IDENTIDADES 1 ENGLISH IDENTIDADES 2 ENGLISH | Page 37

29th in which Pérez Quesada celebrated his anniversary of becoming a priest.
After the revolution’s triumph, these celebrations
would be eliminated, in some cases, or limited in
others. Proof of this was the end of all processions
inside or outside churches. One had to procure
permission from the closest National Revolutionary Police station to organize and carry out any
act or ceremony associated with magical, religious groups. The request was generally denied
out right, accompanied by comments like “there
go those obscurantist blacks, always with their
witchcraft.”
The process that supposedly would bring with it
material and spiritual abundance for the Cuban
people, which has been subjected to the worst
punishment, ending up being merciless due to its
mistakes and the way it created battles against and
persecution of any religiously natured manifestation whatsoever. When His Holiness Pope John
Paul II visited in 1998, important dates on the
Christian calendar were once again acknowledged. All of a sudden, processions once again
took place on the streets of Cuba on the date that
all Christians worldwide celebrate the Nativity,
December 25th.
From that moment on, the number of believers
has increased. Yet, the communist regime still believes that religious freedom is a bestowed benefit
and not an inalienable right. This is obvious,
given the fact that some syncretic religions are
still accepted as such, and are instead seen as a
mixture of traditions and beliefs.
The key to this polemic lies in religion’s frequent
subordination to politics. The bureaucratization

of religious entities results from political mechanisms whose it is to establish control over their
congregants. This is especially true with the Afrosyncretic religions and Protestants. Time and
again, individual and collective apostolic efforts
are overwhelmed and fail for having to work
within a weighty, complicated and oppressive administrative framework.
This government measure has accomplished its
goal. It has allowed Cuba’s leaders to show the
world that its political process in Cuba shows it to
be a regime that redeems the poor and defends
freedom of religion—which has greatly influenced international public opinion. This strategy
has veiled the truth, even from its own people, and
prevents the demystification of the regime’s constant false messianic proclamations and patronage of things religious: yesterday’s pursuers are
now dressed up to be today’s redeemers.
This is how diverse kinds of violations suddenly
occur, among them a lack of respect for the deities
of the Yoruba pantheon. Nowadays, it is as common to hear a religious drum call for Changó himself as for Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez, Fidel Castro or the liberation of the three MININT officials
imprisoned in the United States.
Our looming reality is that this government is reluctant to modify its position, despite the fact that
some analysts are announcing possible changes.
Any spaces in which association and participation
take place continue being under major political
pressure. Concomitantly, the soul of the Cuban
nation is still being deprived of its most elementary and inalienable rights, including freedom of
religion.

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