COVER N. 639 - CUBA

Postmark: Correos de Cuba Oficina de Correos Jesús Menéndez CP-77300 07.08.2025 / Correos de Cuba Las Tunas 25.08.2025 

Posted on the 7th August; Received on the 1st October 2025

_________________________________________________________________________________

A new entry into my country's list, thanks again to the kind and generous collaboration of the Ghost who walks, my friend the restless wanderer, Das Phantom! Danke Sehr, Alex!

Cuba, a Spanish colony in the Caribbean until the end of the Spanish/American war of the end of the 19th century, after which it became independent, in 1902.

Cuba... a sad history of  dictatorships and geo-political harassment that has brought its people, ever since the second half of the 20th century, totally undeserved hardships, denial of freedom, and privations; an ongoing embargo on top of that that only the US and Israel (hmmmm....) sustain in the UN...

And yet, a very good public free health care system, very high schooling and life expectancy indicators...

Lifting the embargo, I'm sure, could help foster Cuba's ailing economy, and so would freedom, democracy, but those are aims for people in power truly concerned about the welfare of those their actions impinge upon or they represent...

Cienfuegos (a hundred fires) is the name of  the Capital of one of the provinces of Cuba, that goes by the same toponym.

It is located in the centre south of the country and it was originally founded as the villa Fernandina de Jagua  by French settlers in 1819, its name being changed to the current Cienfuegos in 1829, as a way of  honouring José Cienfuegos Jovellanos, Captain General of Cuba who had died also in 1819.

It is one of the country's main ports, being implanted in the heart of industrial Cuba, especially in what concerns the energy and sugar sectors.

Celebrating the 200 anniversary of the foundation of the city Correos de Cuba issued, on 22APR2019,  the single 1 peso stamp souvenir sheet on the cover, illustrated with an panoramic bird eye's view of the city.

The stamp itself carries the coat of  arms of Cienfuegos on one side and the statue of  "El apóstol cubano",  José Martí (1853 - 1895), the famous  nationalist, poet, philosopher, essayist, journalist, translator, professor, and publisher who is revered in Cuba (and all across Latin America) for his lifelong fight  against Spanish colonialism.

Further to the postmarks on the face of the cover issued at Jesus Menédez, in the Northeast coast of the island, the envelope carries on its back another postmark, dated of 11 days later, applied at the city of Las Tunas, located some 50 km as the bird flies to the southwest of José Menéndez.

.