Situating the Debates Between Worlds: Concerning the Socioeconomic, Political, and Ecclesial Contexts of Pre-revolutionary Cuba and the First Years of the Revolution

Fernández-Albán, Ary

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-02342-3_2

Ary Fernández-Albán³

Part of the book series: New Approaches to Religion and Power ((NARP))

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Abstract

The historical, social, and political contexts of pre-revolutionary Cuba and the first five years after the triumph of the Cuban revolution are put in place as a backdrop for understanding the development of Sergio Arce’s theological thinking. The intention is to sketch key events, dynamics, and historical developments in order to reconstruct a panoramic view of this period and how those same developments are reflected in Arce’s theological work.

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Notes

1.
For a fuller discussion on the Platt Amendment and its implications for the Cuban society and the economic, political, and cultural relations between Cuba and the USA, see Louis A. Pérez, Cuba Under the Platt Amendment, 1902–1921 (Pittsburg, PA.: University of Pittsburg Press, 1986); Emilio Roig de Leuchsenring, Historia de la Enmienda Platt: Una interpretación de la realidad cubana. V.I (La Habana, Cuba: Cultural S.A., 1935).
2.
Richard Gott, Cuba: A New History (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2004), 327–328.
3.
Louis A. Pérez, Cuba between Reform and Revolution (New York, NY: University Press, 2006), 143; Gott, Cuba: A New History, 67; Ibarra, Cuba: 1898–1921, 15–28.
4.
Vanni Pettiná, “Sociedad, 1902–1959,” in Historia de las Antillas, V. I: Historia de Cuba, comp. and ed. Consuelo Naranjo Orovio (Madrid, España: Ediciones Doce Calles S.L., 2009), 210.
5.
Pérez, Cuba between Reform and Revolution, 149–152.
6.
Samuel Farber, The Origins of the Cuban Revolution Reconsidered (Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina, 2006), 9. Farber points out that “[t]he U.S.-Cuban trade system established in 1934 remained basically unchanged with the 1948 passage of the U.S. Sugar Law, which continued the quota system allocating U.S. sugar imports to sugar-exporting countries and remained in force when U.S.-Cuban relations ended in 1961” (Ibid., 12).
7.
According to Santiago Santamaría García, the US capital control over sugar production decreased gradually after the Great Depression. In the 1950s, most sugar mills belonged to Cuban owners. See Santiago Santamaría García, “Evolución económica, 1700–1959,” in Historia de las Antillas, V. I: Historia de Cuba, comp. and ed. Consuelo Naranjo Orovio (Madrid, España: Ediciones Doce Calles S.L., 2009), 115; Pettiná, “Sociedad, 1902–1959,” 221.
8.
C.A.M. Hennessy, “The Roots of Cuban Nationalism,” in Background to Revolution: The Development of Modern Cuba, ed. Robert Freeman Smith (New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1968), 23; Ibarra, Cuba: 1898–1921, 116–121; Pettiná, “Sociedad, 1902–1959,” 216–218.
9.
For an analysis of the Cuban economy in the 1950s, see Santamaría García, “Evolución económica, 1700–1959,” 114–125.
10.
Farber, The Origins of the Cuban Revolution, 22; Pérez, Cuba between Reform and Revolution, 224–230.
11.
Santamaría García, “Evolución económica, 1700–1959,” 121.
12.
Pérez, Cuba between Reform and Revolution, 226.
13.
Farber, The Origins of the Cuban Revolution, 30.
14.
For a fuller analysis on Batista’s emergence as a key political figure in Cuba’s history, see chapters six and seven from Robert Whitney, State and Revolution in Cuba: Mass Mobilization and Political Change (Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press, 2001).
15.
Farber, The Origins of the Cuban Revolution, 30.
16.
Ibid.; Santamaría García, “Evolución económica, 1700–1959,” 124–125; Pettiná, “Sociedad, 1902–1959,” 228.
17.
Vanni Pettiná, “El desarrollo político, 1898–1962,” in vol. 1, Historia de Cuba, ed. Consuelo Naranjo Orovio, Historia de las Antillas Series (Madrid, España: Ediciones Doce Calles S.L., 2009), 370.
18.
Pérez, Cuba between Reform and Revolution, 226.
19.
According to several scholars, Cuba’s unemployment during the late 1950s rose to more than 16 percent. See Farber, The Origins of the Cuban Revolution, 22, 30; Santamaría García, “Evolución económica, 1700–1959,” 124.
20.
Farber, The Origins of the Cuban Revolution, 22.
21.
Pettiná, “Sociedad, 1902–1959,” 228.
22.
Pérez, Cuba between Reform and Revolution, 226.
23.
Concerning the US cultural influence on Cuban middle-class consumption patterns, see Pettiná, “Sociedad, 1902–1959,” 226–228.
24.
Pérez, Cuba between Reform and Revolution, 225.
25.
Ibid.
26.
Farber, The Origins of the Cuban Revolution, 20–22; Santamaría García, “Evolución económica, 1700–1959,” 121–124; Pettiná, “Sociedad, 1902–1959,” 224–225; Ibid., 224–233; Mary Speck, “Democracy in Cuba: Principles and Practice, 1902–1952,” in Cuba Futures: Historical Perspectives, ed. Mauricio A. Font (New York, NY: Bildner Center for Western Hemisphere Studies, Graduate Center, CUNY, 2011), 25.
27.
According to Luis Martínez-Fernández,

