This “This World of Ours” film series was created by Dudley Pictures for classroom use. This film focuses on Cuba, considerably one of the largest and most important islands of the West Indies (:33). It lay about 150 miles south of Florida discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1492 (:43). The island remained under Spanish rule until 1898. Havanna, a metropolis of three quarter million residents, is the capital (:55). It’s harbor was constructed in 1597 as a defense against the British (1:22). It’s streets and architecture are a blend of old and modern (1:29). A street vendor is pictured and the many milling throughout the city sold lottery and coffee among other things. The Columbus Cathedral (1:51) was believed to house the remains of Christopher Columbus for a short period of time. The country’s valuable center for higher education (2:08) is the University of Havanna and boasted one of the western hemisphere’s most extensive library’s. Cuba’s Congress as well as entire capital were fashioned with some semblance to the American versions (2:34). One of the city’s popular streets is Park Avenue and it is pictured lined with Moorish and Spanish architecture (2:54). The avenue ran from the port to the capital. A monument facing the harbor (3:05) was constructed in memory to those whom perished during the explosion of the Battleship Maine. This port is also Havanna’s busiest (3:19). On the eastern end of the island, resides the second largest city, Santiago (3:51). Santiago was once the country’s capital (4:04) and two miles east is San Juan Hill. Teddy Roosevelt had led the Rough Riders in an advance that would ultimately aide in the release of Cuba from Spain here (4:31). The original trenches from the battle are shown (4:48). Tobacco being one of the most prevalent exports, the famed Cuban cigars are hand rolled by workers (5:15). Another major crop is pinapples and their thick leafy tissue holds enough water to enable growth even in the dryest of climates (5:41). Coffee beans are harvested by women in a field (6:07). The finest of beans are grown in higher attitudes. The most valued crop is sugar (6:22) as Cuba was the world’s largest producer of high grade refined sugar (6:32). Workers cut the stalks with sharpened machetes and these are loaded into oxcarts (6:53), then transported to railroads. At mills that sprinkled the country, cane is crushed and boiled into sugar (7:12). A summary of the tour through Cuba concludes with the notion that it is and has been considered the ‘gateway to the new world’ (8:14). The film concludes on an image of the country’s flag (8:46).

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