The Virgin of Charity of Copper, whose day we Cubans celebrate this September 8, and the Virgen de Regla, who was especially honored yesterday, are two symbols of Cuban identity; two pillars of faith, devotion and hope of the people who live in this Caribbean archipelago and also of those who have been increasingly distributed in many other places in the world.
Both Virgins have an indisputable religious, spiritual meaning, both for those who profess the Catholic religion and for those who practice the so-called Santeria and other religious variants and Afro-Cuban syncretic mixtures, in which the first is identified with Oshún and the second with Yemayá.
Both in one and in the others, their devotees are many, as are the offerings and the promises, the prayers and the requests that the faithful make to them in search of health, love, protection and prosperity. Its sanctuaries, in the Santiago town of El Cobre and in the Havana town of Regla, are two of the most sacred sites on the island, and also one of the most visited every year, every day, beyond the days that the religious calendar grants in a private way.
The cult of both, however, is not a matter of a single place in Cuban territory or outside of it, and there are numerous Afro-Cuban churches and temples in which they are venerated, and also countless houses, rooms, that They have an altar dedicated to them, or, at least, with a painting or a statuette that represents them, and before which candles and offerings are placed, and they are prayed and asked with conviction and humility.
Even non-believers, skeptics and atheists cannot deny the value and importance they have for Cubans. Both, the Virgen de la Caridad, Cachita, the Patron Saint of Cuba, and that of Regla, the black Virgin queen of the sea, are synonymous with national identity, emblem of the character and spirituality of a people that waits every early September to show them , not individually, but collectively, their devotion.
This Wednesday, on the east side of the Havana bay, the Virgen de Regla was honored with the traditional and massive procession in the town of the same name. It was made after two years of pandemic and in the midst of the most severe economic crisis of the last two decades on the Island, the same context in which it takes place this Thursday in El Cobre, and also in many other places in Cuba, the tribute to the Virgin of Charity.
There, in Regla, was our photojournalist Otmaro Rodríguez, who captured the emotion and fervor of the moment with his lens. The images of him serve as a sign of the dedication and veneration of Cubans for a Virgin, who, like that of El Cobre, is an indisputable symbol of the nation.
