Religious Rituals and Diasporic Identity

At 8:30 on a Wednesday night in 1993 several Cuban-born men from the confraternity, dressed in traditional white guayabera shirts, carried the statue of Our Lady of Charity into an auditorium in Miami for her annual feast-day mass. Recently arrived by boat from her short journey from the shrine, the Virgin was welcomed by thousands of devotees. She made her way through a sea of fluttering white, red, and blue as followers waved white handkerchiefs and Cuban flags. Fathers lifted children onto their shoulders for a better view. Flashbulbs ignited. Some in the crowd pushed toward her. From my vantage point a few rows from the altar I noticed that some elderly women and men nearby were weeping. One woman sobbed aloud, “May she save Cuba. We need her to save Cuba;’ Many others smiled widely as they waved to their national patroness. As the Virgin weaved her way down the aisles of folding chairs toward the temporary altar, a local Cuban priest led the crowd in a series of chants. “jViva la Virgen de Caridad!” he boomed into a microphone to be heard above the shouting and singing. “Salva a Cuba” (Save Cuba), the crowd responded again and again. The men from the confraternity lifted her onto the left side of the stage, where she stood in front of a twelve-foot triangular background. Arched across the top a prediction was inscribed in yellow flowers: “Libre ‘94,” signaling the people’s hopes that the homeland would be “liberated” from communism during the coming year (figure 28). Finally, Our Lady of Charity rested triumphantly on the altar, where she would preside over the rest of the ceremony, as the clergy positioned themselves on the altar to begin the mass and the crowd boisterously sang the Cuban national anthem.

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