By María Margarita Castro Flores
Centro de Estudios sobre América
 

To examine the theme of religions of African origin in Cuba from a perspective of gender is a challenge due to the scarce background for this kind of study. Even though the theme has gained legitimacy in contemporary Cuba, this doesn't necessarily translate into the proliferation of spaces of action for women. This is true particularly in the religious sphere where there is a strong subjection to norms and prohibitions of socio-historical origin.

There are factors that lead to the marginalization of Cuban women within contemporary religious practices. These can be traced to the hybrid religious expressions that resulted from colonization.

The European presence carried with it two main religious influences that feed some of the contemporary practices in Cuba. One of them is a particular form of Catholicism professed by the colonizers, which was plagued with discrimination against women. Their religion was in turn influenced by several centuries of Muslim domination, where women had an inferior social status.

On the other hand, we have the religious beliefs that arrived with African slaves from different ethnicities. They started some of the practices that exist today in Cuba, such as the Regla de Ochoa or Santería, the Regla Conga or Palo Monte, and the secret male societies of Abakuá, among others.

The religions brought by the Africans underwent modifications in relation to their original form, and at the same time maintained principles and beliefs that are considered unchangeable through time. Among those values is the subordinate role of women in religious practices. The roots of women's secondary role in this context need to be looked for within the history of ethnic groups that were violently uprooted.

During the colonial period, the discriminatory treatment against women was promoted by the colonizers, whose Eurocentric bias carried a virulent racism. As a result, some values disappeared and some were preserved, others were hidden or transformed. These diverse trends slowly incorporated themselves into a new national identity that developed a particular form of religiousness distinct from the one brought by the conquistadores. Anthropologist Fernando Ortiz has eloquently explained the difference between Cuban deities and Judeo-Christian religion: "...the black gods are commonly very happy; they don't feel the philosophical agony of the white gods, and they like to come down to have fun with the believers, like familiar comrades."

Yet the African woman was subjected to a patriarchal regime. Women were subordinated not only by the colonizers, but also by the colonized. These violated women were the vessel of racial, cultural and religious mestizaje (syncretism).

Women and Religion

If we cast a panoramic view on Cuban religion today, we can see that women occupy a very important place, as they do in all social spheres. This applies to their condition of believer-practitioners, and also to their role as mothers within the family. However, if we make a closer examination of womenís participation in the religions of African origin, we find that they do not enjoy an equivalent active role. (...)

In spite women's subordinated place within the religious system, they nevertheless play a fundamental role in the reproduction of values within society as a whole. This is explained if we take into account that in most of the population which practices some form of religion (fundamentally black and mestizo people), women are basically in charge of the household. They--particulatly single mothers--will bring up their children with traditional values.

This widespread phenomenon implies a contradiction. On the one hand, women are the household providers and nourishers, the transmitters of traditional values, all of which suggests an important role. On the other hand, they cannot count on the possibility of holding a higher status in the religion that they themselves teach. (...)

It is important to stress that even in her subordinate position within the religions of African origin in Cuba, women play a crucial role since they are responsible for their dissemination and persistence. Women make up more than 59% of the believers, yet they ultimately become reproducers of a model that leads to their self-limitation.

ISLA thanks Sarah Conner for helping in the translation of this piece. 
This is an edited version of the original.