Cuban
society. With regard to “race”/skin colour, the Cuban census states that the population is 64 per
cent white and 36 per cent black and mulatto combined (ONE 2016, S. 4). Our survey slightly
deviates from this ratio, in that it includes 57 per cent whites and 43 per cent Afro-Cubans.

 Linkstop

www.one.cu/censo2012.htm   Resultados del censo de 2012

CUBA. PROPORCION DE POBLACION POR COLOR DE LA PIEL SEGUN CENSOS. 1981 2002 2012
http://www.one.cu/publicaciones/cepde/cpv2012/20131107resumenadelantado/Graficos/Pag%2039.pdf

Presentan informe nacional del Censo de Población y Vivienda
Granma, 11/12/05

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Cuba
This article is about the demographic features of the population of Cuba, including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.The 2002 census figures supplied by the regime claim that 65% of Cubans were white.

 The Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies at the University of Miami says 68% are black.The Minority Rights Group International says that "An objective assessment of the situation of Afro-Cubans remains problematic due to scant records and a paucity of systematic studies both pre- and post-revolution. Estimates of the percentage of people of African descent in the Cuban population vary enormously, ranging from 33.9 per cent to 62 per cent". It uses the number for 51% for mulattoes.

According to the 2002 census, Cuba's population was 11,177,743.

www.miamiherald.com/multimedia/news/afrolatin/part4/index.html
Cuba's official statistics offer little help on the race issue. The 2002 census, which asked Cubans whether they were white, black or mestizo/mulatto, showed 11 percent of the island's 11.2 million people described themselves as black. The real figure is more like 62 percent, according to the Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies at the University of Miami.

And the published Census figures provide no way at all to compare blacks and whites in categories like salary or educational levels. Ramón Colás, who left Cuba in 2001 and now runs an Afro-Cuba race-relations project in Mississippi, said he once carried out his own telling survey: Five out of every 100 private vehicles he counted in Havana were driven by a Cuban of color.

The disparity between the census' 11 percent and UM's 62 percent also reflects the complicated racial categories in a country where if you look white you are considered white, no matter the genes.

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/print/cu.html
CIA happily adopts the 2002 Cuban Census results with no commentary.

World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples - Cuba : Afro-Cubans, 2008, UNHCR
Since 1989 and the so-called 'special period in peacetime', statistics and analysis concerning social trends in Cuba have been almost unavailable. This compounds a more long-standing problem of information concerning race relations and minorities in the island. An objective assessment of the situation of Afro-Cubans remains problematic due to scant records and a paucity of systematic studies both pre- and post-revolution.

Estimates of the percentage of people of African descent in the Cuban population vary enormously, ranging from 33.9 per cent to 62 per cent. This is partly a question of self-perception, as census figures are based on how Cubans define themselves.

As in many Latin American and Caribbean countries, there is also a large 'mulatto' or ethnically mixed population, and colour, class and social status are closely interlinked. Few Cubans are either 'pure' white or black. Definitions of 'colour' are as much the result of social criteria as of somatic classification. Afro-Cubans are most prevalent in the eastern part of the island and in districts of Havana.

Taking all of this into consideration, the fact that there has been a significant exodus of 'white' Cubans from the island means that Afro-Cubans have now come to represent a larger proportion of the overall population and are now thought to constitute closer to 70 per cent of the total.

Presentan informe nacional del Censo de Población y Vivienda, Granma, 11/12/05

Reflections On Race & The Status Of People Of African Descent In Revolutionary Cuba, Eugene Godfried, 11/2000
Some official documents consider a "mulatto" as being "white". Other documents define Chinese as "white" and yet on other occasions as "black." One can find still other sources, such as the Ministry of External Affairs, that include black and mulattos on the same side of the list resulting in a 63% figure for the segment of African descent, an estimate one also finds in American sources, both governmental and scholarly.

Percentages that are sometimes officially applied, such as whites 70%, blacks 19 %, mulattos 11%, are clearly inadequate. These likely come from the 1980-1981 census, where people were asked to identify themselves along ethnic lines, and are disregarded by most Cuba scholars. Such percentages necessarily lead to partial policies followed by inequality in proportional social relations as a result. Consequently, leading figures directing major policy-making bodies need to accommodate themselves on these patterns of visions and in order to be inspired to have a critical and self-critical attitude when addressing themes regarding the position, participation, and mobility of the people of African descent in the Cuban society.


