tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/spanish-colonial-past-33871/articlesSpanish colonial past – The Conversation2019-05-24T10:44:30Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1158982019-05-24T10:44:30Z2019-05-24T10:44:30Z‘World Heritage’ site selection is Eurocentric – and that shapes which historic places get love and money<p>The April 2019 fire that engulfed France’s Notre Dame Cathedral, in Paris, led to an outpouring of grief and introspection. </p>
<p>Historians explained how the 800-year-old church had <a href="https://theconversation.com/notre-dame-how-christs-crown-of-thorns-has-survived-crusades-political-upheaval-and-a-fire-but-only-just-115731">survived political upheaval</a>. Theologians examined <a href="https://theconversation.com/notre-dame-the-public-and-private-lives-of-frances-spiritual-home-115734">its “secret life” and symbolism</a> and architects recounted <a href="https://theconversation.com/notre-dames-history-is-9-centuries-of-change-renovation-and-renewal-115606">its structural changes through the centuries</a>. </p>
<p>But not all cultural landmarks – no matter how beautiful or inspiring – similarly tug at the heartstrings of people worldwide. On the same day Notre Dame burned, online commentators observed, flames also consumed part of the <a href="https://badgerherald.com/opinion/2019/04/17/social-media-is-ablaze-about-notre-dame-but-silent-about-destruction-of-mosques-black-churches/">1,000-year-old Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem</a>. </p>
<p>The world’s response: virtual silence. </p>
<p>My research on <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=m5h-3acAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">UNESCO World Heritage sites</a> sheds light on why some cultural relics are beloved, while other splendid monuments remain relatively unknown.</p>
<h2>UNESCO World Heritage</h2>
<p>Since 1972 the <a href="https://en.unesco.org">United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization</a> has kept a <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/">list</a> of places revered for their “outstanding universal value.”</p>
<p>Famous examples include the Sydney Opera House, in Australia, the Incan city of Machu Picchu, in Peru, and Italy’s Villa Romana.</p>
<p>Inclusion on UNESCO’s World Heritage list, which recognizes both <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/about/">natural and human-built</a> places, brings publicity and increased tourism. It also comes with financial, scientific, educational and cultural assistance to help countries conserve their World Heritage sites. </p>
<p>The 193 countries that signed the <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/conventiontext/">1972 UN agreement</a> that gave UNESCO this responsibility have committed not to endanger, directly or indirectly, their own heritage sites or those of another nation. </p>
<p>The French scholar Anne Gombault believes that Notre Dame stirs global fervor, in part, because it is <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/documents/111415">a UNESCO World Heritage Site</a>. </p>
<p>“World Heritage Sites arouse emotions and emotions reveal shared values,” <a href="https://theconversation.com/notre-dame-de-paris-from-searing-emotion-to-the-future-rebirth-of-a-world-heritage-site-115612">she wrote in The Conversation</a> on April 16, 2019. “Such emotions were on the faces of all those gathered in front of Notre Dame” as it burned, and in “the flood of heartfelt sentiments on social networks,” she added. </p>
<p>According to <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/about/">UNESCO’s website</a>, World Heritage sites “belong to all the peoples of the world, irrespective of the territory on which they are located.”</p>
<p>In practice, though, what is considered worthy of World Heritage recognition is not equally distributed across countries. According to my <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=m5h-3acAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">research</a>, UNESCO disproportionately reveres the cultural legacies of former European empires. </p>
<p>My 2014 <a href="https://reader.elsevier.com/reader/sd/pii/S0304422X1400028X?token=633FA190D6E10021C7FDA7F5C82130BEFE676CF44D9B2249E340E623B14DF82A50B60A24B285D8C90684E2B360DD8474">analysis of UNESCO World Heritage sites</a> found that Italy and Spain had 114 of UNESCO’s 695 designated cultural sites. That’s two relatively small European countries – home to just over 1% of the world’s population – with almost 9% of its sites of “outstanding universal value.” </p>
<p>In comparison, 25 countries – including the Dominican Republic, Papua New Guinea, and Mongolia – have just one UNESCO cultural site each. Ireland, Saudi Arabia and 16 other countries have two each. Seven countries, among them Jamaica and Moldova, have no UNESCO-designated sites at all. </p>
<p>Even UNESCO-designated sites located outside of Italy, France and Spain reflect a preference for these countries’ grand imperial histories. </p>
<p>Excluding cultural sites located within France, Greece, Italy and Spain, I analyzed the descriptions of the remaining 536 sites for references to Spanish, French and Italian or Greco-Roman influence. I searched for words like “Roman,” “Baroque,” “Classical,” “Gothic” and other terms commonly used to describe historical Western European architectural styles. </p>
<p>I found that 31% of UNESCO-designated cultural sites not located in Italy were celebrated for their Italian influence, including 50 of Eastern Europe’s 79 designated sites. Another 23 Eastern European UNESCO sites boasted French influence. </p>
<p>That means all but six of Eastern Europe’s UNESCO-designated cultural monuments are celebrated for their Western Europeanness.</p>
<p>Similarly, almost half of Latin America’s 77 cultural World Heritage sites are from the Spanish colonial era, including the historic downtowns of Mexico City, Havana and Antigua, Guatemala.</p>
<h2>How UNESCO nominations work</h2>
<p>Today there are 845 cultural sites on UNESCO’s World Heritage List – nearly 200 more than in 2014, when I did my original analysis. Western Europe still dominates the map.</p>
<p><iframe id="tjStw" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/tjStw/6/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>One reason for this apparent bias may be exhaustive nature of UNESCO’s nomination process. </p>
<p>To apply for World Heritage designation, countries <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/nominations/">nominate</a> sites of “outstanding universal value” that meet at least <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/criteria/">one of 10 criteria</a>. </p>
