University of New Mexico UNM Digital Repository History ETDs Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2-9-2010 Citizenship, Religion and Revolution in Cuba Carolyn Watson Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/hist_etds Recommended Citation Watson, Carolyn. "Citizenship, Religion and Revolution in Cuba." (2010). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/hist_etds/81 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Electronic Theses and Dissertations at UNM Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in History ETDs by an authorized administrator of UNM Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. CITIZENSHIP, RELIGION AND REVOLUTION IN CUBA BY CAROLYN E. WATSON Honours Bachelor of Arts Master of Arts DISSERTATION Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy History The University of New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico December 2009 iii Dedication For Alessandra, hoping one day she understands. iv Acknowledgements Many years ago when I was in the first year of my doctoral program in Latin American History, a friend of mine, also doing a PhD, but in Biology, confessed that she did not understand how the solitary research required for degrees in the Humanities could be sustained. Several years later, I confess that research in the Humanities is not as solitary an endeavor as it may seem. So many people have contributed in different ways to the completion of this dissertation. My dissertation committee at the University of New Mexico, especially my Chair, Dr. Elizabeth Hutchison, was enormously supportive during the proposal, research and writing of the dissertation. Meetings via email, long distance phone calls, and over coffee at a couple of international conferences helped me to reconceptualize the framework of the dissertation and refocus some of the chapters. You put a considerable effort into this project that has not gone unnoticed. I thank you for your advice, insights and deadlines. You have taught me a lot. My friends, Drs. Janet Conway and Lee Cormie, provided welcome advice and encouragement during different stages of the writing, and Dr. Cormie later provided more specific critiques as my outside reader. You helped to make the final months of writing less stressful and forced me to leave my work at more reasonable hours of the day than I allowed myself. Thank you for contributing to my peace of mind. In Cuba, so many people contributed to the dissertation research that I am afraid I will forget someone. In Havana, I must thank Aurelio Alonso for putting me in touch with the researchers in the Departamento de Estudios Socioreligiosos (DESR) of the Centro de Investigaciones Psicologicas y Sociologicas (CIPS) who shared their work v with me and facilitated my research. Aníbal Argüelles Mederos and Ileana Hodges Limonta discussed their research with me and gave me access to unpublished manuscripts that contributed to the dissertation. Dr. Jorge Ramírez Calzadilla, who never got to see the results of my research, deserves special mention. Without his guidance and support my research in Cuba would not have been possible. In Havana I would also like to thank the staff of the Archivo Nacional, the Arzobispado, the Instituto de Etnología and the Biblioteca Nacional José Martí for locating the many documents I requested. Tomás Fernández Robaina has also contributed to this dissertation over the years through his extensive knowledge of both Ocha-Ifá and the history of Cubans of African descent. I consider myself fortunate to have been able to develop and maintain our friendship. Joel Suárez Rodes, at the Centro Memorial Martin Luther King , assistanced in negotiating the bureaucracy associated with conducting research in Cuba and provided me with several publications from the Caminos press. He was also instrumental in putting me in contact with practitioners in Havana and Matanzas. Without their contribution the dissertation would have been incomplete. In Matanzas I must first express my gratitude to the Centro Kairos and Samuel Rodríguez for lodging me the duration of my two research trips to the city and for introducing me to Kimbo who made the interview portion of my research there possible. I hope that we can continue our collaborative relationship in the future. I also express a debt of gratitude to all of the babalaos , iyalochas and babalochas who graciously gave me their time for intensive interviews. Your knowledge and opinions are greatly valued and respected and I thank you all for sharing a part of your lives with me. vi In the Archivo Provincial of Matanzas I must thank all the staff who searched for documents and tried to answer my many questions, but especially Caridad and Magaly with whom I worked most closely. I would also like to thank Ernesto Chávez Alvarez for a spontaneous trip to the used book store down the street from the archive. In the tedious job of transcribing the interviews I conducted with practitioners, I appreciate the work of Martin Torres-Mason and María Candelaria Hernández Mogollán. I thank you for your patience and perseverance in a difficult task. The people of Cuba have also earned my gratitude. In a decade of travelling and conducting research in different parts of the island, I have met many people from all walks of life who have taught me about their country, its culture and politics, and themselves. Their diverse experiences and opinions have helped to shape my views, personal and political, about Cuba. I must also recognize the Tinker Foundation and the University of New Mexico’s Latin American and Iberian Institute for a Field Research Grant in 2003 that helped to launch the field research for this dissertation in Cuba. With additional support from a Research Project Travel Grant and a Student Research Allocation Grant I was able to undertake a considerable portion of archival research in Havana during the first months of 2004. A PhD Fellowship, also from the Latin American Iberian Institute, facilitated the completion of my field research in Cuba in 2005 and 2006. Finally, although last on my list, Carlos is perhaps the person who I appreciate the most. Your support and encouragement during the research and writing phases of the dissertation, as well as in the challenges of day to day life, have made all the difference. I thank you for everything. CITIZENSHIP, RELIGION AND REVOLUTION IN CUBA BY CAROLYN E. WATSON ABSTRACT OF DISSERTATION Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy History The University of New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico December, 2009 viii CITIZENSHIP, RELIGION AND REVOLUTION IN CUBA By CAROLYN E. WATSON Honours Bachelor of Arts, Master of Arts DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY ABSTRACT Throughout the twentieth century, various Cuban regimes have tried to eliminate the practice of religions of African origin by combining repressive legislation and coercive social practices that stigmatized practitioners as culturally backward, socially deviant, and mentally deficient. Religious practitioners, however, used the state apparatus to continue worshipping their African deities, sometimes challenging government officials’ excessive application of the law or devising ways to evade their scrutiny. Through an analysis of archival documents, newspapers, works produced by practitioners, oral history interviews and published ethnographies, this dissertation examines the strategies practitioners of Ocha-Ifá – also known as Santería – employed as they continued practicing the religion of their ancestors and participating in the national projects of the twentieth century. Focusing on the period after the 1959 revolution, this dissertation argues that revolutionary policies that were designed to discourage the practice of religions of African origin actually facilitated its continued practice and development in unintended ix ways. By analysing practices in one particular religion of African origin in Havana and Matanzas, the regions of greatest concentration of Ocha-Ifá, this study suggests that citizenship, identity and belonging were negotiated terrain over which neither the revolutionary government nor practitioners of Ocha-Ifá had absolute control. This dissertation builds on the recent research on race and the participation of Cubans of African descent in politics and society during the twentieth century by focusing on the activities of one particular sector of Cuban society. It is unique in historicizing a sector of Cuban society that has thus far only appeared as part of larger scholarly interpretations concerning race or religion in Cuba. x Table of Contents Chapter One: Introduction .................................................................................................1 A Note on Sources ..........................................................................................................4 Background to the Subject ............................................................................................12 The Literature on Ocha-Ifá ...........................................................................................23 Arguments of the Study ................................................................................................30 Organization of Chapters ..............................................................................................38 Chapter Two: Citizens and Brujos(as) ..............................................................................44 Introduction