tag:theconversation.com,2011:/africa/topics/1959-cuban-revolution-33867/articles1959 Cuban Revolution – The Conversation2019-04-18T10:45:13Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1156722019-04-18T10:45:13Z2019-04-18T10:45:13ZTrump declares economic war on Cuba<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269857/original/file-20190417-139110-yomti8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Airlines that fly into Cuba's main airport could now be sued for profiting off of property confiscated during the country's 1959 revolution.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Cuba-Tourism/e0c80225cc0f48b996220733c2c25d15/34/0">AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa, File</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Trump administration has <a href="https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/cuba/article229341009.html">declared</a> the most severe new sanctions against Cuba since President John F. Kennedy imposed an <a href="https://www.state.gov/e/eb/tfs/spi/cuba/">economic embargo</a> banning all trade with the communist island in 1962. </p>
<p>Speaking in Miami on April 17, the anniversary of the United States’ <a href="https://www.wtsp.com/article/news/history/bay-of-pigs-the-botched-invasion-happened-58-years-ago/67-d5895183-235f-4b1d-a8b7-7b92d7c60e5a">failed 1961 invasion of Cuba’s Bay of Pigs</a>, national security adviser John Bolton announced the end of virtually all non-family travel to Cuba and placed new limits on the money Cuban Americans can send to family on the island. </p>
<p>He also said the U.S. will now implement a <a href="https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/world/latin-america/article224646995.html">23-year-old law aimed at blocking both U.S. and foreign investment in Cuba</a>, first passed by Congress in 1996 as part of a broader sanctions package against Cuba but <a href="https://www.everycrsreport.com/files/19991214_RL30386_714aa7ff79cec8fc7f29926c448f6d1bc1d6bef2.pdf">put on hold because it triggered immense opposition</a> among U.S. allies.</p>
<p>The harsh new sanctions reverse “the disastrous Obama-era policies, and finally end the glamorization of socialism and communism,” Bolton said.</p>
<h2>A law too controversial to implement</h2>
<p>Trump’s decision activates a long-suspended 1996 provision of U.S. Cuba sanctions that allows Cuban Americans to <a href="https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/world/latin-america/article224646995.html">sue in U.S. courts</a> any company that benefits from private property of theirs confiscated by Fidel Castro’s regime. </p>
<p>Normally, U.S. courts have no jurisdiction over property owned by non-citizens that is nationalized by a foreign government. For U.S. courts to sit in judgment of another government’s actions toward its own citizens in its own territory is a <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-cuba-economy/investors-in-cuba-wary-of-impact-from-u-s-threats-venezuela-crisis-idUSKCN1PW2UJ">challenge to that government’s sovereignty</a>.</p>
<p>U.S. allies who do business with Cuba vehemently <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/new-u-s-policy-on-cuba-sanctions-threatens-eu-ties-11555421835">oppose the move</a>. </p>
<p>In 1996, when the U.S. law was first approved, the European Union <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB931464187753635502">filed a complaint</a> with the World Trade Organization and adopted a law prohibiting EU members and their companies from complying with the U.S. legislation. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1996/06/13/world/canada-and-mexico-join-to-oppose-us-law-on-cuba.html">Mexico, Canada</a> and the <a href="http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1996/3171/contents/made">United Kingdom</a> soon passed similar legislation.</p>
<p>In response, President <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1998/04/21/world/europeans-drop-lawsuit-contesting-cuba-trade-act.html">Bill Clinton suspended</a> the lawsuit provision, which is called Title III, for six months, and in 1998 he signed <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-eu-usa-cuba/eu-warns-u-s-against-exposing-eu-firms-in-cuba-idUSKCN1RT147">an agreement</a> with the EU that European companies who do business in Cuba would not be targeted. </p>
<p>Since then, every president, Democrat and Republican, has renewed the suspension. Trump himself renewed it three times – until he didn’t. </p>
<p>The president has now <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/20190417-cuba-sanctions-trump-eu-opposition-economy-business-usa">reignited international outrage</a> over this sanction, which abrogates Clinton’s agreement with the EU and complicates already rocky U.S. relations with Mexico and Canada.</p>
<h2>Who wins?</h2>
<p>A small but elite community stands to benefit from Title III: Cuba’s former <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/castro-cuban-exiles-america/">one percenters</a> – members of the exiled upper class that owned nearly all the land and business in Cuba prior to the 1959 Cuban Revolution. </p>
