Religion in Cuba's Socialist Transition

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Notes

1. Ed. Note: Pacha Mama, often translated as Mother Earth, is a goddess of Andean indigenous people.

2. See Aurelio Alonso, “Fe católica y Revolución en Cuba: contradicciones y entendimiento,” Cuadernos de nuestra América, no. 15, Havana, 1990.

3. See Giulio Girardi, Cuba después del derrumbe del comunismo. ¿Residuo del pasado o germen de un futuro nuevo? (Madrid: Editorial Nueva Utopía, 1994), p. 109.

4. This can be seen in the speeches by Fidel Castro on August 10, October 10, and November 27, 1960, in which he based the defense of his position on the example of the first Christians under the Roman empire; in Fidel Castro, Revolución y religión. Encuentros, discursos y entrevistas (Havana: MINFAR, 1997).

5. I use the term transacción in the sense given it by François Houtart in “La transacción en sociología de la religión,” Casa de las Américas, no. 248, Havana, 2007. I do not refer here to symbolic transactions about the content of beliefs, on which Houtart concentrates, but rather to the question of reconciling religion with the project of socialist transformation, which is global but not exclusive.

6. Ed. Note: This refers to periods of heightened discrimination (and, in some cases, detention) imposed against people who were considered politically, culturally, or sexually deviant.

7. According to Fidel Castro's interview with Frei Betto, in Fidel and Religion, 2nd. ed. (Melbourne: Ocean Press, 2006).

8. For Ramírez Calzadilla's synthesis, see his article “Religión y cultura: las investigaciones sociorreligiosas,” Temas, no. 1, January–March 1995.

9. Jorge Ramírez Calzadilla, “El incremento del campo religioso: reactivamiento y significación social,” unpublished materials in the archive of the Centro de Investigaciones Psicológicas y sociológicas (CIPS), Havana, 1999. Emphasis in the original.

10. All data regarding religious revival in Cuba are taken from Religión y cambio social: El campo religioso cubano en la década de 90 (a collective work coordinated by Jorge Ramírez Calzadilla) (Havana: Editorial Ciencias Sociales, 2006).

11. See Aurelio Alonso, “Hegemonía y religión: el tiempo del fundamentalismo,” Temas, no. 39–40, October–December 2004.

12. See Aurelio Alonso, ed., América Latina y el Caribe: territorios religiosos y desafíos para el diálogo (Buenos Aires: CLACSO, 2008). Especially relevant are the essays by Aurelio Alonso, Rita Laura Segato, Jorge Ramírez Calzadilla, Cristian Parker Gumucio and Pablo Mella, which focus on Latin American religiosity in a global context.