From http://popindex.princeton.edu/browse/v53/n1/s.html
53:10853
Cuba. Comite Estatal de Estadisticas (Havana, Cuba). Census of population and housing of 1981: methodological volume, Vol. 17. [Censo de poblacion y viviendas de 1981: tomo metodologico, Volumen XVII.] Jul 1984. [206] pp. Havana, Cuba. In Spa.
This volume describes the methodology used in the 1981 census of Cuba. Information is also provided on scheduled publications of census results and costs. Comparisons are made with other Cuban censuses.
Location: University of Texas at Austin, Population Research Center. Source: APLIC Census Network List, No. 68, Dec 1986.

The Cuban-American counterpoint: Black Cubans in the United States, Dialectical Anthropology, Sep 1988

Race and ethnicity in censuses, Wikipedia

www.latinamericanstudies.org/cuba/racial-demographics.pdf   Quotes Esteban Morales.

top

Articles/Articulos

Afro-Cubans on the brink  7/30/2021 Politico: by Amalia Dache - "The Cuban census states that its population is about 35 percent of African descent [Black and Mulatto combined] and that its population of whites is about 65 percent. But U.S. stats and folks who have researched Cuba, say that it’s actually the opposite. In painting your country as predominantly white, it allows people outside of the [the island] to think that the leadership is representative. We know the people in power in Cuba, in the military elite, are predominantly white. [In the U.S.] we still have these conversations, like, Cuban Americans are all white, they all look like Marco Rubio, Gloria Estefan and Andy Garcia. But it invisiblizes people like myself and people, like Celia Cruz for example."

El Color de la Piel según el Censo de Población y Viviendas Febrero 2016  2/5/2020 ONEI: "Esta publicación, constituye el cuarto estudio realizado a partir de los resultados del Censo 2012, en este caso referido a La Población Cubana según el Color de la Piel. El tema fue estudiado y resultó novedoso a partir de la base de datos del Censo de 1981, y desde entonces no se había vuelto a tratar de manera específica, a pesar de haberse captado la información en todos los Censos realizados en el país antes y después de dicho año. Sin dudas, esta situación creó un vacío en el conocimiento que sobre esta problemática se tenía."

¿RACISMO “ESTRUCTURAL” EN CUBA? NOTAS PARA EL DEBATE  8/28/2018 Negra Cubana: "Hace cuatro años tuve la oportunidad de participar en una investigación sobre la variable “racial” en los censos de la región. Uno de los resultados más importantes de dicho estudio revela que el censo no cruza la variable “racial” con otras de suma importancia, como por ejemplo, la tasa de fecundidad. Si además le interesa saber cuáles son las profesiones en las que negras y negros están sobre-representados, o la cantidad de personas negras en puestos de dirección, sus preguntas nunca serán respondidas. A lo anterior se suman las particularidades del diseño de la variable “racial” para los censos en Cuba y en específico el concepto que se utiliza (el “color de la piel”), el cual se introdujo por primera vez en el levantamiento de 1970 y que ha sido cuestionado por varios intelectuales y activistas como el Dr. Esteban Morales. Estos se ha reunido con funcionarios de la Oficina Nacional de Información y Estadística, pero ello no ha supuesto ningún cambio práctico en la manera en que se recoge tal indicador. Descargue el artículoresultado dela investigación."

¿De dónde venimos los cubanos según estudios de ADN?  8/16/2018 Cubahora: "El 35 % de las mujeres estudiadas procede, hace 15 generaciones atrás, de una mujer amerindia, de una mujer nativo-americana. Esa abuelita suya hace 500 años le trasladó esa información a toda la familia. El 39 % de las mujeres estudiadas tuvieron 500 años atrás una abuela africana y un 26 % una abuela europea."