“Batista’s coup and the swift consolidation of his regime can be attributed in large measure to the influence of sugar interests concerned that the anticipated overproduction of sugar in 1953 would trigger a devastating fall in sugar prices. They rationalized that only a dictator could impose production limits on those sectors most likely to protest, namely unionized sugar workers. … Batista did not become the master planter; he was, rather, a hired overseer, and as such, he drew his authority from Cuba’s elites and foreign interests” (Luis Martínez-Fernández, “Sugar and Revolution: 1952–2002,” in Cuba Futures: Historical Perspectives, ed. Mauricio A. Font [New York, NY: Bildner Center for Western Hemisphere Studies, Graduate Center, CUNY, 2011], 78).
28.
Pérez, Cuba between Reform and Revolution, 230–233.
29.
Ibid., 234.
30.
Ibid., 235–236; Pettiná, “El desarrollo político, 1898–1962,” 376–379.
31.
Pérez, Cuba under the Platt Amendment, 1902–1921, 376–379.
32.
Pérez, Cuba between Reform and Revolution, 237–238.
33.
Pettiná, “El desarrollo político, 1898–1962,” 379–381.
34.
Pérez, Cuba between Reform and Revolution, 238.
35.
Ibid., 242.
36.
The Agrarian Reform Law deserves a special mention because of its impact on the lives of el campesinado (peasants), and on Cuba’s economy, and the relations between Cuba and the USA. The law was enacted in May 1959. It stated that with the exception of land engaged in the production of sugar, rice, and livestock, all real estate holdings were restricted in size to 1000 acres. Maximum limits were fixed at 3333 acres. “Land exceeding these limits was nationalized, with compensation provided in the form of twenty-year bonds bearing an annual rate of 4.5 percent. … Expropriated lands were to be reorganized into state cooperatives or distributed into individual holdings of sixty-seven acres, with squatters, sharecroppers, and renters receiving first claim to the land which they were working” (Pérez, Cuba between Reform and Revolution, 243).
37.
Pérez, Cuba between Reform and Revolution, 243.
38.
Ibid., 241. For a fuller discussion of some of the policies that contributed to volatile tensions between different groups in the revolutionary government, see Pettiná, “El desarrollo político, 1898–1962,” 382–383.
39.
At the beginning of the Revolution no cabinet official of the provisional government was a member of the PSP (Communist Party). Fidel Castro had not shown Marxist ideological tendencies in his public statements even though important rebel chiefs such as Raul Castro y Ernesto “Che” Guevara were deeply influenced by some aspects of Marxist thinking and practice. Nonetheless, even before 1959 the 26 of July Movement made alliance with the PSP because of its influence on workers and trade unions, to organize the general strike that preceded the entrance of the Rebel army in Havana. As Pérez explains, “Fidel Castro needed the Cuban communist Party, an organization of singular discipline and preparation, with historic ties to mass organizations and political connections to the socialist bloc” (Pérez, Cuba between Reform and Revolution, 245–246).
40.
Resignations and substitutions included those of the President of the Republic Manuel Urrutia and the Prime Minister José Miró Cardona. See Pettiná, “El desarrollo político, 1898–1962,” 383.
41.
For a detailed recount of US reaction to the Agrarian Reform Law and its aftermath, see Leslie Dewart, Christianity and Revolution (New York, NY: Herder & Herder, 1963), 35–40.
42.
Ibid., 41–70.
43.
Pérez, Cuba between Reform and Revolution, 249.
44.
Ibid., 247–253; Farber, The Origins of the Cuban Revolution.
45.
Pérez, Cuba between Reform and Revolution, 252.
46.
For analyses of the first years of the Revolution, see Samuel Farber, Cuba since the Revolution of 1959. A Critical Assessment (Chicago, IL: Haymarket Books, 2011); Irving L. Horowitz, ed., Cuban Communism (New Brunswick: NJ: Transaction Books, 1972); Marifeli Pérez-Stable, The Cuban Revolution: Origins, Course, and Legacy (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2012).