<p>For cultural sites, these criteria include being “a masterpiece of human creative genius” and bearing an “exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition or to a civilization which is living or which has disappeared.” </p>
<p>UNESCO natural heritage sites, which are much more evenly distributed across the globe, must either contain “superlative natural phenomena or areas of exceptional natural beauty and aesthetic importance” or reveal <a href="http://whc.unesco.org/en/criteria/">meaningful interactions between nature and humans</a>.</p>
<p>The nominating government then compiles an extensive dossier on the proposed site, which may include hundreds of pages of history, maps, photos, protection plans and scientific or cultural analysis. </p>
<p>This is evaluated by an international UNESCO advisory board, whose members will visit the site. Their recommendation goes to an executive UNESCO committee that makes the final decision. </p>
<p>This laborious process inevitably favors governments with more administrative, academic and financial resources. </p>
<p>And the nomination process is only getting more elaborate: Sociologists Vaughn Schmutz and Michael Elliot <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0020715217703778">analyzed all UNESCO cultural site applications</a> from 1980 to 2010 and found that over the years they grew longer and included more scientific language.</p>
<h2>What ‘oustanding’ means</h2>
<p>According to archaeologist Henry Creere, who once <a href="http://icahm.icomos.org/cleere/">served on a World Heritage advisory board</a>, UNESCO’s own selection process is also inherently “Western-oriented.”</p>
<p>“It operates in accordance with an aesthetic and historical perspective that is grounded in European culture,” he <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1179/135050396793139042?needAccess=true">wrote</a> in 1996. </p>
<p>This perceived bias may have led Asian, Latin American and African governments to <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304422X12000204">strategically select</a> cultural relics that date from their colonial occupation – rather than native monuments of the pre-colonial era – because they suspect such places most closely align with UNESCO’s vision.</p>
<p>UNESCO’s European bias is probably not intentional. Nonetheless, it has serious implications for the future of world heritage.</p>
<p>Deep universal affection for Notre Dame has translated into hundreds of millions of dollars in donations to help <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/world/rebuilding-notre-dame/?utm_term=.06fae7ed5d76">rebuild the beloved cathedral</a>. </p>
<p>When the Gate of Ishtar, one of few remaining ruins from the <a href="http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20150302-ancient-babylons-greatest-wonder">ancient city of Babylon</a>, was destroyed in 2003 during the Iraq War, <a href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/PDF/BabylonReport04.pdf">archaeologists</a> and the <a href="http://whc.unesco.org/en/news/1287/">United Nations</a> expressed grave concern. But there was no global outpouring of grief or donor dollars.</p>
<p>UNESCO protections may not have saved this ancient city from the wrath of the Iraq War. But, certainly, hundreds of millions of dollars and a global fan base might have helped.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/115898/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Victoria Reyes has received fellowships, awards and/or grants from the American Association of University Women, National Science Foundation, American Sociological Association, Institute of International Education, Law and Society Association, National Women’s Studies Association, Princeton University, University of California, Riverside and National Center for Institutional Diversity at the University of Michigan</span></em></p>A scholar analyzed data about UNESCO World Heritage sites to explain why European cultural relics like Notre Dame are so beloved, while splendid monuments elsewhere remain relatively unknown.Victoria Reyes, Assistant Professor, University of California, RiversideLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/979492018-06-14T13:36:03Z2018-06-14T13:36:03ZWhen Sunderland AFC gave Spain a lesson in football it sparked national introspection<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/222374/original/file-20180608-191959-1v5fe1o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Sunderland AFC playing Spain in 1934.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Journal La Educacion Fisica</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In May 1934, the Spanish Football Federation invited <a href="https://www.safc.com/">Sunderland AFC</a> to Spain to help them prepare for the <a href="https://www.fifa.com/worldcup/archive/italy1934/index.html">World Cup in Italy</a>. For all their troubles now (they were <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/43784572">relegated to England’s third tier</a> in April), in the mid-1930s Sunderland were one of Europe’s strongest sides. As the Spanish sporting newspaper El Mundo Deportivo noted, they represented the “the essence of English football in its purest sense”.</p>
<p>Germany took a similar approach, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-derbyshire-20638527">playing against Derby County</a>. But while the Nazi regime relished the chance to demonstrate their superiority against English opponents, in Spain the Sunderland tour was rather a chance to hold a mirror up to Spanish football – and indeed to Spanish society in general – and recognise its shortcomings. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/223209/original/file-20180614-32316-19ivw12.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/223209/original/file-20180614-32316-19ivw12.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/223209/original/file-20180614-32316-19ivw12.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223209/original/file-20180614-32316-19ivw12.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223209/original/file-20180614-32316-19ivw12.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223209/original/file-20180614-32316-19ivw12.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223209/original/file-20180614-32316-19ivw12.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223209/original/file-20180614-32316-19ivw12.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sunderland went on to win the FA Cup in 1937.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">wiki</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Three matches were played in just six days. The first, on May 14 in Bilbao, featured a more experimental Spanish XI. Most notably, <a href="https://www.realmadrid.com/en/about-real-madrid/history/football-legends/ricardo-zamora-martinez">Ricardo Zamora</a>, Real Madrid’s goalkeeper and the undoubted star of Spanish football, did not feature. The match finished 3-3, with Sunderland scoring twice in the final minutes. A second match, at <a href="https://www.realmadrid.com/en/history/santiago-bernabeu-stadium/estadio-de-chamartin">Madrid’s Chamartín stadium</a>, finished in a 1-1 stalemate. Finally, the two teams met in Valencia where Sunderland beat Spain 3-1. </p>
