The majority of the people are of Spanish descent. About twelve per cent are descendants of African slaves and about one per cent are of Chinese origin. The government has implemented a family planning programme. A number of Sephardic Jews fled to Cuba in the sixteenth century to escape the Spanish Inquisition. The Santeria religion which is a mixture of Yoruba animist beliefs, some Voodoo and Roman Catholicism is also practised by a number of Cubans.
Everyday food eaten in Cuba includes rice and beans, fried plantain, stew, pork and chicken.
Much of Cuba's fruit crops are exported. Ice cream is popular and other sweet foods include cakes, doughnuts, biscuits and coconut based desserts. Columbus landed on the island at the end of the fifteenth century. African slaves were brought to Cuba to replace the Indians in the sugar and tobacco plantations. In 1762, the British took Cuba after a siege of the island.