172 Chapter 7
on the embryonic Cuban civil society were presented, dealing with a
plethora of groups, inside the island. These went from Catholics, to
the Abacuá, from internal dissidents, to the remnants of the small
Jewish community in Havana. We noticed how this same situation
occurred in other forums. Somehow, most researchers missed a civil
society group that has existed for over 150 years, with nearly 30,000
members, distributed among 314 lodges, in every province, town and
city in the country: the Cuban Freemasons (hereon, CF).
There are several possible reasons for the total omission, or at best
a slight mention of the role of CF in the research literature of Cuban
civil society. One is lack of knowledge, which is acceptable among lay-
men, but which denotes professional incompetence when talking
about researchers of the Cuban civil society. A second reason is that
researchers are emphasizing dissident groups that oppose, in some
manner, the current Cuban regime, which the Grand Lodge, as an
institution, has not. But civil society is not exclusively composed by
opponents of the establishment. A third reason may be an existing preju-
dice against Freemasons in general, something well-studied and docu-
mented by the Centro de Estudios Historicos de la Masoneria
Española (CEHME). Finally, more than one of the above reasons may
be combined. For a detailed discussion of the omission of CF in the
Cuban civil society research literature, see Romeu (2010).
The result of such omission is a gap in the literature of the Cuban
civil society. The objective of the present paper is precisely, to fill such
gap.
Freemasons are an international organization self-defined as “the
institution of morality.” They are independent of any government,
including the current Cuban one. They are run democratically, at every
level, periodically electing the leadership of every Lodge, as well as of
the Grand Lodge. Masons allow adult men of every walk of life, race,
religion, or political philosophy to join. They discourage discussions
about partisan politics or partisan religion. But any topic of legitimate
nature and importance can be developed in the Lodge. Perhaps