<h2>National regeneration</h2>
<p>Far from taking heart from the series, the matches were held up as evidence of Spain’s footballing shortcomings. In the pages of the leading sports newspapers, Spain’s poor showing was blamed not solely on the players’ skills or the manager’s tactical acumen but rather on deeper faults. To a significant extent, the theories put forward in the match reports and associated editorials – and the language used to make such arguments – were representative of a wider debate concerning national regeneration (<em>regeneracionismo</em>) that had been dominating Spanish intellectual life for more than three decades. </p>
<p>Defeat in the Spanish-American War and the loss of Cuba in 1898 (known as <em><a href="https://www.historytoday.com/laura-rodriguez/%E2%80%98el-desastre%E2%80%99-spain-defeat-1898">El Desastre</a></em>) caused many to question what was “wrong” with Spain. The answers put forward were many and varied. One common idea was that Spain had become physically weak or, in the words of writer, polymath and leading regenerationist thinker <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Generation-of-1898#ref142421">Joaquin Costa</a>: “a nation of eunuchs”. </p>
<p>At the same time, several other thinkers lamented the perceived deficiencies of the Spanish people. As the essayist and politician <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1978/12/15/salvador-de-madariaga-writer-ex-diplomat-dies/bc1012f7-4f10-4278-ad9a-52fb7761c81b/?utm_term=.fc35b9c4b6f9">Salvador de Madariaga</a> argued: “Indifference, laziness and passivity are all part of the Spanish character. But above all, the Spanish are a profoundly individualistic people.”</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/222377/original/file-20180608-191978-57zqcf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/222377/original/file-20180608-191978-57zqcf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=705&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222377/original/file-20180608-191978-57zqcf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=705&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222377/original/file-20180608-191978-57zqcf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=705&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222377/original/file-20180608-191978-57zqcf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=885&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222377/original/file-20180608-191978-57zqcf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=885&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222377/original/file-20180608-191978-57zqcf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=885&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A photograph of the front page of Spanish sport magazine, AS, from 1934.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AS</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>From the turn of the century, team sports, most notably those imported from England, were recognised as one way of regenerating the “Spanish race”. Far from simply concerning themselves with gossip and match reports, the sporting press lobbied for individualistic, militaristic gymnastics to be replaced by team sports within Spain’s education system. </p>
<p>When the Second Republic was <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Spain/Primo-de-Rivera-1923-30-and-the-Second-Republic-1931-36#ref587807">declared in April 1931</a>, sport was seen as one means of <a href="http://arbor.revistas.csic.es/index.php/arbor/article/view/1975">building a new society</a>, of converting the subjects of the Bourbon monarchy into citizens of a democracy. The prime minister, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manuel_Aza%C3%B1a">Manuel Azaña</a>, himself noted:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Sport not only strengthens the body, but instils in those that practice it a spirit of cooperation, of subordination of the individual to the collective, and so contributes to correct the fierce individualism of our people.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The sporting press largely agreed – and saw in the May 1934 matches evidence to support their arguments. The English press praised the superior skills of the Sunderland players, as well as the “scientific tactical method” of manager <a href="https://www.safc.com/history/managers/6-john-cochrane">Johnny Cochrane</a>.</p>
<h2>‘Just individuals thrown together’</h2>
<p>In Spain, however, reports published in, among others, El Mundo Deportivo, AS and the more education-focused Educación Física attributed Sunderland’s dominance to other factors. They praised the speed, strength and fitness of the Sunderland players. Even though the English players had played more games over the previous season, AS noted:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Spain have shown a terrible tiredness … the players seemed completely exhausted and lacking any energy to make any real, sustained effort.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Indeed, their stamina – and conversely Spain’s lack of it – was seen as the reason the hosts conceded two late goals in Bilbao and one reason why they would struggle in Italy. </p>
<p>But above all, Spanish “individualism” was blamed for this difference in class. “Moving together, Sunderland were a harmonic unit like we have never seen before in Spain,” Educación Física concluded. Similarly, AS summed up the series by observing:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>All the evidence shows that Sunderland is a team that can teach Spain a real footballing lesson: not a lesson in individual skill, but a lesson in playing as a team.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>While for El Mundo Deportivo, the host’s shortcomings were similarly obvious: “The English are masters of football. Together, they play as one team – unlike Spain, who are just individuals thrown together.” </p>
<p>For all the pessimism, Spain were hardly humiliated in Italy. After a celebrated 3-1 victory over Brazil, they lost in a quarter-final replay to the hosts (arguably thanks to some questionable refereeing decisions). This was to be Spain’s last World Cup until 1950. By that point, Spanish football had been embraced as a propaganda tool by the <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/136078049800300211">Franco dictatorship</a>.</p>
