Abstract

This paper discusses old and new ideas about the origins and migration routes of Cuba’s pre-Columbian inhabitants as well as their fate after European contact. The deep-rooted and widespread notion that the Indocubans and their culture were obliterated by disease, mistreat, and the overwhelming influx of European settlers and African slaves is shown to be fallacious on the basis of surviving ethnohistorical data, official documents, and recent DNA research.