47.
On March 16, 1968, the revolutionary government decreed the confiscation of the remaining small private businesses in Cuba. According to Carmelo Mesa-Lago, such measure accelerated the process of collectivizing the economy in accordance to the Marxist-Leninist ideology adopted by the revolution’s leadership in 1961. Carmelo Mesa-Lago, “Ideological Radicalization and Economic Policy in Cuba,” in Cuban Communism, ed. Irving L. Horowitz (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books, 1972), 93–122.
48.
Pérez, Cuba between Reform and Revolution, 261; Mesa-Lago, “Ideological Radicalization and Economic Policy in Cuba,” 101.
49.
Pérez, Cuba between Reform and Revolution, 261–265.
50.
Ibid., 258.
51.
Farber, Cuba since the Revolution of 1959, 85.
52.
Ibid., 76–77.
53.
Pérez, Cuba between Reform and Revolution, 272–275. It is in this respect that the nationalization of private and religious schools that occurred in 1961 should be viewed. A fuller discussion of these interconnected issues goes beyond the scope of this project.
54.
At the inception of the revolutionary process numerous civil and social organizations emerged: CDR (Comités de Defensa de la Revolución), FMC (Federación de Mujeres Cubanas), CTC (Central de Trabajadores de Cuba), ANAP (Asociación Nacional de Agricultores Pequeños). These and other organizations were originally created by the government with the purpose of organizing and mobilizing the populace to fulfill the various campaigns mandated by the government and in doing so protect the revolutionary project. In addition, some sectors of the government saw these national organizations as instruments of population control.
55.
Rafael Cepeda and Carlos R. Molina Rodríguez, “Los misioneros patriotas, revisitados,” in La siembra infinita: Itinerarios de la obra misionera y la evangelización protestante en Cuba, Rafael Cepeda and Carlos R. Molina Rodríguez (Ginebra, Suiza; Matanzas, Cuba; Quito, Ecuador: CMI; SET; CLAI, 2011), 23–74. On the presence of foreign Protestants in Cuba from the sixteenth century to the nineteenth century, see Marco A. Ramos, Panorama del protestantismo en Cuba: La presencia de los protestantes o evangélicos en la historia de Cuba desde la colonización española hasta la Revolución (San José, Costa Rica: Editorial Caribe, 1986), 71–86.
56.
Ramos, Panorama del protestantismo en Cuba, 107–131.
57.
Theo Tschuy, “El protestantismo en Cuba: Del arribo de los misionero estadounidenses al triunfo de la Revolución,” in Protestantismo en Cuba: Recuento histórico y perspectivas desde sus orígenes hasta principios del siglo XXI, ed. Carlos R. Molina Rodríguez (La Habana, Cuba: Editorial Caminos; Seminario Evangélico de Teología, 2011), 84.
58.
Theron Corse, Protestants, Revolution, and the Cuba-U.S. Bond (Gainesville, FL.: University Press of Florida, 2007), 2. See also Rafael Cepeda, “Las iglesias protestantes norteamericanas en la política expansionista de 1898: su reflejo en Cuba,” in La siembra infinita: Itinerarios de la obra misionera y la evangelización protestantes en Cuba, ed. Rafael Cepeda and Carlos R. Molina Rodríguez (Ginebra, Suiza; Matanzas, Cuba; Quito, Ecuador: CMI; SET; CLAI, 2011), 75–99; Rafael Cepeda, “Un análisis de los juicios de los misioneros norteamericanos sobre Cuba, los cubanos, y la iglesia en Cuba,” in La herencia misionera en Cuba, ed. Rafael Cepeda (San José, Costa Rica: DEI, 1986), 37–49; Adolfo Ham, “La herencia misionera protestante cubana vista desde la perspectiva ecuménica,” in La herencia misionera en Cuba, ed. Rafael Cepeda (San José, Costa Rica: DEI, 1986), 51–61.
59.
Ramos, Panorama del protestantismo en Cuba, 102; Louis A. Pérez, “North American Protestant Missionaries in Cuba and the Culture of Hegemony,” in Essays on Cuban History (Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 1995), 58–61.
60.
Corse, Protestants, Revolution, and the Cuba-U.S. Bond, 3.
61.