<p>Unlike during Spain’s shortlived experiment with liberal democracy, teamwork and a sense of collective spirit was no longer promoted as the idea. Instead, the Spanish press would denigrate the weakness of other nations, including their technicality and tactics. The directness and aggression of the “Furia Roja” (Red Fury – the popular nickname for the Spanish football team) was paramount and would arguably remain so for more than 50 years.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>More evidence-based articles about football and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/world-cup-2018-11490?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=WorldCup2018">World Cup</a>:</em></p>
<ul>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/what-does-fifa-really-want-out-of-this-world-cup-97393?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=WorldCup2018">What does FIFA really want out of this World Cup?</a></em></p></li>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/conifa-how-the-other-world-cup-is-helping-unrecognised-nations-through-football-98104?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=WorldCup2018">CONIFA: how the ‘other World Cup’ is helping unrecognised nations through football</a></em></p></li>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/does-spending-big-in-the-football-transfer-window-get-results-two-experts-crunch-the-data-89184?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=WorldCup2018">Does spending big in the football transfer window get results? Two experts crunch the data</a></em></p></li>
</ul><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/97949/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Hewitt receives funding from the British-Spanish Society. </span></em></p>Losing to Sunderland in 1934 forced Spanish writers and commentators to look beyond football for answers.David Hewitt, PhD researcher, School of Modern Languages, Cultures and Societies, University of LeedsLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/798892017-12-21T11:12:03Z2017-12-21T11:12:03ZWhat the ‘California Dream’ means to indigenous peoples<p>The California Dream is a myth for many California Indian peoples and tribes. </p>
<p>Since settlers arrived, California Indians’ reality has largely been one of land dispossession, cultural assimilation and even <a href="http://www.history.com/news/californias-little-known-genocide">genocide</a>.</p>
<p>If California Indians were to design their own dream it would place <a href="http://decolonization.org/index.php/des/article/view/18630/15554">decolonization</a> at its core. Decolonization is the undoing of colonialism, part of what I study as a scholar of <a href="http://ethnicstudies.berkeley.edu/areas-of-study/area/native-american-studies">Native American studies</a>. The process of decolonization requires the return of land to tribes so they can fully determine their own futures, political status and independence.</p>
<p>The California Dream is a settler dream, unless it can come to terms with its colonial past and prioritize California Indians’ dreams for the state. </p>
<h2>Myth of the California Dream</h2>
<p>The mythology of the California Dream has a long history. </p>
<p>A popular <a href="https://archive.org/details/LasSergasDeEsplaNDianElRamoQueD">Spanish novel</a> published in 1510 told the legend of a mythical, gold-filled island inhabited by black Amazonian women ruled by Queen Calafia. Even though the story of Queen Calafia and the island of California was fictional, the narrative <a href="http://scholarworks.calstate.edu/bitstream/handle/10211.2/2492/CAgeographer1987_p1-38.pdf?sequence=1">stuck with the Spaniards</a> who traveled to the Americas in the 16th and 17th centuries.</p>
<p>The Spanish undertook their colonial project to convert and enslave Indigenous peoples at Catholic missions in Baja California in the late 1600s. Yet the urge to discover the wealth of Alta California, what is now present day California, drove the Spanish north. The first Catholic mission in Alta California was established in 1769 in San Diego on land that belonged to the <a href="http://sycuantribe.com/about-sycuan/">Kumeyaay people</a>. The Spanish continued to claim land and use Indigenous peoples to build missions along the coast of Alta California into the 1800s.</p>
<h2>Dark side of a dream</h2>
<p>Spanish colonization had disastrous effects on the environment and dozens of tribes, from San Diego to Sonoma. Social control, aggressive interactions and violence against Native women and children characterized <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=XxMWSOEgTXcC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false">Spanish colonization</a>. Moreover, Spanish colonialism brought new diseases like smallpox and measles, and introduced invasive species of plants and animals. This drastically changed the natural landscape, the practices of <a href="https://www.kcet.org/shows/tending-the-wild/episodes/tending-the-wild">Indigenous landscape management</a>, and the relationship between California Indians and their environment.</p>
<p>In 1848, gold was discovered in California’s Sierra foothills. Incoming American settlers claimed land as their own and often viewed Native Americans as primitive peoples destined to vanish. <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Indians_of_California.html?id=BaToHQtsraMC">These misconceptions</a> were used to justify the theft and appropriation of California Indian land. Individual settlers and gold miners who killed or removed California Indian peoples from their lands often believed they were merely quickening a process that was bound to happen.</p>
<p>Acts of violence against California Indians accelerated throughout the Gold Rush period, and into the 1870s. Those who came to California did so at the cost of Native ancestral lands, natural and cultural resources, and lives. In 1849, the non-Native population in California surged from approximately <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300181364/american-genocide">25,000 to at least 94,000</a> people in less than a year. The California Indian <a href="http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-madley-california-genocide-20160522-snap-story.html">population dropped</a> from 150,000 in 1846, to approximately 30,000 by 1870. </p>
<p>Not only was frontier violence sanctioned by the state, it was largely funded by the federal government. By 1863, the federal government had given the state of California more than US$1 million to <a href="https://www.library.ca.gov/crb/02/14/02-014.pdf">reimburse militia expenditures</a> for expeditions to find and kill California Indian people.</p>