Roberto Zurbano on Race and Cuba  11/3/2017 Havana Glasgow Film Festival: "In egalitarian societies, such as Cuba's, some are of course more equal than others, and racial minorities tend to suffer the most from inequality. Cuba is a particularly unusual example, since the Cuban census claims the island to have a 65 per cent majority white population, but many think that the Afro-descendent population occupy that proportion in reality. Roberto Zurbano is a Cuban writer, activist and researcher at Casa de las Americas, who definitely believes this to be the case, He observes,, "I say this because most of the population census in Latin America and the Caribbean manipulate the amount of the black population. Cuba is not an exception to this. However, in practice, we know that we are a country with a black majority which should feel proud of being black and of affirming its identity in whichever document and in the next census."

In Cuba, African Roots Run Deep, but It's a Lesson Students Aren't Learning in the Classroom  9/1/2017 NBC: "For about a decade, Dominquez and other scholars have been struggling to get Afro-Cuban history into the Cuban system — in textbooks, in the classroom and in the curriculum. It can be the tool to awaken children and youth, says Tomás Fernández Robaina, an expert on the African presence in Cuba. Robaina says knowing Afro-Cuban history should matter to all Cubans. And so should knowing that “Blacks continue to be the most discriminated group of all in Cuba,” adds Robaina. He rejects the notion that studying this history is a threat to Cuban nationalism."

Revolutionary Cuba’s racism problem  12/1/2016 Spectator: "Cuban census figures from 2012 indicate that black, mixed-race, and mestizo people make up a third of the population, while the other two-thirds is white. These figures don’t seem quite right walking around Cuban cities and towns. You will hardly see a white face. It’s not down to more white Cubans living rurally. The census puts the percentage of white Cubans living rurally down around 50 per cent. Curiously, statistics from both the US State Department and the Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies at the University of Miami put the nationwide population of black and mixed-race Cubans at twice the Cuban Government’s figure – at around 65 per cent – which feels much closer to the reality on the street."

El color de la piel según el Censo 2012  7/11/2016 Negra Cubana: "Buscando el dato de la composición racial de la población cubana he llegado a este importante y revelador informe de la Oficina Nacional de Información y Estadística, publicado en febrero del 2016."

Black Cubans celebrate Barack Obama's visit  3/21/2016 Daily Kos: "The Cuba Briefing Sheet states: “US State Department officially identifies Cuba as 62% black. Cuban scholars say up to 72% of population is non-white” (emphasis added). The large population that is counted as “mulatto,” meaning mixed-racial ancestry, and major cultural elements on the island like food, music, dance, and forms of religious worship owe a far bigger debt to West Africa than to Spain. Regardless of the way “race” is defined, it is clear that at least one-third of the population is “not white” by the Cuban government’s definition."

El Color de la Piel según el Censo de Población y Viviendas de 2012  2/15/2016 Oficina Nacional de Estadística e Información: BLANCA 64,1% NEGRA 9.3% MULATA 26,6%

Amid sweeping changes in US relations, Cuba’s race problem persists  8/13/2015 Al Jazeera: "Official Cuban census figures say black and mixed-heritage people are about 35 percent of the island’s population, but a quick stroll around any Cuban town will provide visual confirmation of just how many Cubans of color deem themselves “white” when the government is asking. That may not be surprising, given that race is not an objective scientific category, but rather an organizing principle of political power — both before and after the revolution that brought Fidel Castro to power."

Dark-Skinned Or Black? How Afro-Brazilians Are Forging A Collective Identity  8/12/2015 NPR: "She's been participating in the black pride movement for over 15 years. And it seems to be working, she says, because the number of people self identifying as pardo or preto surged in the latest census. And more importantly, lawmakers are beginning to pay more attention to issues of inequality. Brazil now has an affirmative action program for higher education. Before the program launched, only seven percent of Afro-Brazilians went to college. Now it's about 15 percent, and the numbers are growing."

