Cuba is going through the worst of its crises of the last decades. In times of crisis, we peoples must stick to our symbols of identity and our spirituality in order to draw reserves of inner strength that impel us to overcome the terrible suffering along the paths of freedom, justice and peace.
Symbols strengthen our identity. All peoples and cultures have them. They serve to express realities that go beyond the material and that contain a large dose of meaning. Symbols are means, forms of communication, an understandable message and an image of a much deeper and more transcendent reality. Human beings cannot live without symbols. Moreover, we first learn the language of symbols than that of words.
As children, our families begin to build a symbolic world that is marked by fire for life. A kiss is a symbol of love, a caress is a symbol of tenderness, a raised finger is a symbol of authority and scolding. The outstretched hand and the embrace are symbols of brotherhood. The portrait of a loved one, the flowers, the candles, are direct and understandable signs of spiritual realities. A sign, a symbol, always carries within itself the acquired interpretation, the translation into words, the possibility of impacting human relationships.
A nation cannot live without symbols. That is why peoples reflect their culture, their identity, their distinctive features, through established or informal national symbols. In Cuba we have assumed as symbols and attributes of the Homeland: the Flag, the National Anthem, the Shield, the Royal Palm, the Tocororo and the Butterfly. Since the 17th century, approximately since its discovery in 1612, the Virgin of Charity of Copper It has been considered as a distinguished symbol of Cubanness and Cuban identity.
Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, Father of the Cuban Nation, visited his El Cobre Sanctuary for the “Presentation of Arms” ceremony, as medieval knights did when they went to war. With the canopy of the Virgin of his house, his wife made the first national flag.
The mambises carried next to their chest or on their head, in the yarey hat, a ribbon with the measure of the blessed image. Antonio de la Caridad Maceo y Grajales was named by his parents under the protection of the dark Virgin. Juan Gualberto Gómez, during his visit to the Sanctuary of El Cobre, recorded in his memory book that the Virgen de la Caridad is the “National Emblem”. Calixto García, with his General Staff, went to celebrate a Te Deum of action in 1898 of thanks before the image of María de la Caridad at the end of the Wars of Independence.
In 1915 the mambises wrote a beautiful letter to Pope Benedict XV asking him to solemnly declare the Virgen de la Caridad as Patron Saint of the Republic of Cuba. Here are two excerpts from that letter dated September 24, 1915, by General Jesús Rabí, veteran of the three wars and many others:
“HOLY FATHER: The undersigned, children of the Holy Roman Catholic Apostolic Church to SS humbly state:
That some are members and others sympathizers of the Cuban Liberation Army, a title that constitutes the stamp of our greatest glory, as it is synthesized in it, the supreme good of the Freedom and Independence of our Homeland; that together with that title, we hold another, which is that of belonging to the Roman Catholic Apostolic Church, in whose bosom we were born, under its precepts we live and in accordance with them we want to cease to exist; and those two titles mean that today, gathered in the Villa del Cobre, where the Sanctuary of the HOLY VIRGIN of CHARITY is located, and reverently prostrated before its altar, we agree to go to His Holiness so that he may carry out the most beautiful of our hopes and the fairest of the aspirations of the Cuban soul, declaring the Blessed Virgin of Charity of El Cobre Patron Saint of our young Republic, and a precept for Cuba, on the day that bears her Most Holy name, September 8”.
As can be read, the mambises proudly express the two facets of their own identity: being members or sympathizers of the Liberation Army and being, at the same time, and without fissure, members of the Church in which they were born, under its precepts they live and they want to die Those founders of the Cuban nation make the request of what they call, without complexes or fears, “the most beautiful of our hopes and the fairest of the aspirations of the Cuban soul.” Thus, the Virgen de la Caridad is declared Patron in response to an aspiration of the “Cuban soul”.
The other paragraph I would like to highlight is the following:
“Neither the hazards of war, nor the work to free our subsistence could extinguish the faith and love that our Catholic people profess for that venerated Virgin; and on the contrary, in the heat of combat and in the greatest vicissitudes of life, when death was closest or despair closest, it always emerged as a dispelling light against all danger, or as a consoling dew for our souls, the vision of that Cuban Virgin par excellence, Cuban because of the origin of her secular devotion and Cuban because that is how our unforgettable mothers loved her, that is how our loving wives bless her and that is how our soldiers have proclaimed her, all praying before her for the achievement of victory , and to the peace of our unforgotten dead.”