<p>In addition, state legislators passed laws that stripped California Indians of their power to protect themselves, their land, their culture or their livelihoods. One of the <a href="http://www.indiancanyon.org/ACTof1850.html">first laws passed</a> by the California Legislature in 1850 set up a form of legalized slavery. California Indian adults could be bought at public auction and Native children could be exploited under the guise of “apprenticeship.” The law fractured families and tribal communities, while furthering land dispossession.</p>
<p>In an attempt to calm hostilities between settlers and California Indians, from 1851 to 1852, the federal government negotiated <a href="https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/5views/5views1c.htm">18 treaties</a> with approximately 139 <a href="http://linguistics.berkeley.edu/%7Esurvey/languages/california-languages.php">California tribes</a>. The treaties would have set aside about <a href="https://www.library.ca.gov/crb/02/14/02-014.pdf">7.5 million acres</a> to establish reservations for California Indians away from areas of non-Native settlement. However, responding to the pressures of settlers, the California Legislature strongly urged the U.S. Congress to deny the treaties. Congress listened, and the treaties were never approved. In fact, they were denied in a secret session and did not appear in the public record again for 50 years. </p>
<p>Violent interaction eventually decreased in the 1870s, as the effects of genocide on California Indians became a topic of national interest. <a href="http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/948031778">The works of</a> writer and poet Helen Hunt Jackson in the 1880s <a href="http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/940859637">exposed injustices</a> towards Native Americans. She spurred humanitarian sympathizers to aid Native peoples in the state. Notably, California Indian organizations and allies brought a suit against the U.S. government for not approving the 18 treaties. After decades of legal maneuvering and dozens of <a href="https://indiancountrymedianetwork.com/news/opinions/the-court-of-claims-ruling-in-california-indians-k-344/">claims cases</a> brought against the federal government, California Indians were awarded meager cash settlements in 1944 and 1963 for lost lands. </p>
<p>The effects of land dispossession and other injustices, however, are still felt by California Indian communities throughout the state. The lasting impacts include historical trauma, tribes that are not recognized by the federal government, a legacy of uneven funding from federal agencies, and barriers to cultural practices and economic development. </p>
<p>Yet, California Indians have been resilient. Today, they are citizens of strong tribal nations guided by their own cultural mandates and responsibilities to take care of their people and their lands however they can.</p>
<h2>A California Indian Dream</h2>
<p>The success of the California Dream depends on the disappearance of Indigenous peoples, who have been historically figured as roadblocks to land acquisition, progress and civilization. </p>
<p>How do we reimagine the California Dream to honor and respect California Indians? </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/196669/original/file-20171128-7450-nmohm7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/196669/original/file-20171128-7450-nmohm7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196669/original/file-20171128-7450-nmohm7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196669/original/file-20171128-7450-nmohm7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196669/original/file-20171128-7450-nmohm7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=559&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196669/original/file-20171128-7450-nmohm7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=559&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196669/original/file-20171128-7450-nmohm7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=559&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">San Diego County is on the original lands of the Kumeyaay and the Luiseño.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by Marlene Fosselman</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It’s a difficult question with difficult answers. In my opinion, a California Indian Dream is true decolonization, or the return of all land in California to California Indian tribes. The return of land would not require the millions of non-Native peoples who live in California to leave. It would require a reorientation of relationships to land and the natural world that prioritizes Indigenous belief systems and forms of Native governance that have long been obscured by settler colonialism.</p>
<p>Imagining a decolonial future is necessarily uncomfortable, but it can lead to new possibilities for a more conscious California. If there is ever to be a viable and successful dream for the state, I’d argue, it must be a decolonized dream that centers California Indian peoples, cultures and tribal rights to land and self-determination.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/79889/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Olivia Chilcote does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>For the Native people of California, the dream has been more of a nightmare.Olivia Chilcote, Assistant Professor Department of American Indian Studies, San Diego State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/852142017-10-06T20:36:10Z2017-10-06T20:36:10ZHow Columbus, of all people, became a national symbol<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189056/original/file-20171005-9753-12axacx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Agricultural Building at the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, Illinois, circa 1893. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Agricultural_Building_at_the_Worlds_Columbian_Exposition,_Chicago,_Illinois,_circa_1893.jpg">University of Maryland Digital Collections</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Christopher Columbus was a <a href="http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-679-40476-7">narcissist</a>.</p>
<p>He believed he was personally chosen by God for a mission that no one else could achieve. After 1493, he signed his name “xpo ferens” – “the Christbearer.” His stated goal was to accumulate enough wealth to recapture Jerusalem. His arrogance led to his downfall, that of millions of Native Americans – and eventually fostered his resurrection as the most enduring icon of the Americas.</p>
