At the time of the Dominican Sisters’ arrival there was already a deep historical
connection between the U.S. and Cuba. The
island is one of several that had been claimed for Spain by Christopher Columbus in October 1492. Cuba had been a colony
of Spain until the end of the Spanish-American War in 1898 when Spain ceded the territories of Puerto Rico, the Philippines and Guam to the United
States. Cuba was temporarily administered by the United
States when the
first Dominican Sisters arrived in 1901 to open an orphanage in Havana.
The following year the U.S. granted Cuba its independence.