Cuba - Afro Cubans  6/19/2015 EXECUTIVE OFFICE FOR IMMIGRATION REVIEW, US Dept of Justice: "Since 1989 and the so-called ‘special period in peacetime', statistics and analysis concerning social trends in Cuba have been almost unavailable. This compounds a more long-standing problem of information concerning race relations and minorities in the island. An objective assessment of the situation of Afro-Cubans remains problematic due to scant records and a paucity of systematic studies both pre- and post-revolution. Estimates of the percentage of people of African descent in the Cuban population vary enormously, ranging from 33.9 per cent to 62 per cent. This is partly a question of selfperception, as census figures are based on how Cubans define themselves. As in many Latin American and Caribbean countries, there is also a large ‘mulatto' or ethnically mixed population, and colour, class and social status are closely interlinked. Few Cubans are either ‘pure' white or black. Definitions of ‘colour' are as much the result of social criteria as of somatic classification. Afro-Cubans are most prevalent in the eastern part of the island and in districts of Havana. Taking all of this into consideration, the fact that there has been a significant exodus of ‘white' Cubans from the island means that Afro-Cubans have now come to represent a larger proportion of the overall population and are now thought to constitute closer to 70 per cent of the total."

Reforma económica aviva la división racial en Cuba  9/4/2014 El Universal, Venezuela: "Un estudio del Havana Consulting Group, con sede en Miami, reveló que de los $3.000 millones que llegaron el año pasado a la isla en remesas familiares, el 82% terminó en manos de blancos y 12% fue destinado a mestizos. Los negros sólo recibieron 5,8% del total. La relación no guarda proporción con la composición de la población: el último censo de 2012 mostró que de los 11 millones de cubanos 64,1% es blanco, 26,6% es mestizo y 9,3% es negro." [Los porcentages no son correctos.]

THE INVISIBLE COLOR  9/1/2014 THE BROKEN IMAGE/ LA IMAGEN ROTA: "The invisible color is a living testimonial of the experience through the eyes of Black Cubans everyday life in Miami Dade County in particular, highlighting their mayor occupations and contribution to society as well their life in contemporary Cuba. Cubans and their descendants represent the largest demographic group of Hispanic in South Florida, yet the Black Cubans has gone largely unnoticed due to the Census having limited the reporting on them as just as “Hispanic.” "

Cuba’s Largest Overseas Diaspora is the Least Known  6/17/2014 Havana Times: "According to the census, 1,444 Cubans residing on the island were born in Spain. This does not exactly constitute a diaspora. Cuba, quite naturally, has historical migratory links to what people here sometimes refer to as the “motherland” and Spaniards emigrated to Cuba in a sustained fashion from the early 16th century until 1961. There are a significant number of Spanish associations in Cuba, organized on the basis of ethnic or regional criteria, or as autonomous communities, which gather immigrants and their descendants. My Cuban grandfather, for instance, was from Leon, Spain and acquired Cuban citizenship years after moving to the island. He never returned to his country of origin. Many of his former compatriots did the same thing. The second largest group of people who live in Cuba but were born overseas (some 794 individuals) came to the island from the Russian Federation."

Cuba, Blacks and the New York Times - The Zurbano Controversy  4/12/2013 CounterPunch: by NELSON P. VALDES - "The author leaves the impression that the classification of color or race is determined by the census taker. That is not the case. In Cuba census takers ask households to self-classify, just as it is done in the United States. In fact, the Cuban authorities follow the guidelines established by the United Nations." [The Cuban Government used to discount these aberrant census results, but since 2002, they have embraced them. They are used to justify the diminished presence of blacks in many institutions.]

Dura crítica al racismo en Cuba le cuesta el puesto a escritor  4/6/2013 Nuevo Herald: No se puede admitir la verdad, que 65%+ de la población es afrodescendiente - "El caso de Zurbano refleja el creciente movimiento de derechos para los negros en Cuba, donde el 35 por ciento de su población de 11 millones de personas son negros o mestizos, en un momento en que sus activistas se quejan de que las reformas económicas de mercado abierto de Raúl Castro favorecen injustamente a los blancos."

