Catholic icon or African deity? In Cuba, belief can decide the difference

Catholic icon or African deity? In Cuba, belief can decide the difference

Cuba's patron saint is often linked to Africa's Oshun
Francis is the third pope in recent years to pay homage to Our Lady of
Charity
Afro-Cuban traditions and Catholicism intermingle
BY JIM WYSS
jwyss@miamiherald.com

EL COBRE, CUBA
Surrounded by animal skulls, sacrificial knives and paintings of African
saints, Juan Gonzáles makes an unlikely papist.

The 60-year-old spiritual healer and practitioner of muerterismo — one
of the island's many Afro-Cuban religions — said he's eager to catch a
glimpse of the pontiff when he comes to visit the shrine of Our Lady of
Charity, the country's patron saint.

"I'm getting goosebumps just thinking about it," he said of Francis'
visit on Monday and Tuesday. "That's how powerful it is."

In Gonzáles' worldview the yellow-clad 16-inch virgin that sits in the
shrine just a few blocks from his home is inextricably linked with the
Yoruba goddess Oshun.

In that sense, the pope's homage does double duty — paying tribute to
the Catholic icon and the African deity.

Religious syncretism is common throughout the Caribbean and Latin
America — where the combination of Catholic colonization and African
slavery gave birth to rich religious traditions of intermingled images.

In many ways, it was a cultural-preservation mechanism, said Raúl Ruiz,
a sociologist at the Universidad del Oriente and a researcher at the
Casa del Caribe in Santiago de Cuba.

It allowed slaves to go through the motions of Christian conversion "but
when they were behind closed doors they could celebrate their own
African traditions," he said.

While strict Catholics might consider the practice tantamount to
sacrilege, for the followers of the Cuban traditions, including
muerteros, santeros and paleros, there's little dissonance.

"It's not uncommon for people who consider themselves Catholic to also
practice santería and spiritualism," Ruíz said. "This is a country where
continents have converged and you see that in the religious symbols more
than anywhere."

Images of Our Lady of Charity, also known as Our Lady of El Cobre, are
ubiquitous here. And it's no coincidence that the two previous pontiffs
— John Paul II and Benedict XVI — also paid homage to the icon. Benedict
even visited the shrine. Francis plans to visit the shrine twice: Monday
night for a meeting with bishops and for a Mass on Tuesday morning.

"If you come to Cuba and you don't go see the virgin, you haven't done
anything," Ruíz said.

Jose Millet, an ethno-historian who has studied Afro-Cuban religions,
said there's no historical evidence to link Our Lady of Charity to
Oshun. The goddess, in her original manifestation, was more akin to a
life-force or energy than an anthropomorphic figure, he said. But the
connection has been made so often in literature and in the popular
imagination that it's an idea that is often repeated.

"These are religions that are so open to contact," he said of Cuba's
beliefs. "They have almost an infinite capacity to accept and adopt
outside ideas."

"Acceptance" might be a good way to describe Gonzáles' cosmological
view. His house is both home and shrine: the walls are painted in an
eclectic mix of jungle scenes and religious symbols, his office is
crammed with Catholic icons, pictures of Che Guevara, and animal bones.

It's there that he channels the dead and uses his clairvoyance to help
heal supplicants and interpret dreams.

Like a village doctor, Gonzáles is well known and respected in El Cobre.
He said he first began having visions when he was 13 and they only got
more powerful when his parents died when he was in his 20s. But island
life was harsher then. He wasn't allowed to be a card-carrying member of
the Communist Party and profess his religious beliefs. He tried giving
up the practice but it was too painful, he said.

"I had to hold onto my religion and give up the party," he said. "But in
my heart I was still a militant member of the party."

Starting in the early 1990s the government became more open to religion,
and Gonzáles got to embrace his inner diversity.

"I believe in the church, I believe in the virgin, I believe in the pope
and the priests and the saints," Gonzáles said. "I believe in everything."

Source: Catholic icon or African deity? In Cuba, belief can decide the
difference | Miami Herald -
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/cuba/article35960250.html