The cultural heritage of Cuba is rooted in a distinctly unique combination of Aboriginal, French, Chinese, Spanish, and African cultures. Since 1959, the Cuban Revolution has promoted Cuban culture by creating number of art schools and guarantying salaries for Cuban artists.

Many cultural institutions have been founded such as the Cuban Film Institute, the Cuba’s National Ballet (that has gained worldwide recognition in this period), the Cuban Institute of Music and the National Cultural Council as well as museums, Afro-Cuban folklore ensembles and theatre groups.

In contrast to earlier periods, when Cuban culture was permeated by foreign influences, the promotion of domestic cultural expressions has been paramount and a revaluation of Cuba’s unique African heritage and Afro-Cuban folklore groups have been fostered.

Music Cuba’s most important ethnomusicologist Fernando Ortiz described Cuban music as “a love affair between the African drum and the Spanish guitar”. A simple yet comprehensive description of what Cuban music is about, a happy marriage of African beats and Spanish melodies.

Painting Early evidence of Cuban painting can be found in the religious mural paintings and oils of Jose Nicolas de La Escalera (1734- 1804). However, for the greater part of 18th century, portrait and religious painting dominated Cuban artistry production. In 1818, the Academy of Painting of San Alejandro was founded, dominating Cuban art until the 1920’s when a group of young Cuban painters broke away from the academy into more European avant-garde trends that had sensationalized Europe decades earlier.

Literature Cuban literature dates as far back as 1605 to a poem titled Espejo de Paciencia written by Silvestre de Balboa. It is in the early 19th century that Cuban literature really began to emerge as its own unique style of writing. The turning point for Cuba literature is regarded to have come with the lyrical poetic works of Jose Maria Heredia (1803-1839), with his famed Oda al Niagara and En El Teocalli de Chobula being considered the start to the Spanish Romanticism style of writing.

Film The Cuban Film Institute, or the Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry (ICAIC) was created in the early days of the Cuban Revolution placing emphasis on documentary production at first. Icon Cuban directors of the last fifty years are Tomas Gutierrez Alea and Humberto Solas. The former was the creator of the film Strawberry and Chocolate that won the Berlin Film Festival’s special prize in 1994 and tells the intricacies of the relationship in between the Revolution supporters and Cuban homosexuals.