They are still firm holders
of the communist faith. “We love Fidel like the religious love God,” Maria
Elena says. They point to the fallen Soviet Union as proof that communism
will be reborn even stronger. “Drugs, prostitution, mafia, they never had
those things under communism,” Juan says. “Communism and the Pope have
a lot in common. They agree on poverty, health, education, equality. It’s
just the way they go about it that’s different,” says Hernandez. A Red
Cross worker who was listening in, Alfredo Nunez, 39, piped up: “I hope
they get the Pope’s message in the United States. They are the two most
loved men in the world. The only two who can stand up to the United States,”
Nunez says.
Angel Cardenas, 56, from Camaguey, was also not a believer, but he went
“out of respect.” The Pope, he emphasized was “historical.” “The Maximum
leader says the Pope is for everyone, believer or not.” He explains Fidel’s
differences with the church not as repression, but ideological point of
view. But he sees no change in Castro’s policy on religion. “We believe
the same communist principals. We’ve opened economically because of the
embargo,” he explains, adding “The vatican on other occasions has spoken
against the embargo.”
Again, people turned to Fidel’s example to explain their new found spirituality.
“There were some years where religion was opaque,” explains Cristina Hidalgo,
58, who had traveled from Las Tunas. She’s not a practicing Catholic, but
she sees the Pope as “universal.” “Fidel went to Catholic school, I’m not
sure if he was married in the church,” she says. Another woman interrupts
her to insist that indeed he was married in the church and even baptized.
Others point out that when Fidel and Raul were in the Sierras before the
triumph of the revolution, their mother said a prayer to the virgin of
charity for their safety. Everyone seems to know these stories, but when
pressed on Fidel’s current religious state, they demur. “It looks like
he sympathizes, but these are private things,” Hidalgo says.
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