190 Chapter 8
Traditionally, Cubans have identified themselves, in part, according
to their ethnic, familial, and geographic backgrounds, together with
their religious beliefs. Afro-Cubans, for example, have used spiritist
based religions to organize to resist exploitation and demand their
rights going back to the earliest importation of Africans as slaves. In
the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries when Cubans of African
descent increased to more than half the population, Afro-Cuban reli-
gious beliefs served to unite them in their struggle for basic rights.
This continues to be the case. Among the most pervasive networks in
Cuba today are those rooted in spiritist beliefs as communities
increasingly have to meet their own needs in the face of the limitations
of the state in providing public services. However, given the decentral-
ized nature of spiritist religions their media production is substantially
less than that of institutionalized religions.
Religious institutions, including the Catholic and Protestant
churches, together with the Jewish community, all of which can tap
into international resources, have assumed more visible civil society
roles particularly with respect to meeting basic needs for food and
medical supplies, as well as spiritual sustenance. Old and new NGOs,
including the Masons, and more recently the independent libraries’
and journalists’ movements, are expanding their influence. Finally,
political parties are reappearing in Cuba, in part, as a result of
resources provided by the Christian Democratic, Social Democratic,
and Liberal Internationals. However, the most extensive national net-
works are those that are religiously based. Add to this the fact that
recent surveys indicate that approximately 75-85% of all Cubans
believe in the divine, even after decades of official atheist materialism,
religions have considerable potential to exercise influence within civil
society and occupy more public space.^5
A critical question is how much space the Cuban government is
willing to accord non-oppositional civil society that may not be mobi-
lizing for regime change, but is increasingly critical of socioeconomic
and political conditions.^6 It is into this category that most of the
Cuban religious media fits. Complicating the situation is the fact that it