Cachita's streets : the Virgin of Charity, race, and revolution in Cuba / Jalane D. Schmidt.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Schmidt, Jalane D., 1968- author.

Series:

Religious cultures of African and African diaspora people

The religious cultures of African and African diaspora people

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Mary, Blessed Virgin, Saint--Devotion to--Cuba.

Mary.

Mary, Blessed Virgin, Saint.

Revolutions.

History.

Cuba.

Caridad del Cobre, Virgen de la.

Revolutions--Cuba--History.

Cuba--Race relations.

Race relations.

Cuba--History.

Devotion.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

xi, 357 pages : illustrations, maps ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Durham : Duke University Press, 2015.

Summary:

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 salves, Spanish colonial officials, Cuban independence soldiers, Catholic authorities and laypeople, intellectuals, journalists and artists, practitioners of spiritism and Santeria, activists, politicians, and revoultionaries 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 Cobra and brought into Cuba's cities. There, devotees venerated and followed Cathita's image through urban streets, amassing at large-scale public ceremonies in ger honor that promoted competing claims about Cuban religion, race, and political idelogy. 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. Schmodt provides a comprehensive treatment of Cuban religions, history, and culture, interpreted through the prism of Cachita. Book jacket.

Contents:

Introduction: "Antes": processions past

From foundling to intercessor: Our Lady help of slaves

Mambisa virgin: patrona of the patria

Royalty in exile: banishing Bembes

Crowning Caridad: the queen of republican Cuba

The virgin general on the march: conquering Cuba?

Rebel sierras and lowlands: petitioning the mother of Cuba

"Todos a la plaza!": mobilizing in revolutionary time and space

"The streets are for revolutionaries!": prohibiting processions

Luchando in the special period: papal visit

Conclusion: processions present: returning to the streets, 1998-2012.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 323-345) and index.

ISBN:

9780822359180

0822359189

9780822359371

0822359375

OCLC:

890510023