<p>Most wealthy Cubans fled the country after Fidel Castro’s Communist government <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Cuban-Revolution">nationalized their businesses and confiscated</a> their homes, bank accounts and property. Some <a href="https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/cuba/article213916384.html">still dream</a> of recouping their lost fortunes.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/259406/original/file-20190217-56220-1ka7vl8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/259406/original/file-20190217-56220-1ka7vl8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/259406/original/file-20190217-56220-1ka7vl8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=723&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259406/original/file-20190217-56220-1ka7vl8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=723&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259406/original/file-20190217-56220-1ka7vl8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=723&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259406/original/file-20190217-56220-1ka7vl8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=908&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259406/original/file-20190217-56220-1ka7vl8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=908&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259406/original/file-20190217-56220-1ka7vl8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=908&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Cuban women seeking political asylum in Florida, Jan. 1, 1959.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Watchf-AP-A-FL-USA-APHS460141-Cuba-Revolution-C-/cfa63ac7d7ac445d95673fabb8324785/12/0">AP</a></span>
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<p>They can now sue Cuban, American and foreign companies that profit in any way from the use of that property. </p>
<p>For example, former owners of Cuba’s nickel mines could seek damages from Canada’s <a href="https://www.sherritt.com/English/operations/metals/Moa/default.aspx">Sherritt International Corporation</a>, which has invested in Cuba’s nickel mining industry. The former owners of Cuban hotels could sue the Spanish hotel company <a href="http://www.meliacuba.com/">Melia</a>, which manages hotels across the island. </p>
<p>Every U.S. and foreign company that <a href="https://repositorio.cepal.org/bitstream/handle/11362/1139/1/S0900391_en.pdf">does business with Cuba</a> – or might do so in the future – risks being sued if they make use of property once owned by a Cuban exile who is now a U.S. citizen. According to a 1996 <a href="https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R44822">State Department analysis</a>, implementing Title III could flood U.S. federal courts with as many as 200,000 lawsuits.</p>
<h2>Trump’s 2020 bet</h2>
<p>Most Cuban Americans will gain nothing from Trump’s latest sanctions. </p>
<p>It exempts private residences from compensation. So, if the main thing you owned back in Cuba was a house that was confiscated after Jan. 1, 1959, you’re out of luck. </p>
<p>The exiled owners of thousands of <a href="https://havanatimes.org/?p=74021">small Cuban mom-and-pop shops nationalized in 1968</a> won’t see compensation, either, because the law exempts Cuban small businesses that were confiscated.</p>
<p>Those who stand to benefit are the oldest, <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/what-to-expect-from-the-cuban-american-electorate/">most conservative</a> and wealthiest segment of Florida’s 1.5 million Cuban Americans. </p>
<p>Trump <a href="https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/donald-trump-says-cuban-voters-love-him-but-hes-wrong-9146019">believes</a> these influential Republicans helped him win Florida in 2016 because he promised to take a hard line toward Havana, rolling back President Obama’s restoration of diplomatic and economic relations with the island. </p>
<p>If the president thinks these punishing new sanctions can <a href="https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/cuba/article156579409.html">deliver Florida to him</a> again in 2020, he may have miscalculated.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/259411/original/file-20190217-56212-10rq0o1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/259411/original/file-20190217-56212-10rq0o1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/259411/original/file-20190217-56212-10rq0o1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259411/original/file-20190217-56212-10rq0o1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259411/original/file-20190217-56212-10rq0o1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259411/original/file-20190217-56212-10rq0o1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259411/original/file-20190217-56212-10rq0o1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259411/original/file-20190217-56212-10rq0o1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., has championed the Trump administration’s sanctions against Cuba.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Trump-Cuba/02e2bcf00f64494795fdf45389daf850/27/0">AP/Lynne Sladky</a></span>
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<p>I’ve studied <a href="https://www.american.edu/spa/faculty/wleogra.cfm">Cuba-U.S. relations for decades</a>. While activating the law may please Cuba’s former wealthy business owners, Trump’s new sanctions – like limiting the money Cuban Americans can send back to the island – are unlikely to be popular in the broader Cuban American community.</p>
<p>By decisive majorities, <a href="https://cri.fiu.edu/research/cuba-poll/2018-fiu-cuba-poll.pdf">Cuban Americans support</a> free travel between the U.S. and Cuba, broader commercial ties and President Obama’s decision to normalize relations. Every year, they send <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/17/opinion/cuba-castro-united-states.html">$3 billion</a> to family on the island, and hundreds of thousands of them travel there to visit.</p>
