The government has sought to redress the influence of North American mass culture by subsidising Afro-Cuban cultural groups and performing ensembles.
Cuban cuisine is a mix of Spanish and African techniques, using local produce.
There are, however, food shortages in Cuba and eating out can mean long waits at state-run restaurants or hotel dining rooms. Large estates were established on the island under the encomienda system, which essentially enslaved the Indians under the pretext that they were receiving religious instruction. By 1542, when the system was abolished, the deadly combination of exploitation and European diseases had slashed the Indian population to around 5000. Unfazed, the Spanish began to import African slaves to bolster slave-labour numbers. Unlike the North American slave trade, Cuba's African slaves were kept together in their tribal groups, and fortunately certain aspects of their culture survived.