<h2>Columbus in chains</h2>
<p>In 1496, Columbus was the governor of a colony based at Santo Domingo, in what is now the modern Dominican Republic – a job he hated. He could not convince the other “colonists,” especially those with noble titles, to follow his leadership. </p>
<p>They were not colonists in the traditional sense of the word. They had gone to the Indies to get rich quick. Because Columbus was unable to temper their lust, the Crown viewed him as an <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/j.2326-1951.1989.tb02138.x/abstract">incompetent administrator</a>. The colony was largely a social and economic failure. The wealth that Columbus promised the Spanish monarchs failed to materialize, and he made continuous requests for additional financial support, which the monarchs reluctantly provided. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/140945/original/image-20161007-21454-163qr4l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/140945/original/image-20161007-21454-163qr4l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=871&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140945/original/image-20161007-21454-163qr4l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=871&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140945/original/image-20161007-21454-163qr4l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=871&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140945/original/image-20161007-21454-163qr4l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1095&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140945/original/image-20161007-21454-163qr4l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1095&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140945/original/image-20161007-21454-163qr4l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1095&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Inspiracion de Cristobal Colon by Jose Maria Obregon.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Inspiracion_de_Cristobal_Colon_by_Jose_Maria_Obregon,_1856.jpg">Museo Nacional de Arte</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>By 1500, conditions in Hispaniola were so dire that the Crown sent <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/aug/07/books.spain">Francisco de Bobadilla</a> to investigate. Bobadilla’s first sight, at the mouth of the Ozama River, was four Spanish “mutineers” hanging from gallows. Under authority from the king, Bobadilla arrested Columbus and his brothers for malfeasance and sent them to Spain in chains. Columbus waited seven months for an audience at the court. He refused to have his chains removed until the meeting, and even asked in his will to be buried with the chains.</p>
<p>Although the Spanish rulers wanted Columbus to disappear, he was allowed one final voyage from 1502 to 1504. He died in 1506, and went virtually unmentioned by historians until he was resurrected as a symbol of the United States.</p>
<h2>Inventing Columbus</h2>
<p>In the mid-18th century, scholars brought to light long-forgotten documents about Columbus and the early history of the New World. </p>
<p>One of the most important was Bartolome de las Casas’ three-volume “Historia de las Indias.” This book was suppressed in Spain because it documented Spain’s harsh treatment of the native peoples. His depiction of Spanish mistreatment of the Indians provided the foundation for the “<a href="http://catholicism.org/the-black-legend.html">Black Legend</a>.” His account “blackened” Spanish character by depicting it as repressive, brutal, intolerant and intellectually and artistically backward. Whatever Spain’s motives, the conquest of the Americas destroyed native cultures and ushered in centuries of African enslavement.</p>
<p>Another was the <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Diario_of_Christopher_Columbus_s_Fir.html?id=nS6kRnXJgCEC">personal journal</a> of Christopher Columbus from his first voyage, published in 1880. The journal captured the attention of Gustavus Fox, Abraham Lincoln’s assistant secretary of the Navy, who made the first attempt to reconstruct the route of Columbus’s first voyage.</p>
<p>Renewed scholarly interest in Columbus coincided with political motives to deny Spain any remaining claims in the Americas. Spain’s American colonies declared independence, one by one, from the beginning of the 19th century. Simón Bolivar, and other Creole revolutionary leaders, embraced a classical philosophy that highlighted their Roman ancestry to a degree that “Spanish America” was converted to Latin America. The final assault came with the U.S. invasion of Cuba and the six-month <a href="https://www.loc.gov/rr/hispanic/1898/intro.html">Spanish-American War</a> in 1898. Puerto Rico became a U.S. territory, and this year marks the 100th anniversary of the purchase of the U.S. Virgin Islands from Denmark.</p>
<p>Columbus likely would have slipped back into obscurity if not for American hubris.</p>
<h2>The Columbian Exposition</h2>
<p>In 1889, France put on what reviewers described as the <a href="http://www.crownpublishing.com/sites/erik-larson-devil-white-city/">most spectacular</a> World’s Fair possible. Held on the Champs de Mars in Paris, its crowning achievement was the <a href="http://www.toureiffel.paris/en.html">Eiffel Tower</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/140943/original/image-20161007-21447-1e0brrv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/140943/original/image-20161007-21447-1e0brrv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140943/original/image-20161007-21447-1e0brrv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140943/original/image-20161007-21447-1e0brrv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140943/original/image-20161007-21447-1e0brrv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=527&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140943/original/image-20161007-21447-1e0brrv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=527&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140943/original/image-20161007-21447-1e0brrv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=527&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Looking West From Peristyle, Court of Honor and Grand Basin of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Looking_West_From_Peristyle,_Court_of_Honor_and_Grand_Basin,_1893.jpg">The Project Gutenberg EBook of Official Views of The World's Columbian Exposition</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>After Paris, the United States set out to prove to the world it was the equal of Europe by staging its own World’s Fair. No one has claimed credit for the theme of the Exposition, but the stage was set when American writer and author of “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” <a href="http://www.biography.com/people/washington-irving-9350087">Washington Irving</a>, attempted to revive his flagging career by writing the first biography of Christopher Columbus in English, published in 1828. </p>