Tschuy, “El protestantismo en Cuba,” 91.
62.
Ibid.
63.
Ibid., 96.
64.
Corse, Protestants, Revolution, and the Cuba-U.S. Bond, 4.
65.
Tschuy, “El protestantismo en Cuba,” 96.
66.
Rafael Cepeda, Vivir el evangelio: reflexiones y experiencias (La Habana, Cuba: Editorial Caminos, 2003), 100.
67.
This became particularly evident in the documents and discussions at the Latin American Protestant Congress celebrated in Havana in 1929. See Samuel Silva Gotay, “El significado histórico del Congreso Hispano-Americano del Norte de América Latina celebrado en la Habana, Cuba en 1929,” in Misión y evangelización en América Latina y el Caribe para el siglo XXI, comp. Nilton Giese (Quito, Ecuador: Ediciones CLAI, 2009), 23–33; Tschuy, “El protestantismo en Cuba,” 96.
68.
The platform of the Movimiento Cívico Social Evangélico (Evangelical Social Civic Movement) was published in Heraldo Cristiano, (November 1933). Cited by Tschuy, “El protestantismo en Cuba,” 110, See also Rafael Cepeda, Apuntes para una historia del presbiterianismo en Cuba (La Habana: Su Voz-Departamento de Publicaciones de la Iglesia Presbiteriana-Reformada en Cuba, 1986), 138–139.
69.
Tschuy, “El protestantismo en Cuba,” 98.
70.
Ibid., 98–99.
71.
H.G. Smith, “La nueva religión del nacionalismo,” Heraldo Cristiano, Mayo 1936. Cited by Rafael Cepeda, Apuntes para una historia del presbiterianismo en Cuba, 159.
72.
Rafael Cepeda, Apuntes para una historia del presbiterianismo en Cuba, 162.
73.
Tschuy, “El protestantismo en Cuba,” 98.
74.
Ibid., 110, n.16.
75.
Ibid., 97.
76.
Rafael Cepeda, Vivir el evangelio, 100.
77.
Carlos R. Molina Rodríguez, “El protestantismo cubano en una era de revoluciones (1930–1961),” in La siembra infinita: Itinerarios de la obra misionera y la evangelización protestante en Cuba, Rafael Cepeda and Carlos R. Molina Rodríguez (Ginebra, Suiza; Matanzas, Cuba; Quito, Ecuador: CMI; SET; CLAI, 2011), 150.
78.
Ramos, Panorama del protestantismo en Cuba, 476–478.
79.
Molina Rodríguez, “El protestantismo cubano en una era de revoluciones,” 168.
80.
John Merle Davis, The Cuban Church in a Sugar Economy: A Study of the Economic and Social Basis of the Evangelical Church in Cuba (New York, NY; London, UK: Department of Social and Economic Research & Counsel, International Missionary Council, 1942). Cited by Molina Rodríguez, “El protestantismo cubano en una era de revoluciones,” 150–151.
81.
Tschuy, “El protestantismo en Cuba,” 101.
82.
Ibid., 151.
83.
Corse, Protestants, Revolution, and the Cuba-U.S. Bond, 7–8.
84.
Ibid., 4.
85.
Jorge Ramírez Calzadilla, Algo más de 50 años de vida religiosa cubana (1945–1998) (La Habana, Cuba: Centro de Investigaciones Psicológicas y Sociológicas, 1998). Cited by Molina Rodríguez, “El protestantismo cubano en una era de revoluciones,” 155.
86.
Rafael Cepeda, “Esta hora de Cuba,” in El tiempo y las palabras: artículos y mensajes de Rafael Cepeda (1947–1997), ed. Carlos R. Molina (Quito, Ecuador: CLAI, 2004), 45–52; Farber, The Origins of the Cuban Revolution, 54.
87.
Quoted by Molina Rodríguez, “El protestantismo cubano en una era de revoluciones,” 156.
88.
Molina Rodríguez, “El protestantismo cubano en una era de revoluciones,” 156.
89.
Tschuy, “El protestantismo en Cuba,” 107.
90.
Rafael Cepeda, Vivir el evangelio, 100; Molina Rodríguez, “El protestantismo cubano en una era de revoluciones,” 158; Dewart, Christianity and Revolution, 103–115; Marco A. Ramos, Protestantism and Revolution in Cuba (Miami, FL: Institute for Interamerican Studies/University of Miami, 1989), 46–53; John M. Kirk, “Frente al volcán: la iglesia católica en la Cuba pre-revolucionaria,” in Historia general de la iglesia en América Latina. IV (Caribe), ed. Johannes Meier (Salamanca, España; Quintana Roo, México: Sígueme; Universidad de Quintana Roo, 1995), 340–343.
91.
Corse, Protestants, Revolution, and the Cuba-U.S. Bond, 10.
92.
Molina Rodríguez, “El protestantismo cubano en una era de revoluciones,” 158.
93.
Rafael Cepeda, Vivir el evangelio, 19, 101.