The mambises call the Virgin of Charity “dissipating light” and “consoling dew”. Even more, in a clear process of synthesis between faith and Cubanness, they call her “Cuban par excellence”, “Cuban because of the origin of her secular devotion” and “Cuban because that is how our mothers loved her… our wives and our soldiers” . It is not necessary to mention much more than the innumerable testimonies throughout the centuries: the Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre is a sign, symbol and ensign of our Cuban identity and our faith, united in one heart. Even those compatriots who are atheists or agnostics recognize in “Cachita” a national symbol, a component of our culture. That transcends religious faith, cults, Christian denominations: she belongs to the soul of Cuba. That is why no one should feel offended and even less excluded. Respect for religious freedom and diversity of religions is not violated by this inclusive cultural symbol.
Holding fast to the symbols of our roots and identity strengthens our inner life, encourages us to continue being what we are and encourages us to live faithful to the heritage of faith and culture that serves as our foundation and compass in the midst of this “terrible storm” .
Spirituality is inner strength to get out of the crisis
Peoples cannot live without spirituality. As the Cuban poet Dulce María Loynaz says: “he who does not root the soul, he dries up.” More than sixty years of atheism and materialism is the deepest cause of the damage that has been inflicted on the “Cuban soul”, trying to dry up our spirituality.
As the human being is “incarnated spirit” in a body, when personal life, family environment, school and work relationships and social coexistence are forcibly emptied by atheist indoctrination, by ideology turned into political religion, by the degeneration of customs and abandonment, José Martí told us what happens in the human being: “Nothing in him feeds virtue.”
The Virgin of Charity is not only a symbol of Cuban identity. She is, above all, a maternal symbol of our faith in Jesus Christ. She is an example, a channel of communication, support and encouragement for our inner life and a companion on the way to transcendence. The Virgin Mother does not replace God. She is the most advanced disciple of his. The Virgin of Charity does not replace or is more important than her Son, Jesus Christ. On the contrary, she repeats to us: “Do what He, Jesus, tells you”.
For this reason, starting tomorrow, August 30, the Ninth Preparatory for the great Feast of the Virgin of Charity, Patron Saint of Cuba, national symbol and paradigm of our faith, throughout the national territory and in all the Cuban communities that live in the Diaspora, anywhere in the world, we wanted to evoke its transcendent significance.
Cuba is experiencing this year 2022 the greatest crisis in its history. The clamor of the people is unanimous: this situation is unsustainable, this is the end of a stage, it is necessary to change for something new and better. We do not want more crying, or suffering, or death, we want Homeland and Life, with freedom, justice and peace.
Well, if we want a homeland, let’s go to the one that is the national emblem and symbol of Cuban identity. If we want Life, full and transcendent life, let us go to the one who is the mother of new Life and the womb where Love and Freedom are engendered: the Virgin Mary of Charity of El Cobre.
As every year, but in this 2022 in a more intense way, let us join the incessant prayer of all Cubans with this prayer of a yagüero to the Virgin of Charity:
Virgin of Charity,
everyone’s blanket
the Cubans,
sea bird and
Saviour table
from which it capsizes
and the one who suffers.
Under your Tenderness we shelter
nostalgia and lack of freedom.
White and wild Butterfly,
that our soul is not corrupted,
give us transparency
honesty and consistency.
Hymn of Gratuity and Service,
Magnificat of the poor:
Grant us to be a permanent offering
in the altar of the Cross and of the Homeland
so that everything we do and dream
be to make Cuba
a National Home.
Shield of those who are oppressed,
look at the Pearl that cries,
to the locked Key,
to the palm that defoliates
for the loss of their children.
shelter our nation
with the guano of your Tenderness.
surround our history
with the yagua of your Memory.
rebuild our future
with the heart of your Virtue.
Morning Star
that announce a new day:
Hurry for Cuba
the dawn of freedom.
Amen.
(Dagoberto Valdes Hernandez, 2002)
Let’s share it and pray it together. Cuba needs it more than ever.
Taken from Center for Coexistence Studies
Cover photo: Fernando Medina