<p>His <a href="https://archive.org/details/discoveryconques00irvirich">embellishments</a> created the great hero whose legend the fair celebrated: “He was one of those men of strong natural genius, who appear to form themselves; who, from having to contend at their very outset with privations and impediments, acquire an intrepidity in braving and a facility in vanquishing difficulties.” </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/1386.html">Columbian Exposition</a> and World’s Fair was timed to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Columbus’s arrival in the New World. President Benjamin Harrison presided over opening ceremonies on Oct. 12, 1892. That same day, the Pledge of Allegiance was introduced in American schools.</p>
<p>Chicago created the “White City” – a collection of nine “palaces” designed by America’s greatest architects, conceived and constructed in only 26 months. Outside the White City was the grittier Midway, which is now a common feature of carnivals and fairs. The fair gave visitors their first taste of carbonated soda, Cracker Jacks and Juicy Fruit chewing gum. An enormous 264-foot-tall Ferris wheel transported 36 cars each carrying up to 60 people on a 20-minute ride. More than 28 million tickets were sold during the six months the Columbian Exposition was open. Columbus was the darling of 19th-century mass media.</p>
<p>Seventy-one portraits of Columbus, all posthumous, hung in a Grand Gallery. Following Irving’s descriptions, Columbus became the embodiment of the American Dream. The son of simple wool weavers and someone who had a great dream challenged the greatest scholars of his day, and boldly went where no man had gone before. Better yet, he was Italian. America could deny that Spain had any part in the discovery of the New World.</p>
<p>President Harrison declared a national holiday to coincide with opening of the Columbian Exposition – <a href="http://www.history.com/topics/exploration/columbus-day">Columbus Day</a>. It was officially recognized by Congress in 1937. </p>
<p>In 1992, as the United States prepared for the 500th anniversary of Columbus’s arrival in the Americas, the pendulum swung again. The devastating impact of his “discovery” on native peoples throughout the Americas led protesters to decry Columbus as a “<a href="http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/columbus-day-protesters-call-christopher-columbus-terrorist-mark-indigenous-peoples-day-1523750">terrorist</a>.” </p>
<p>Columbus the man died more than 500 years ago. Columbus the legend is still being dismantled. His story illustrates the blurred borders between myth and history – how an architect of destruction was turned into a national symbol.</p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of an article originally published on Oct. 10, 2016.</em></p>
<p><em>This article has been updated to correct the name of the president who presided over the Columbian Exposition’s opening ceremonies.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/85214/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>William Francis Keegan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>An anthropologist tells the story of how Columbus actually came close to falling into historical obscurity, until American hubris got in the way.William Francis Keegan, Curator of Caribbean Archaeology, University of FloridaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/697012016-12-02T02:59:58Z2016-12-02T02:59:58ZReligion shapes Cuba despite Castro’s influence<p>On Nov. 25, when I heard the news of Cuban leader <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/26/americas/fidel-castro-obit/">Fidel Castro’s death</a>, I did not feel any sense of sadness, relief or joy. Instead, as a daughter of Cuban exiles, I experienced a mix of all those emotions.</p>
<p>Children of Cuban exiles – the diaspora community of Cubans that left the island after Castro’s 1959 revolution – have lived in a constant state of alienation, loss, anger, pity and love for those Cubans that remained on the island. </p>
<p>Today, I am a scholar of religion. I study how the <a href="http://www.cubahistory.org/en/spanish-settlement/slavery-and-rebellion-in-cuba.html">trans-Atlantic slave trade</a>, <a href="http://cubaproject.org/cuban-republic/">the formation of the Cuban Republic</a> and the <a href="http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/batista-forced-out-by-castro-led-revolution">1959 Cuban Revolution</a> have shaped the history of the island. In all of these moments, religion has played a key role in the construction of Cuban identity. I also see how Castro’s beliefs shaped the identities of those who left the island, but also of those Cubans who were left behind. </p>
<p>So, how can we look at Castro’s legacy today, particularly from the way he shaped the religious identity of Cuba?</p>
<h2>History of religion in Cuba</h2>
<p>To tell the story of Cuba’s transformation, let us first look at the <a href="http://www.cubahistory.org/en/spanish-settlement/slavery-and-rebellion-in-cuba.html">arrival of Catholicism and African religions</a> as result of the Spanish colonization in the 15th century and trans-Atlantic slave trade, which began in the 16th century.</p>
<p>Over a period of time these religions were transformed: For the majority of Cuba’s history, the Catholic Church remained closely tied to Spanish colonialism. After Cuban independence in 1898, this allegiance is what made the Church suspect in the eyes of many Cubans, as it was seen to be a relic of the Spanish colonial past.</p>
<p>Afro-Cuban religions <a href="http://www.temple.edu/tempress/titles/1634_reg.html">also suffered</a> during colonization and in the early years of the republic. African diaspora religions were often caricatured as demonic. </p>
<p>Under Castro’s rule, Cuba was for decades a <a href="http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/cuba/religion.htm">self-declared atheist state</a> where Christians were persecuted and marginalized. Nonetheless, the Church played a significant political role: Until its dismantling, <a href="http://fortresspress.com/product/histories-latin-american-church-brief-introduction">it exercised considerable influence</a> through the educational system. </p>
<p>Castro himself was educated by Jesuits, citing their teachings as a source for his <a href="http://www.jesuit.org.uk/political-activist-and-priest-fidel-castro-and-his-jesuit-mentor">sense of discipline</a> and justice. </p>