94.
For a fuller discussion of the involvement of the Catholic Church with the revolutionary process and leaders, see Dewart, Christianity and Revolution.
95.
Corse, Protestants, Revolution, and the Cuba-U.S. Bond, 10.
96.
Ibid., 16.
97.
Ibid., 14; Rafael Cepeda, “La iglesia en una tierra nueva,” in El tiempo y las palabras: artículos y mensajes de Rafael Cepeda (1947–1997), ed. Carlos R. Molina (Quito, Ecuador: CLAI, 2004), 161.
98.
Corse, Protestants, Revolution, and the Cuba-U.S. Bond, 14–16.
99.
Juana Berges and Reinerio Arce, eds., 40 años de testimonio evangélico en Cuba (La Habana, Cuba: Consejo de Iglesias de Cuba, 2000), 24.
100.
Rafael Cepeda, “Fidel Castro y el Reino de Dios,” in Pensamiento reformado cubano, ed. Francisco Marrero (La Habana, Cuba: Ediciones Su Voz, 1988), 155.
101.
Cited in Molina Rodríguez, “El protestantismo cubano en una era de revoluciones,” 161–162.
102.
Corse, Protestants, Revolution, and the Cuba-U.S. Bond, 21.
103.
Ramos, Protestantism and Revolution in Cuba, 65–66.
104.
Corse, Protestants, Revolution, and the Cuba-U.S. Bond, 23–24.
105.
Ibid., 24.
106.
According to Corse, the first signs of conflict between Protestant churches and the government came from the newest denominations in Cuba (Brethren in Christ, Conservative Baptist, and Mennonites), still run by the original founding missionaries. By then, long-established denominations such as Presbyterians, Methodists, Episcopalians, and Eastern Baptists were generally more supportive of the revolutionary project. See Corse, Protestants, Revolution, and the Cuba-U.S. Bond, 37. For a historical recount and analysis of the relations between the Cuban revolutionary government and the Catholic Church’s hierarchy during the first three years of the Revolution, see Dewart, Christianity and Revolution, 116–179.
107.
Marco A. Ramos, “La religión en Cuba,” in 40 años de revolución: el legado de Castro, ed. Efrén Córdova (Miami, FL: Ediciones Universal, 1999). Cited by Molina Rodríguez, “El protestantismo cubano en una era de revoluciones,” 158. See also Rafael Cepeda, Vivir el evangelio, 101.
108.
Corse, Protestants, Revolution, and the Cuba-U.S. Bond, 25.
109.
Ramos, Protestantism and Revolution in Cuba, 33–34.
110.
Ibid., 42.
111.
Ibid., 43–45.
112.
Adolfo Ham, “Teología y tradiciones nacionales: una visión protestante,” in Filosofía, teología, literatura: aportes cubanos en los últimos cincuenta años, ed. Raúl Fornet-Betancourt (Aachen, Alemania: Concordia, 1999), 155.
113.
Corse, Protestants, Revolution, and the Cuba-U.S. Bond, 45. Corse points out that “[w]hatever concerns Protestants had about the government in March 1960, they by no means reached the level of panic and fury found in much of the catholic hierarchy or in the U.S. press at that time.” Corse, Protestants, Revolution, and the Cuba-U.S. Bond, 47.
114.
Rafael Cepeda, Vivir el evangelio, 20.
115.
Ramos, Protestantism and Revolution in Cuba, 71–72.
116.
Corse, Protestants, Revolution, and the Cuba-U.S. Bond, 90.
117.
Rafael Cepeda, Vivir el evangelio, 104.
118.
Corse, Protestants, Revolution, and the Cuba-U.S. Bond, 101.
119.
Rafael Cepeda, “La iglesia en una tierra nueva”; Berges and Arce, 40 años de testimonio evangélico en Cuba.
120.
Quoted by Corse, Protestants, Revolution, and the Cuba-U.S. Bond, 49.
121.
Corse, Protestants, Revolution, and the Cuba-U.S. Bond, 49.
122.
Rafael Cepeda, “Peor para ellos,” in El tiempo y las palabras: artículos y mensajes de Rafael Cepeda (1947–1997), 74.

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Fernández-Albán, A. (2018). Situating the Debates Between Worlds: Concerning the Socioeconomic, Political, and Ecclesial Contexts of Pre-revolutionary Cuba and the First Years of the Revolution. In: Decolonizing Theology in Revolution. New Approaches to Religion and Power. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02342-3_2

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02342-3_2
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