Politics and Civil Society in Cuba

187

8 The Impact of the Expansion of the

Religious Media in Contemporary

Cuba

Margaret E. Crahan^1

I. Introduction^2

In order to better understand the role or roles of the religious media
in contemporary Cuba, it is first necessary to examine the unique
nature of civil society in Cuba. The classic definition of civil society is

1. Senior Research Scholar, Institute of Latin American Studies, School of Internatio-
   nal and Public Affairs, Columbia University. Paper prepared for the “Cuba Futures”
   Conference, Bildner Center, The Graduate Center, City University of New York, April 1,
   2011, New York, NY. Earlier versions of this paper were presented at the Florida Inter-
   national University Journalists and Editors Workshop, May 26-27, 2010, Miami, Florida
   and the VI Encuentro Socioreligioso organized by the Centro de Investigaciones Socio-
   lógicas y Psicolgicas, Havana, Cuba, July 2010.


2. This essay reflects some ideas initially presented in Margaret E. Crahan (ed.), Religion,
   Culture, and Society: The Case of Cuba (Washington, DC: Woodrow Wilson International
   Center for Scholars, 2003) and elaborated in Margaret E. Crahan's and Ariel C. Armony's
   “Rethinking Civil Society and Religion in Cuba” in Bert Hoffman and Laurence Whi-
   tehead, eds., Debating Cuban Exceptionalism (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007):139-


3. The presenter wishes to acknowledge the support of the Rockefeller Foundation’s
   Bellagio Study and Conference Center and recognize support from the Center for Phi-
   lanthropy and Civil Society of the City University of New York and of City University’s
   Collaborative Grant #80209-02-12.