<p>But in 1961 he dismantled the Catholic school system, arguably where Catholicism held its greatest influence on Cubans since many nonpracticing Catholics send their children to Catholic schools. <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/09/catholic-church-cuba-pope-francis/406024/">Castro seized</a> Church properties and exiled priests and nuns.</p>
<h2>Castro, atheism, religion</h2>
<p>Castro’s relationship with religion, however, was far more complex than the rejection of his Jesuit past and the alienation of religion throughout his rule.</p>
<p>The 1985 book <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Fidel_and_religion.html?id=517qoGwxg40C">“Fidel and Religion</a>,” a collection of interviews by activist and theologian <a href="http://www.freibetto.org/">Frei Betto</a>, reveals that Castro had a much more positive relationship with the Catholicism of his youth. </p>
<p>He visited Pope John Paul II in the Vatican in 1996 and went on to receive three pontiffs on the islands. In fact, Cuba has the honor of <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Fidel_and_religion.html?id=517qoGwxg40C">being the only nation</a> in Latin America to be visited by the last three pontiffs. </p>
<p>In a 1998 speech Castro aligned the teachings of Jesus with those of his own, when he <a href="http://www.cuba.cu/gobierno/discursos/1998/ing/f030798i.html">claimed</a>,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“If instead of being born and elaborating his ideas when he did, Christ had been born in these times, you can be sure – or at least I am – that his preaching would not have differed much from the ideas or the preaching that we revolutionaries of today try to bring the world.” </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Religion thrives in Cuba today</h2>
<p>In 1992 the Cuban Constitution was amended to <a href="http://scholar.harvard.edu/files/jill/files/goldenziel_sanctioning_faith_2009_1_1.pdf">declare it a secular state</a>. It was no longer an atheist Republic. </p>
<p>Today, religion on the island, like Cuba itself, is much more intricate than the Catholic Church. Afro-Cuban religions such as <a href="http://www.aboutsanteria.com/what-is-santeria.html">Santería</a>, spiritual practices such as “Espiritismo” (Spiritism) and other practices that came as a result of the fusion of different faith traditions overwhelmingly mark the religious landscape in Cuba. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/cuba-celebrates-our-lady-charity-islands-patron-saint-n198396">Our Lady of Charity, the patron saint of Cuba</a>, remains one of the most prominent and visible symbols of Cuban identity of the island and in the diaspora. Evoked in independence struggles against Spain in the late 19th century, Our Lady of Charity retains a prominent place in Cuban Catholicism, Santería and other popular religions. She reveals the complexity and cultural coming together of the Cuban people. </p>
<p>In spite of its history of marginalization under the Castro regime, today the number of practicing Christians on the island <a href="https://www.questia.com/library/5769140/between-god-and-the-party-religion-and-politics-in">is growing</a>. Practitioners now <a href="https://www.oikoumene.org/en/member-churches/caribbean/cuba">attend church without fear of retribution</a>, and there is a growing presence of Protestant Christianity on the island. </p>
<p>In more recent history, Afro-Cuban religions have come to be <a href="http://pages.vassar.edu/cubantransitions/santeria-in-the-marketplace-and-on-the-streets/">practiced in a more public manner</a> and have been embraced by the government as a form of popular folklore. </p>
<h2>Castro and religion</h2>
<p>Castro will be buried on Dec. 4, the feast day of St. Barbara – blended in the Afro-Cuban faith with <a href="http://www.aboutsanteria.com/changoacute.html">Changó</a>, the lord of lightning and thunder and the symbol of male power and sexuality.</p>
<p>The feast day of St. Barbara is one of the most significant Cuban religious feast days. In the Afro-Cuban faith, <a href="https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=TuEcNRo7y9wC&oi=fnd&pg=PA137&dq=orishas&ots=PLIRxnKjlb&sig=SAlIS8VGUqEXwvaZx6R-UtMIiH8#v=onepage&q=orishas&f=false">Changó is one of the most popular</a> “orishas” (supernatural beings) on the island. St. Barbara is his Catholic mask, one of the most popular saints. In colonial days, slaves would mask their beliefs in orishas by marking them with Catholic imagery and rituals. </p>
<p>In my view, the choice of this date for Castro’s burial is not an accident. </p>
<p>Castro’s ashes will be interned in Santa Ifigenia Cemetery in Santiago de Cuba – a place of religious and national significance. This is the place where Cuban liberator José Martí rests, which is also home of the Shrine to Our Lady of Charity. <a href="https://www.loc.gov/rr/hispanic/1898/marti.html">Martí is a Cuban national hero</a>, beloved by Cubans both on and off the island. He is considered the apostle of Cuban independence. </p>
<p>Castro will be a permanent part of the landscape of the island, regardless of Cuba’s future. </p>
<h2>A closure in death</h2>
<p>So, what does this all mean to Cuban exiles?</p>
<p>Many have asked me why the response of the Cuban-American and Cuban exile community has been so joyous and so public. My short answer is that through his death, Fidel Castro has given millions of Cuban exiles and Cuban-Americans the one thing we have not had: closure. </p>
<p>I do mourn that my mother did not live to witness his death, and that my father, suffering from a stroke in a nursing home, does not realize this moment is happening.</p>
<p>For me, his years are a painful reminder of the 10 years my mother spent without seeing her parents and of the agony of my paternal grandfather’s death on the island when his wife and children were here in the United States. That raw pain, anger, grief and frustration simultaneously unites and divides Cuban across the globe. </p>
<p>I believe we can now begin to heal, and more importantly we can reconcile as a people who transcend the shores of an island and the politics of one man.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/69701/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Gonzalez Maldonado does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Under Fidel Castro, Cuba declared itself as an atheist state. Castro’s relationship with religion, however, was far more complex. It left a deep impact on the religious identity of Cuba.Michelle Gonzalez Maldonado, Professor of Religious Studies, University of MiamiLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.