A Lo Cubano Trivia Quiz

Answer: Timbales

The late Tito Puente was 'El Rey de los Timbales', the King of the Timbales. Claves are explained in the next question. The Bongos are little double drums in two different sizes. The Conga is a tall drum, but no snare.

Answer: Claves

Claves are really the simplest instrument imaginable. It is amazing, however, how many different ways they can be played. Timbales are explained in question 1. The Guiro is a scraper played with a stick. Maracas are bean-filled bulbs and you shake them to play them.

Answer: Rueda de Casino

Rueda is 'wheel' in Spanish and Casino is the Cuban style of Salsa dancing. 'Linea de Mambo' and 'Circulo Sabroso' are my inventions, as is 'Baile de Cuadro', a wild literal translation of 'square dance'.

Answer: Casino

Tough one. All answers are Cuban dances, but only Casino is the modern Salsa one. Cha Cha has been around since the 1950s. Bolero is not danced to Salsa, but rather to - you guessed it - Bolero (NOT Ravel's opera). Rumba has nothing to do with the latin dance of the same name (which is actually much like bolero), but means party.

Answer: Orishas

Chango (stress the O) is one of the Orishas, as are Yemaya, Oggun, Ochun, Obbatala, Babalu Aye and some more. Together they make up the Afro-Cuban religion Santeria of African Yoruba origin. Because the Spanish forced Catholicism on the Cubans, every Orisha can be represented as a Catholic saint.

This way, they could pretend to pray to St.Peter while actually meaning Oggun. Voodoo is Haitian. Some rituals bear similarities with Santeria.

Answer: Argentina

Ernesto Guevara was born in Argentina in 1928. He became a medical doctor in Buenos Aires before joining Castro's (whom he had met in Mexico) struggle against the dictatorship in Cuba. Che Guevara was shot in Bolivia in 1967.

Answer: 2

Thet are the Cuban peso (CUP) and the Convertible peso (CUC)

Answer: The US government does not allow Americans to spend money in Cuba

Technically, US citizens are allowed to travel to Cuba, they just can't legally spend any money there due to the Trading with the Enemy Act of 1917 and the Helms-Burton Act. The thing about danger is hogwash. Cuba is considered the safest country to travel in Latin America.

Answer: Because it is a scaled-down replica of the Capitol in Washington, D.C.

The Capitolio, built in 1929, was modeled after its US counterpart. All other answers are mere figments of my imagination.

Answer: La Rampa

La Rampa has become famous even to people who've never been there through the 1993 Cuban movie 'Fresa y Chocolate'. A central venue of this love story of two men is the Coppelia ice cream parlor right on calle 23. The Malecon is the run-down beach promenade all along the waterfront of Havana. El Prado is the old name of Habana Vieja's Paseo de Marti, perpendicular to the Malecon. Vedado is the name of the district the Rampa is in.

Answer: In La Bodeguita del Medio

Ernest Hemingway, who lived in Havana in the 1930s, wrote: 'Mi Mojito en La Bodeguita, mi Daiquiri en El Floridita'. These were the two bars he used to oscillate between. His novel 'The Old Man And The Sea' was inspired by the fishing village of Cojimar, east of Havana.

Answer: Baracoa is home to Cuba's largest movie theater

The only movie theater in Baracoa is a TV set in a hotel lobby. All other statements are true. When the Cacique Indian Hatuey, who is commemorated by a statue in Baracoa, and a beer brand, was captured by the Spanish, he was given the choice to live under Spanish rule (heaven) or being burned at the stake (hell). He chose the latter.

Answer: Fort

Known as La Cabaņa, Fortaleza de San Carlos de la Cabaņa (Fort of Saint Charles) was established in the 18th century by the Spanish who had just regained the land from the British in exchange for Florida. Now it is a complex housing several museums.

Answer: Because they are the only ones people may legally own

All the more modern Lada and Hyundai cars you see in Cuba are state owned. Only pre-1959 cars seized from their original owners can be privately held and resold. Many of them have Russian truck engines under the hood while others are held together by chicken wire and duct tape.

Answer: The United States

After Castro took over Havana on January 1st, 1959, Batista took to the Dominican Republic. Later, he moved to Madeira, Portugal, and eventually to Spain, where he died in 1973.