The Impact of the Expansion of the Religious Media in Contemporary Cuba 191
is hard not only for experts, but also for the Cuban leadership, to dis-
entangle oppositional, dissident, and non-oppositional but critical sec-
tors of Cuban civil society. Yet it is imperative to do so given that
Cuba is clearly in the midst of a transition whose outcome is unclear.^7
Closer examination of the role of civil society in a transition, as well as
the multiple roles of religious actors is useful for a fuller understand-
ing of the potential of the religious media.^8
The expanding role of religion can be seen in the four hour meet-
ing on May 19, 2010 between Cardinal Jaime Ortega Alamino, Arch-- In 1960 nominal Catholics constituted approximately 70-75 per cent of the total
population of 7,500,000, while Protestants amounted to 3-6 per cent. The Jewish com-
munity numbered approximately 12,000 in the 1950s, while spiritists were estimated at
about 65 per cent of the total population, overlapping with other religions. In the late
1980s the Centro de Investigaciones Psicológicas y Sociológicas estimated that 65-85 per cent of
Cubans believed in the supernatural, while 13.60 per cent did not. In the mid-1990s
believers were estimated to constitute approximately 85 per cent of the population. Cur-
rently regular practitioners are estimated by various religious sources to be around 1-3
per cent. For an examination of Cuban religious statistics see Margaret E. Crahan,
“Cuba,” in: Paul E. Sigmund, (ed.), Religious Freedom and Evangelization in Latin America:
The Challenge of Religious Pluralism (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1999), 87-112; Margaret
E. Crahan, “The Church of the Past and the Church of the Future,” in: Max Azicri and
Elsie Deal (eds.), Cuban Socialism in a New Century: Adversity, Survival, and Renewal (Gaines-
ville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2004): 123-146. - Between September 1-15, 2006 Gallup polled 1,000 residents of Havana and San-
tiago de Cuba aged 15 and older. Undertaken shortly after Raúl Castro became acting
head of state due to Fidel Castro’s illness, 49% of those polled stated that they approved
of Cuba’s leadership and 39% disapproved. Only 42% of Cubans reported that they
believed that they could improve their socioeconomic status by working hard, while 26%
stated they were satisfied with the degree of freedom they had to determine what to do
with their lives. Gallup World Poll. ThinkForum: Cuba. Princeton: The Gallup Organiza-
tion, 2006, pp. 1-3. - Reportedly the Cuban government in the 1990s created units to analyze and make
recommendations concerning a transition. - The proliferation of literature on civil society since Robert D. Putnam’s landmark
study, Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy (Princeton, NJ: Princeton
University Press, 1993), is well known. Following are a few of the works that suggest the
complexity and diversity of civil society’s actors: Juan J. Linz and Alfred Stepan, Problems
of Democratic Transition and Consolidation: Southern Europe, South America, and Post-Communist
Europe (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996); Ariel C. Armony, The
Dubious Link: Civic Engagement and Democratization (Stanford, CA: Stanford University
Press, 2004); Patricia Bayer Richard and John A. Booth, “Civil Society and Democratic
Transition,” in: Thomas W. Walker and Ariel C. Armony, (eds.), Repression, Resistance, and
Democratic Transition in Central America (Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, 2000): 233-
254; Theda Skocpol and Morris P. Fiorina (eds.), Civic Engagement in American Democracy
(Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 1999); Mark E. Warren, Democracy and
Association (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2001); Michael Edwards, Civil
Society (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2004).