"Today more than ever we ask you for our land"pray from the copper the devotees of the Virgin Mambisa

Santiago de Cuba/The devotees of the Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre are entrusted to it to find a ray of light and hope. This Sunday, the image of Cachitapatron of the island, toured the streets of El Cobre, in a country that crosses too much darkness, in every way. In fact, the night youth pilgrimage had to be suspended, due to a blackout that affected the five eastern provinces.

From previous days, the rural roads of Santiago were filled with pilgrims, although some attendees warn that less people are seen than in other years. They arrived on foot, in trucks, by bicycles, many after sleepless nights for heat and electric cuts. This newspaper approached the sanctuary to report a moment that transcends the religious, and that has to do with the culture and identity of an entire country.

On Saturday, September 6, the Mass was full. And this Sunday, when a replica of Cachita It was taken to the streets, in the traditional procession, there was a strong police presence throughout the area. The merolics that swarm around the Copper Sanctuary strive to sell you everything, from little virgencitas to fragments of the mineral that gives its name to the temple, as well as sunflowers and candles. The insistence of their proclamations demonstrate the anxiety of those who do not want to miss an instant that occurs once a year in their town.

Between songs and litanies, the image was carried by the streets, surrounded by candles, prayers and tears. Rogelio Dean, parish priest of the town, entrusted to the Mother of Christ with an emergency phrase: “Today more than ever we ask you for our land.” The message was felt as a collective prayer that went beyond the religious. It is the plea for a country where violence increases at the same rate in which hopes of economic improvement are extinguished.

Hunger and poverty have also ceased to be rumors and have become visible on the faces of those who approach copper. The elders survive with pensions that place them in extreme poverty. The sick seek in faith the cure that they do not find either in hospitals or in pharmacies. And when young people reach some sparkle of joy, they comment that it may be their last procession in Cuba.

In this context, the Virgin Mambisa appears for some as a last symbol of hope. The streets of El Cobre, that town of modest houses that keeps the image of the patron saint of Cuba, becomes the stage of a kind of catharsis.

Monsignor Dionisio García Ibáñez, Archbishop of Santiago, recalled this Sunday that the Virgin has accompanied the Cuban people for 413 years of history, “in the joys and sorrows.” His words resonated as a call not to lose faith, but also as an implicit complaint of the current situation.

An hour before the beginning of the night youth pilgrimage from the San Francisco de Asís Church to the Copper Sanctuary – traditional evidence on the eve of the Virgin Day of Charity of Copper – a mass blackout left without electricity the five eastern provinces of Cuba without electricity. This forced the archbishopric to announce the cancellation of the route through his Official page On Facebook, regretting that even the most felt expressions of faith will be silenced by the country’s energy crisis.

The Archbishopric page of Santiago shared a plea, written in verses by Aliuska Ponce de León: “Return us to Cuba because time ends, because there are death footprints and the miracle delay.”

Cachita It is venerated by both Catholics and santeros that identify it with Ochún. It is the image that accompanied the mambises in the wars of independence and that today, in the midst of a generalized crisis, is once again a flag of resistance against oppression. Today, from copper, a plea is raised that is also a warning. Cuba needs more than miracles.