"Here, if you don't have one thing, you have another."

Many times we have heard or said this phrase referring to the mix of traits that all Cubans possess. Specifically, it refers to the fact that we all have characteristics of the black race, as both Congos and Carabalíes are black.

Congo is the ethnic group originating from the ancient Kingdom of Congo and also from the Congo River basin. The Congos, along with the Angolans, introduced the foundations of the religious complexes known as Palo Monte, also called Palo Congo, to Cuba.

The Carabalí ethnic group consisted of blacks from the coast of Calabar in southern Nigeria, from where hundreds of thousands of Africans were kidnapped and taken to the Americas to be subjected to slavery, from the 16th century to the first half of the 19th century.

And you who are reading, do you have Congo or Carabalí ancestry?