<p>These Cuban-American voters don’t want to inflict more economic pain on the Cuban public, which includes their friends and family. </p>
<h2>Hurting everyday Cubans</h2>
<p>The punitive aspects of the newly implemented law, which administration officials have for months <a href="https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/cuba/article220976370.html">hinted that they would put into effect</a>, are already having an impact.</p>
<p>Cuban American families who owned the land and facilities at the <a href="https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/cuba/article213916384.html">port of Havana</a> and <a href="https://www.tampabay.com/news/cuba/us-might-allow-lawsuits-over-us-properties-nationalized-in-cuba-20190117/">José Martí International Airport</a> have warned the cruise ship companies and airlines that their use of these properties could put them at legal risk.</p>
<p>Along with money sent from their families abroad, tourism-related income sustains many everyday Cubans.</p>
<p>If travel businesses withdraw from Cuba, and if U.S. and foreign firms <a href="https://money.usnews.com/investing/news/articles/2019-02-07/investors-in-cuba-wary-of-impact-from-us-threats-venezuela-crisis">hesitate to enter</a> into new commercial relations with Cuba for fear of incurring lawsuits in the United States, Cuba’s already <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cuba-economy/cuba-lowers-economic-growth-forecast-as-trade-continues-to-drop-idUSKCN1N90JO">fragile economy</a> would take a serious hit.</p>
<p>That may play well with Cuba’s old elite. But the rest of Florida’s Cuban Americans will feel the hurt, too.</p>
<p><em>This article has been corrected to more accurately identify the businesses subject to litigation under new U.S. sanctions. There is no minimum profit level required for a company that operates in Cuba to be sued.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/115672/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>William M. LeoGrande 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>The Trump administration has declared the most severe new sanctions against Cuba since President John F. Kennedy imposed an economic embargo banning all trade with the communist island in 1962.William M. LeoGrande, Professor of Government, American University School of Public AffairsLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1093422019-01-08T12:10:36Z2019-01-08T12:10:36ZHow the Cuban revolution kickstarted the country’s golden age of cinema<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/252675/original/file-20190107-32121-sf1tz6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, director of the 1968 Cuban film Memories of Underwood.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archivo:TOMAS_GUTI%C3%89RREZ_ALEA.jpg">Wikimedia</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When Fidel Castro, Che Guevara and the bearded guerrillas from the Sierra Maestra mountains <a href="https://theconversation.com/fidel-castro-and-the-revolution-that-almost-wasnt-69659">took Cuba from dictator Fulgencio Batista</a> in January 1959, a revolution began. Changes <a href="https://theconversation.com/education-and-art-for-all-castros-cultural-legacy-69513">were seen in everything</a> from education to health care, politics to the arts. The country became a site for social experimentation in all aspects of life – including cinema. </p>
<p>The formation of the the Cuban Film Institute (Instituto Cubano del Arte e Industria Cinematográficos, or ICAIC) on March 24, 1959 was the first of many <a href="https://cuba-solidarity.org.uk/cubasi/article/202/the-cultural-policy-of-the-cuban-revolution">new institutes</a> designed to take back control of all Cuban life. Before the revolution, Cuba’s film industry was very small with a few notable successes, such as El Capitán Mambí (1914). But it was always dominated by large North American studios such as MGM and Warner Bros, who had a virtual monopoly over film production and distribution throughout Latin America. </p>
<p>It was never the aim of the ICAIC to try and replicate this silver screen success, however. It was set up to produce and disseminate a new culture, one designed to decolonise the island from <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-19576144">its long history</a> of Spanish and US dominance.</p>
<p>Cuban filmmakers found a variety of new aesthetics inspired by <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0015648/">Soviet socialist realism</a>, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056663/">French nouvelle vague</a> and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0040522/">Italian neorealism</a>. They mixed documentary and fiction styles to deliberately blur the boundaries between fiction and reality. They went far beyond either Hollywood or European influences to write a new history of the island in celluloid. </p>