For Blacks in Cuba, the Revolution Hasn’t Begun  3/24/2013 International Herald Tribune: by Roberto Zurbano - "Raúl Castro has announced that he will step down from the presidency in 2018. It is my hope that by then, the antiracist movement in Cuba will have grown, both legally and logistically, so that it might bring about solutions that have for so long been promised, and awaited, by black Cubans. An important first step would be to finally get an accurate official count of Afro-Cubans. The black population in Cuba is far larger than the spurious numbers of the most recent censuses. The number of blacks on the street undermines, in the most obvious way, the numerical fraud that puts us at less than one-fifth of the population. Many people forget that in Cuba, a drop of white blood can — if only on paper — make a mestizo, or white person, out of someone who in social reality falls into neither of those categories. Here, the nuances governing skin color are a tragicomedy that hides longstanding racial conflicts."

El color de la piel en Censo Cuba 2012 (II)  3/18/2013 Negra Cubana: "Luego de las múltiples objeciones que recibieron los resultados del Censo del 2002[1], acerca de la composición étnico-racial de la población cubana; aun existen reclamos orientados a advertir las posibles implicaciones socioeconómicas que para los afrocubanos y afrocubanas tiene el hecho de que en los resultados ofrecidos por dichas investigaciones no es posible cruzar la variable “color de piel” con cualquier otra. De manera que si le interesa conocer la tasa de fecundidad de las mujeres negras, cuáles son las profesiones en las que negras y negros están sobrerepresentados o la cantidad de personas negras en puestos de dirección, sus preguntas nunca serán respondidas por un Censo realizado en la Cuba post-revolucionaria."

El color de la piel en Censo Cuba 2012 (I)  3/17/2013 Negra Cubana: "Cuando en junio del 2013 se ofrezcan los resultados del Censo Cuba 2012, una vez podremos confirmar que la investigación estadística y demográfica más importante de una nación no tiene suficientemente en cuenta revelar la realidad de las personas afrodescendientes de la Isla."

El color de la piel en Censo Cuba 2012 (I)  3/5/2013 Negra Cubana: "Cuando en junio del 2013 se ofrezcan los resultados del Censo Cuba 2012, una vez podremos confirmar que la investigación estadística y demográfica más importante de una nación no tiene suficientemente en cuenta revelar la realidad de las personas afrodescendientes de la Isla. El presente artículo tiene la finalidad de acercarse al Censo Cuba 2012 y al abordaje de la variable “color de la piel”, en relación con levantamientos anteriores, realizados en la época republicana, así como destacar algunos antecedentes de la pregunta que sobre este tema se incluyó en el cuestionario censal de este año."

"El racismo está en nuestras mentes, en nuestra formación y en nuestra cultura"  9/30/2012 BOLTXE: "Nosotros tenemos en Cuba un problema con el censo, incluso en IPS acaban de sacar una entrevista en la que yo le hago una crítica; el censo recoge tal por ciento de blancos, tal de negros y tal de mestizos, a nivel macro, pero lo que hace falta saber es cuántos negros hay en Güines, cuántos están desempleados, cuántos tienen nivel universitario, cuántos no, eso es importante porque nosotros tenemos que construir este país sobre la base de una política social científica donde puedas decir: “allí es donde está la pobreza, la desigualdad”."

Censo homofóbico Cuba 2012: CENESEX declara que no hará declaración  9/15/2012 Negra Cubana 

Comenzó en Cuba el Censo Nacional de Población y Viviendas 2012  9/15/2012 CubaDebate: [En el ultimo censo de 2002, hubo autodeterminacion de raza, con el resulto que muchos se pusieron blanco.]

Call to Count Gays in Cuba Census  9/2/2012 Havana Times: "How many homosexuals are there in Cuba? How many same-sex couples are living together? How many transsexuals does the island have? And how many bisexual and lesbian households exist in Cuba? Answers to these kinds of questions are being sought by Cuban journalist and blogger Francisco Rodriguez*, a well-known government sympathizer and gay activist on the island."

Mis preguntas para el Censo 2012  8/23/2012 Negra Cubana: "¿Quiénes son las personas dueñas de los negocios privados: pertenencia o identidad racial, edad, género, procedencia regional? ¿Cuántas mujeres cubanas, en relación con los hombres, son dueñas de esos negocios?"

