In Cuba the history of the Kung Fú goes back to the XIX
century, because the first Chinese warriors arrived as
prisoners in the time of the colony. They were members of
the great rebellion of the Thai Ping that was about to
overthrow completely the Ching dynasty. Already at the
beginning of the XX century the schools that concentrated
to most of the masters of the of Havana Chinatown were
founded: the Chen Bu Jag Yu Wei, and the school belonging
to the Min Chi Tong society.
Masters like Wong Key, Lei Tchoy, Lei Bu for Jag Yu Wei
and Emilio Chann for Min Chi Tong stood out for its big
martial abilities.
Nevertheless their great level and development, the
Chinese martial arts stayed in the strait circle of the
natural Chinese and their descendants. It was only after
the decade of the sixty that some as Rufino Alay (old
practitioner of Jag Yu Wei) began to teach this art to the
non Chinese. Also Master Lei Tchoy in the last years of
his life bequeathed his knowledge to some Cubans.
By the middle of the decade of the ninety arrives to Cuba
the Master Wong Yi Man, and he founds the Academy Nam Pai
Kung Fú that extended for the whole country and lasted for
some years.
At the moment it is known in the whole nation a huge
number of traditional styles, fundamentally from the south
of China as the Choy Ka Kiin, Hung Ka Kiin, Fat Ka Kiin,
Choy Lei Fat and Wing Chung Kiin; also some from the
north, as the Zha Chuan, Si Kua Chuan, Pei Shaolin Chuan
and Thai Chi Chuan. There are also practiced the modern
modalities of the Wu Shu fundamentally in Havana.
Up to where we have knowledge schools of these exist
in the provinces of Havana, City, Havana, Matanzas, Villa
Clara, Granma and Santiago de Cuba. But in spite of all
the carried out inquiries, many practitioners and styles
of Kung Fú still remains in the anonymity, integrating
quietly the mosaic of the martial culture that the old
Chinese warriors bequeathed us.