<p>Many of these films gained international recognition. 1968’s <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063291/">Memories of Underdevelopment</a>, directed by Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, is recognised as one of the top 100 films of all time <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2000/feb/10/artsfeatures">by leading critics</a> and continues to divide opinion <a href="https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/memories_of_underdevelopment">as to its meaning</a>. Radical, densely layered and complex, the film examines one man’s struggle to come to terms with the new Cuba in the early 1960s. A Cuba in which each citizen was asked to question their own subjective consciousness, their place and meaning in the new society.</p>
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<p>If the 1960s was the decade of experimentation, the 1970s proved to be a problematic decade for Cuban culture generally. But while literature and theatre <a href="http://pardeeperiodical.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Microsoft-Word-Spring-2018-Jain.pdf">suffered from censorship</a> and the imprisonment or exile of a <a href="https://www.kcet.org/shows/artbound/the-cuban-exiles-of-echo-park">number of prominent artists</a>, cinema largely escaped the censors’ harsh cutting knife. Films with critical voices – such as <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7HdH2wmXK0">Portrait of Teresa (1979)</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYnL3YjjYhA">One Day in November (1971)</a> – continued to be released due to the revolutionary nature of the filmmakers themselves, as well as the nature of the medium, which was often difficult to interrogate from a political point of view.</p>
<h2>Avant garde seriousness</h2>
<p>Cuban filmmakers avoided Hollywood’s frivolities and focused on re-writing the country’s history in films that tackled serious subjects in often avant garde ways. They dealt with the island’s <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073499/?ref_=nm_flmg_dr_10">history of slavery</a>, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075915/">gender and machismo</a> and more contemporary issues such as <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0122700/fullcredits">housing</a>, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103620/fullcredits">generational differences</a>, and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089472/">exile and emigration</a>.</p>
<p>As experimental cinema mostly has a limited audience, a more popular aesthetic was sought during the 1980s. Filmmakers tried to combine the seriousness of using cinema as an art form, and not simply for entertainment, with content that would speak to the average Cuban. Social satire became commonplace and films such as <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094993/">Plaf! Or Too Afraid of Life</a> (1988) and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087387/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Up to a Certain Point</a> (1983) reached audiences of <a href="https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/cuban-cinema">up to two million</a>, at a time when the island’s population <a href="http://www.one.cu/publicaciones/cepde/plegablecenso/Plegable%20Censo%20Sitio.pdf">was 9.7 million</a>.
The 1990s was a difficult decade for Cuba generally. The collapse of the Soviet Union brought to an end the economic and ideological support that had helped sustain the revolution for 30 years. Many predicted the end of the revolution itself, but it survived through what was euphemistically called the “<a href="http://www.cubahistory.org/en/special-period-a-recovery.html">Special Period in Peacetime</a>”. The Cuban film institute lived on too – but with some changes, mainly linked with the necessity for co-productions with foreign production companies. </p>
<p>Cuba’s colonial past and the Communist revolution have left a lasting imprint on the country’s society. Yet there is a tangible sense of change on the island again, since President Miguel Díaz Canel <a href="https://theconversation.com/cubas-new-president-what-to-expect-of-miguel-diaz-canel-95187">was elected in April 2018</a>. This has been reflected in the national cinema too. Cuba is moving into the digital age and film is one of the drivers of this progress. </p>
<p>Internet access is still limited but cheaper digital production methods have supported the efficacy and global reach of Cuban filmmakers. Their work, somewhat in lieu of adequate distribution and traditional screening facilities, is often disseminated via “flash” (USB memory sticks). This DIY attitude is typical of the resourcefulness of a people who have lived through years of economic challenges. </p>
<p>Taking advantage of the digital world, Cuban cinema today, while still having strong roots within the national film institute, is still a source of social criticism. Films do sometimes still <a href="https://havanatimes.org/?p=131942">suffer at the hands of the censors</a>, and there is the constant struggle between the government and the filmmakers to officially <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0306422017716026">allow independent production</a> on the island. But while all this goes on Cuba’s filmmakers keep on making and somehow – any how – distributing their films. Although today it is a different national cinema from 60 years ago, it is still revolutionary.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/109342/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Guy Baron receives funding from The British Academy.</span></em></p>60 years ago a revolution began within the revolution for Cuba’s film industry.Guy Baron, Senior Lecturer in Spanish, Aberystwyth UniversityLicensed 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.