A guide, a beacon and a shining star uncertain future

Published: 12 February 2012

Much-loved: The statue of Our Lady of the Charity beside to the Cuban Flag
Photo: ACN/CRTN Maria Lozano

As Pope Benedict XVI prepares to visit Cuba in March, MARIA LOZANO, reporting for Aid to the Church in Need, gives an insight into an important aspect of faith among Catholics there - devotion to Our Lady of Charity of (the shrine of) El Cobre

WHAT do the following have in common - Ernest Hemingway, Gloria Estefan and Lina Ruz, the mother of Fidel Castro? Or more broadly: what do all Cubans have in common, and all those who love this land?

The same that all men have in common, namely love for their mother.

And in Cuba this Mother is without doubt the Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre - Our Lady of Charity of (the shrine of) El Cobre.

Hemingway dedicated his first Nobel Prize for Literature to her; Gloria Estefan wrote a song to her which is pure prayer and which bears her name, "Caridad", and Lina Ruz travelled to her shrine in 1959 to fulfil a promise she had made, after having begged for the safety of her two sons, Fidel and Raúl Castro, when they were fighting in the mountains of the Sierra Maestra at the head of the guerrilla struggle against the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista.

To tell the story of the Virgen de la Caridad is to tell the history of Cuba over the past 400 years.

Ever since she was brought to land by the "three Juans" - the popular name for the three men who were collecting salt in the Bay of Nipe when they saw her image floating in the sea - this devotion to her has accompanied the historical process leading to the development of what is Cuba today.

And given that the three men who found her in 1562 were a negro and two indígenas, or native Indians, and that the shrine to her was afterwards established by the governor - of Spanish origin - who ordered the image to be brought to the town of El Cobre, the devotion to her can be said to unite together the three ethnic groups and thus all those who make up Cuba today - so making the image of Our Lady of Charity a powerful symbol of unity and of everything Cuban.

The Virgen de la Caridad is also a symbol of freedom. She was present when the freedom of the first slaves was proclaimed in the copper mines of El Cobre, and it was in front of her altar that the Cuban insurgent soldiers, known as Mambises, gave thanks in 1898 after having achieved Cuban independence from Spain.

They carried her image into battle and for this reason she is also known as La Mambisa.

Some have said the image of Our Lady of Charity is a symbol of the struggle of the mestizo people - brown, black and white - against the sea and the land.

The room holding the votive offerings at the shrine is a reflection of this struggle of the Cuban people, a reflection without censure or criticism.

One finds petitions for freedom from political prisoners, toy boats (in thanksgiving for someone who has emerged victorious from this struggle with the ocean and returned safely, while so many others have lost their lives), military decorations, medical diplomas, sporting trophies, baseball helmets (the Cuban national sport), a saxophone, given as an offering by someone who has left the country ... all Cuba is present on these walls and windows.

All Cuba, at the Virgin's feet.

It's a country that has changed in recent years and which is continuing to go through a metamorphosis that is both hopeful and worrying at the same time.

The situation is hopeful because, even as of 2007, Cubans could not own mobile phones, own a car in their own names, sell a house, purchase a computer, stay in a hotel, nor do business.

Today they have these freedoms and although the steps taken so far have been small steps, they are steps nonetheless.

At the same time, however, the situation is worrying, because they are still on the way to full political freedom and as yet unable to answer the big question still hanging over them: What will happen afterwards?

The Cuban people have over the years learned to survive on the edge of the law, because the law imposed by the communist system was impossible to follow - control over foodstuffs, lack of resources.

And for a people accustomed to not obeying the law, the process of complying with a new legal system and obeying the laws in the time to come is going to be difficult.

The second problem is that, the communist system has protected Cuba from many negative contemporary influences.

Cuba is, as a consequence of this, one of the safest countries on the American continent, including the United States.

Drugs, murder, robbery ... these exist just as humans exist, but for the time being their impact in Cuba is minimal.

The question then remains: With the desired freedom, is Cuban society ready to also address these social ills?

Perhaps it is because this really is a key moment in its history that Pope Benedict XVI has chosen Cuba, precisely, as a destination on his journey to Latin America in 2012.

It is being taken for granted that the Holy Father will include the opportunity during this trip of visiting the shrine of El Cobre as a pilgrim, because for the Cubans "Whoever has not been to El Cobre has never been to Cuba. This is the biggest thing in Cuba."

A visit to pay homage to the Virgen de la Caridad of El Cobre on the 450th anniversary of the discovery of her image, means once again placing Cuba at her feet.

It is not only the Cuban people, but also the Catholic Church in Cuba which needs this support and care.

For while the Cubans are a religious people, religion in Cuba has its own particular character.

As in Brazil, Haiti and other countries with a large population of African origin, there exists alongside the Christian faith another form of religiosity imported from these countries - the syncretist santeria cults, which have experienced a revival in recent years.

Also, through the influence of the United States, Protestants have been present on the island for more than a century, with their multiplicity of denominations - from the most traditional (Baptists, Methodists, Episcopalians, Presbyterians) to the most recent.

And finally, the influence of an agnostic humanism which, even if not a religion, has exercised enormous influence ever since the beginning of independence and the establishment of the first Republic and which continues to greatly influence many Cubans today - especially those in exile - many of whom do not look favourably on the role of the Catholic Church as protagonist, which she is inevitably assuming as a mediator in Cuba.

"You are a guide in the mist for those who are lost; you take away my fears and you are a light on my path ..." so run the lyrics of the song by Gloria Estefan.

And that is what the faith of the Cuban people is like - in the midst of their uncertainty they seek out the Virgin of Charity, Patroness and Queen of Cuba, as a guide, a beacon and a shining star in an uncertain future.