Cachita's Streets

The Virgin of Charity, Race, and Revolution in Cuba

Jalane D. Schmidt (Autor)

Buch | Hardcover

376 Seiten

2015
Duke University Press (Verlag)
978-0-8223-5918-0 (ISBN)

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Jalane D. Schmidt shows how the Virgin of Charity of El Cobre, discovered in 1612 and known as Cachita, is a potent and contested symbol of Cuban national identity. She analyzes the five times over the last eighty years Cachita has been celebrated in Cuba's urban streets.

Cuba’s patron saint, the Virgin of Charity of El Cobre, also called Cachita, is a potent symbol of Cuban national identity. Jalane D. Schmidt shows how groups as diverse as Indians and African slaves, Spanish colonial officials, Cuban independence soldiers, Catholic authorities and laypeople, intellectuals, journalists and artists, practitioners of spiritism and Santería, activists, politicians, and revolutionaries each have constructed and disputed the meanings of the Virgin. Schmidt examines the occasions from 1936 to 2012 when the Virgin's beloved, original brown-skinned effigy was removed from her national shrine in the majority black- and mixed-race mountaintop village of El Cobre and brought into Cuba's cities. There, devotees venerated and followed Cachita's image through urban streets, amassing at large-scale public ceremonies in her honor that promoted competing claims about Cuban religion, race, and political ideology. Schmidt compares these religious rituals to other contemporaneous Cuban street events, including carnival, protests, and revolutionary rallies, where organizers stage performances of contested definitions of Cubanness. Schmidt provides a comprehensive treatment of Cuban religions, history, and culture, interpreted through the prism of Cachita.

Jalane D. Schmidt is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia.

Acknowledgments vii

Introduction. "Antes": Processions Past 1

Part I. Cuba Produnda, 1612–1927

1. From Foundling to Intercessor: Our Lady Help of Slaves 17

2. Mambisa Virgin: Patrona of the Patria 49

Part II. Regal Streets, 1931–1936

3. Royalty in Exile: Banishing Bembes 69

4. Crowning La Caridad: The Queen of Republican Cuba 94

Part III. Martial Streets, 1951–1958

5. The Virgin General on the March: Conquering Cuba? 131

6. Rebel Sierras and Lowlands: Petitioning the Mother of Cuba 164

Part IV. Revolutionary Streets, 1959–1998

7. "¡Todos a la Plaza!": Mobilizing in Revolutionary Time and Space 185

8. "The Streets Are for Revolutionaries!": Prohibiting Processions 207

9. Luchando in the Special Period: Papal Visit 235

Conclusion. Processions Present: Returning to the Streets, 1998–2012 273

Notes 299

Bibliography 323

Index 347

Erscheint lt. Verlag	28.8.2015
Reihe/Serie	Religious Cultures of African and African Diaspora People
Zusatzinfo	27 illustrations
Verlagsort	North Carolina
Sprache	englisch
Maße	152 x 229 mm
Gewicht	635 g
Themenwelt	Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
	Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Religionsgeschichte
	Religion / Theologie ► Christentum ► Liturgik / Homiletik
	Religion / Theologie ► Christentum ► Moraltheologie / Sozialethik
ISBN-10	0-8223-5918-9 / 0822359189
ISBN-13	978-0-8223-5918-0 / 9780822359180
Zustand	Neuware