“La discriminación racial es un combustible peligroso”  8/15/2012 CubaNet, financiado por la USAID: "Cuando te montas en una guagua o caminas por las calles, te das cuenta de la superioridad numérica de los afro descendientes. Es cierto que hay ciudades con más población blanca, pero también existen asentamientos con una relación aritmética contraria. Ejemplifico que el antropólogo Juan Alvarado fue uno de los primeros en poner en entredicho las estadísticas oficiales -las verdaderas cifras son “secreto de estado”-. Incluso, tenemos informaciones de especialistas del Instituto Cubano de Genética, quienes manifestaron estar en descuerdo con los números arrojados por los censos de población y vivienda, afirmando que al menos 60% de cubanos son afro descendientes. Enfáticamente te aseguro que el gobierno ejerce presiones sobre todos aquellos intelectuales que impulsan un debate nacional sobre la demografía afro descendiente, destacándose entre ellos: el bibliotecólogo Tomás Fernández Robaina, el ensayista Roberto Zurbano, quien en la actualidad preside el fondo literario de Casas de las Américas, y la investigadora Inés María Martíatu, por cierto, más reconocida en el extranjero que en Cuba. También, desde 1986, en los congresos de la UNEAC se han disputado estos cuestionamientos raciales, pero el régimen se las arregla para silenciar las demandas del anhelado debate nacional."

Population and Housing Census in September 2012  10/1/2011 Cuba Headlines: The previous census counting ethnicity was in 2002 and grossly undercounted los afrodescendientes,.

ESTEBAN MORALES/CARLOS MOORE  5/17/2011 Negra Cubana: "Tampoco los negros y mestizos son fácilmente contratados por las áreas en que mas el dólar circula en Cuba. Por lo que se observa que algunos tienden a refugiarse en la santería como forma de lucro, la actividad ilícita, el proxenetismo y la prostitución, las reventas ilegales de productos etc. Por lo cual, de la población penal total hoy en Cuba, los negros y mestizos representan casi el 57%, comparados con los blancos, que son un 43%.[5]Por lo que, censalmente hablando, se encuentran sobrerepresentados dentro de la población penal (pues según el censo del 2002, el 65% se identificaron como blancos, el 10,1% como negros y el 24,9 como mestizos)."

CUBA: Replica Slave Ship Drops Anchor amidst Debate on Racism  3/24/2010 IPS: "The issue is gaining visibility, which gives us hope that progress will continue to be made," Norberto Mesa, founder of the Cofradía de la Negritud (CONEG), a "brotherhood" or association of black people aimed at raising awareness about the problem, told IPS. According to CONEG, racial inequality is a growing problem in Cuba, where the latest census, from 2002, indicates that of a total population of 11.18 million, 7.2 million were white, 1.13 million black, and 2.78 mixed-race, based on self-identification. However, scholars estimate that the Cuban population is actually around 60 to 70 percent black or mixed-race. "We foment debate at the community level because we know that solutions will start to emerge, as a result of citizen participation," Mesa added, after a day of cultural activities organised by the Casa Comunitaria (community centre) in the Havana neighbourhood of La Ceiba. During the activities that day, the Cofradía awarded its annual prize to Eric Corvalán, a Cuban filmmaker who filmed the first documentary on racial discrimination in this country, "Raza" (Race). The 2008 film helped launch the fledgling debate on racism. "That was the message, the idea, but I am not satisfied. The debate should be at a national level," Mesa commented. CONEG wants a Cuban parliament commission to focus on the question of racism. It is also pushing for the issue to be included on the agenda of the next congress of the Young Communist League (UJC). "What could divide us is precisely the failure to deal with this problem," said Mesa, referring to the socialist government's official stance in the 1960s, when the Cuban revolution considered the issues of racism and discrimination solved, and saw any discussion of the matter as a threat to unity and social cohesion."

Color Cubano by Elíades Acosta Matos  5/21/2009 Progreso Weekly: "Acosta was chief of the Department of Culture of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba." A rank apology for the status quo that repeats a fundamental lie in the ibero spanish canon: "Nationwide, 65.2 percent of the population is white, but the number of mestizos increased by 4 points since the previous census." [Acosta, it is more like 65% afrodescendiente!]

Cuban Color  2/12/2009 Progreso Weekly: By Elíades Acosta Matos, former head of the Committee on Culture of the Cuban Communist Party’s Central Committee, unfortunately repeats the falsehoods of the last census - "Nationwide, 65.2 percent of the population is white, but the number of mestizos increased by 4 points since the previous census."

