A strange mixture of rites, which have become common in recent years, came together on Tuesday night at the ceremony held at the founding site of Havana, La Ceiba de El Templete, just on the eve of its number anniversary. 503.
It was attended by the highest authorities of the civil power, Luis Antonio Torres Iríbar, first secretary of the Party in the capital, and Reinaldo García Zapata, governor of the city, but also those of the ecclesiastic. Specifically, Juan de la Caridad García Rodríguez, Archbishop of Havana, from whom “the people received the blessing” and who accompanied a procession through the streets surrounding the Plaza de Armas.
However, the most surprising image of the evening –in addition to being extremely worrying if it is confirmed that it is the original pieces– was that of two children, dressed in white shirts and red kerchiefs, the uniform of the pioneers, carrying the maces of the old Havana Cabildo. Made in silver in 1631, they are, according to the instructions of Emilio Roig de Leuchsenring in his book Havana. historical notes, “the oldest extant works of art in Cuba”.
Both valuable objects are in charge of the Historian’s Office, founded by Roig and administered until 2020 by the late Eusebio Leal, and are kept in the old Palace of the General Captains, today the City Museum. It is not the first time that they have been taken out of custody for the same ceremony.
Both valuable objects are in charge of the Office of the Historian, founded by the late Eusebio Leal, and are kept in the old Palace of the General Captains
Justly, the official press echoes of “an emotional letter that calls for the conservation of historical heritage”, some “warm and simple words” that, according to Havana Tribune, “read the sixth grade pioneer Laura Hernández García, from the Camilo Cienfuegos Elementary School”.
The day was closed, reports the official press, with the song I pray to the Ceiba by Leo Vera, and a concert on the esplanade of El Templete.
Beyond the uneasiness that the fact of seeing little pioneers ignorant of the historical value of what they carry in their hands can cause, no one is surprised that the celebration of the founding of the capital mixes ideology and religion.
In 2019, the Cuban regime paid tribute to the priest Guillermo Isaías Sardiñas Menéndez, known as Father Sardiñas, on the 55th anniversary of his death.
Nicknamed the “father of the olive green cassock”, the official press has frequently praised “the coherence between his religious faith and his conviction as a patriot and revolutionary”, although in the historiography of the Catholic Church the mentions of his actions have been more discreet.
But the crossovers have not only been between the Cuban communist ideology and Catholicism. In 2008, fifty santeros officiated a ritual with drums and animal sacrifices to wish Fidel Castro “long life” on his 82nd birthday and he was then convalescing from an intestinal disease.
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