Cuba on My Mind, Part Two
by Wells Staley-Mays
Continued from the autumn issue
The Pastors for Peace delegation numbered people from Mexico, England,
Germany and the Netherlands in addition to those of us from the U.S. We
traveled to hospitals, clinics, and medical schools to study Cuba's amazing
health care system. Cuba has a doctor/patient ratio of 1:160. Every
neighborhood has a doctor and a fully-staffed medical clinic. In one clinic,
Dr. Esther Aymerick Atkinson spoke about the hardships caused by the
embargo. Because of the blockade, dentists have no dental supplies for false
teeth, caps, filling material, etc. The clinic has no air-conditioning, and
temperatures were topping 110 degrees Fahrenheit the day we visited. There
are often shortages of gauze and cotton. There are not enough telephone or
computer lines for all the patient records. Nevertheless, medical students
from all over the world come to Cuba to study medicine for free. We visited
one medical school housed in an old naval base. What an inspiration for the
conversion of military facilities to peaceful purposes! Cuba supplies
doctors to much of the Third World as part of its friendly foreign policy.
The medical schools proudly displayed artifacts from all of the countries,
including the United States.
Our trip coincided with the 50th anniversary of the beginning of the Cuban
Revolution. We were privileged to hear Fidel Castro, now 76 years old,
address a huge crowd in front of the Moncada garrison. We saw large
delegations of people from Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela in the
gathering to celebrate the anniversary. Castro spoke about the capitulation
by the European Union to the demands of the United States that several
European projects in Cuba be cancelled.
Cuba is far more African than I had realized. About 75 percent of Cubans are
Black. The percentage increases as you travel east on the island. Cuba was
the second largest slave colony in the Western Hemisphere, after the
Portuguese colony of Brazil. Because of the huge percentages of slaves in
their general populations and the ever-present slave rebellions, Cuba and
Haiti were often dubbed the pariahs of the Caribbean. After the 1791-1804
Revolution in Saint Dominique (now Haiti), the United States placed a
blockade on Haiti, which was not lifted until 1865. The U. S. president at
the time was Thomas Jefferson. Haiti, the "jewel in the French crown" was
the richest of France's colonies, but the successful revolution devastated
the economy, which was based on slavery, sugar cane, and molasses. The
subsequent pressure on Haiti from France and the United States made Cuba the
major slave economy of the Caribbean after 1804. There was a mass exodus of
white slave owners from Haiti to Cuba (and the United States). White Cubans
shared with the rest of the Caribbean planter society the great fear of a
black slave uprising. White Cuban planter society was possibly at its most
racist in the 19th century, precisely because its sugar boom rested on a
rapidly-growing black population. This generated a Haiti-style "black fear,"
complete with infamous massacres of black slaves and freed people at Aponte
in 1812 and La Escalera in 1844, in which not only slaves but also a growing
free black and mulatto, largely city-based, professional, petit bourgeoisie
and artisan class were victims. Cuba was considered to be the most racist of
the Hispanic Caribbean territories until the 1958 revolution ousted the
United States. A previous massacre of thousands of black members of the
African Autonomous political party had occurred in 1912 under the
U.S.-backed Cuban government.
Demographically and socio-culturally, Cuba is far less white after three
decades of revolution than it was in 1958. The initial exodus in the 1960s
was of people who were Hispanic and moneyed and white. The Afro-Cuban
heritage appears to have asserted its central place in a new definition of
national politics and culture. The Revolution moved rapidly to dismantle
institutionalized racism. On March 22, 1959, Fidel Castro announced what has
come to be known as the Proclamation against Discrimination: "We shouldn't
have to pass a law to establish a right that should belong to every human
being and member of society. Nobody can consider himself or herself to be of
a pure, much less a superior, race. Virtue, personal merit, heroism,
generosity, should be the measure of men, not skin color. Many of our
forbears came to this land from Africa as slaves. And slaves put up strong
resistance and fought hard in the Liberation Army. We are brothers of the
Africans and ready to fight for the Africans. The blood of Africa runs deep
in our veins."
Cuba was far less Roman Catholic than I expected. The Roman Catholic and
Protestant denominations date from the Spanish and U.S. colonial periods
respectively. The influence of African tribal religions is very distinct,
particularly among those Cubans who are descended from the Yoruba people of
Nigeria, the Lucummi. Some estimate that 50% of the Cuban people practice
some form of Lucummi. There are at least four other African tribal religions
based on the Mandingas, the Minas, the Gangas, and the Congos.
The Cubans of African descent are, not surprisingly, strong supporters of
Fidel Castro. There is the legendary speech given by Fidel in the earliest
days of the Revolution. During the speech, a white dove descended from the
sky and landed on Fidel's shoulder, where it stayed throughout the speech.
According to the believers in Lucummi, the white dove is a symbol of the
power of one of the gods, or orishas. The white dove's presence on Fidel's
shoulder was interpreted by the practitioners of Lucummi as God's blessing
on the Revolution. Roman Catholics interpreted the white dove as a symbol of
the Holy Spirit. Love for Fidel is palpable in Cuba, but I saw no evidence
of a "cult of personality" as is so often reported in our media. Cuba is
delightfully free of billboards and roadside advertising. What few signs we
saw bore sayings from Jose Marti. We saw occasional pictures of Jose Marti
or Che Guevara.
I would encourage others to travel to Cuba. Pastors for Peace is a wonderful
way to go, but not the only way. If anyone would like me to speak about our
trip, I will be happy to relay what I saw. My trip was certainly a
life-changing experience for me.
Back to Peace Talk Index,
Winter, 2003 - 2004