Can Cuba Change?  1/15/2009 Journal of Democracy: Gershman is founding director of NED. Gutierrez is an outspoken advocate of a US military invasion of Cuba who serves as national secretary of the USAID and NED-funded Cuban Democratic Directorate. In this "blueprint for cultivating Cuba’s post-Cold War underclass as an anti-government vanguard" Gershman and Gutierrez reveal internal US appraisal of Cuba's population mix: "On the social level, according to the RAND study and other reports, young people are largely alienated from official politics and increasingly drawn to a subculture of rap music, drugs, and crime. Afro-Cubans, who make up a majority of the populace, have an especially hard lot, making up disproportionately large shares of the poor and those in prison. A low birthrate is leading to a rapidly aging population, with growing demands for pensions and other services that the state cannot meet."

‘Obama Effect’ Highlights Racism in Cuba  12/15/2008 New America Media: "Cuban authorities offered statistical analysis to bolster their view, which revealed the lengths to which Havana was prepared to deceive others even as it deceived itself. Of Cuba’s population of 11.2 million people in 2002, officials declared, 65 percent were white, 10 percent were black, and 25 percent were mulatto. This racial breakdown matched exactly the breakdown of members of Cuba’s parliament: 65 percent white and 35 percent people of color. The implication was as obvious as it was ridiculous: Cuba had achieved “perfect” racial representation between the people and their representatives. Europeans scoffed at such claims. In fact, most independent census reports of the Cuban nation puts the number of “whites” at anywhere from 20 to 35 percent; everyone else is black or mulatto."

Back to the Past in Cuba  3/4/2008 Lew Rockwell: "French intelligence sources tell me there is a growing risk of major street violence by poor blacks, who make up 60% of the population and live in slums ringing Havana. Army units have been deployed around the capitol." [The 60% is a reasonable figure, much more so than the dubious 2002 census.]

About Cubans in the United States By Andres Gomez  9/25/2006 Cuba Now: "And finally, the survey of the Census Bureau shows, significantly, that in 2004 56% of the Cubans supported a dialogue between the United States and the Cuban government to solve the existent conflicts between both countries. A clear rejection to the intransigent and denaturalised position of the extreme Cuban-American right wing."

Presentan informe nacional del Censo de Población y Vivienda  11/12/2005 Granma: Figures from 2002 Census just released - total population: 11.177.743; whites: 65% - 7.271.926; blacks: 10% - 1.126.894; mulatos: 24,9% - 2.778.923.

Cubans Jittery About Providing Census Information  9/6/2002 Black World Today: "An intense campaign by Cuba's socialist government is aimed at calming fears that the new Census on Population and Housing, which begins to be carried out on Saturday, could uncover irregularities like black market purchases or illegal housing arrangements. Every day, the government-controlled radio and TV stations loudly insist on the benefits of knowing exactly ''how many we are'' and the need to assess the conditions of housing as well as shortcomings in the areas of housing and social security in this Caribbean island nation."

Cuba: Census To Measure Two Decades Of Changes  8/27/2002 Black World Today: "''Besides evaluating how many college graduates we have, the census will enable us to find out how many of them are working in jobs related to their studies, and how many people work, are looking for a job, or have more than one source of employment,'' he added. The census will also provide more specific data on the aging of Cuba's population of 11 million, 14 percent of whom are over 60. In addition, it should shed light on internal migration flows, the number of couples living together without being married or separated without getting divorced, the increasing number of female heads of households, and the makeup of the population in terms of skin colour."

Cuba cuenta - Una fotografía nacional  5/17/2002 Granma: "El primer censo cubano del que se tenga noticia data de 1774, época en que la Isla vivía bajo dominio colonial español y cuando apenas poblaban el país 171 620 habitantes, la mayoría blancos (56,2%), seguidos por negros (29,3%) y mestizos o mulatos (14,5%)." According to figures from other sources - a total population of 172,620 inhabitants: 96,440 whites, 31,847 free blacks, and 44,333 black slaves.
       

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