Religion in Cuba
Before the arrival of Spanish missionaries, the people residing in the territory of modern-day Cuba practiced a variety of faiths.
[8] Membership in Protestant churches is estimated to be 5 percent and includes Baptists, Pentecostals, Seventh-day Adventists, Presbyterians, Anglicans, Methodists, Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) and Lutherans.
According to a US State Department report,[12] some sources estimate that as much as 80 percent of the population consults with practitioners of religions with West African roots, such as Santeria, Palo, or Cuban Vodú.
Santería developed out of the traditions of the Yoruba, one of the African peoples who were imported to Cuba during the 16th through 19th centuries to work on the sugar plantations.
In August 1960, several bishops signed a joint pastoral letter condemning communism and declaring it incompatible with Catholicism, and calling on Catholics to reject it.
[17] The decade following the 1960s was turbulent, and many people lost interest in religion because much of the religious hierarchy opposed the popular revolution.
[18]In the years following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the state adopted a more conciliatory position towards religion and lessened its promotion of atheism.
The Cuban Bishops' Conference has severely criticized the US embargo against Cuba and has claimed that the entire population has suffered from it.
[18] In January 1998, although he was an anti-communist, Pope John Paul II paid a historic visit to the island, invited by the Cuban government and the Catholic Church in Cuba.
[21] On October 20, 2008, the first Russian Orthodox Church in Cuba opened during an official ceremony attended by Raúl Castro.
One of the landmark events of his incumbent presidency includes the 2022 Cuban Family Code referendum, which enjoyed vocal support from progressive Christian groups on the island, with whom Díaz-Canel also came to build stronger relationships over years.
[citation needed] While Protestants arrived on the island of Cuba early in its colonial days, most of their churches did not flourish until the 20th century with the assistance of American missionaries.
[36] In 1994, the Cuban government released representatives of the Watch Tower Society, and members were permitted to meet in groups of up to 150 at Kingdom Halls and other places for worship.
The arrival and endurance of Santeria (also known as Regla de Ocha) in Cuba results from multiple contributing factors.
The religion of Santeria encompasses sacrificial food, song, dance, costumes, spiritual deities, and the use of artifacts.
[38] The syncretism that modernized Santeria was introduced when high-class mulattoes needed to find ways to alleviate ailments such as stress or sickness.
The Afro-Cuban healers and Spanish curanderos served as the only medical practitioners in Cuba and were responsible for treating both the black and white population.
Most of the European religious churches were located the urban areas or towns and to attend services would require traveling over long distances, which would interfere with sugar production.
Over time, they developed the means to communicate with other surrounding secret camps via the plantation slaves and friendly White Cubans.
[38] Other slaves and freemen who lived in rural areas formed secret societies and groups in which they exercised their religious beliefs of Santeria out of public view to avoid colonial reform and oppression.
[38] After the abolishment of slavery Palenque, the Cimarrones establishment was converted into a town named El Cobre after surviving for fifty years.
[38] In the religion of Santeria, the emphasis on conscious existence binds the understanding of nature, the higher powers, and the channels of lineage together through ritual practice and clairvoyance.
[41] The significance of people at the inner core stand to represent the present day of existence and understanding in the form of perception within the individual as he or she can interpret the information surrounding them.
The outer layer of the ancestor represents the heritable understanding that the individual carries with them as a source of how and why to interpret values of perception within a given realm.
The outmost layer that represents divinity is the value of knowledge, direction, and understanding that is acquired from Orishas and personal experience.
The existence the circle represents is not a fixed plain of understanding but stands as an interchangeable ever-evolving and rotating sense of awareness and being.
Some Cubans trace Jewish ancestry to Marranos (converts to Christianity) who came as colonists, though few of these practices Judaism today.
In 1991, The Communist Party lifted its prohibition against religious believers, declaring Cuba as a secular state rather than atheist.
Members of the Yoruba religion, which is a branch of Santeria, have had a particularly difficult time dealing with the government's repressive actions towards them.
[49] Their refusal was due to the fact that they did not want their group to be influenced by the Cuban government, however this has led them to be especially vulnerable and face ongoing threats of criminal sanctions.
