Funerals in Socialist Cuba 269
readers about funerals.^3 In particular the revolution brought changes
to the religious aspects of Cuban funerals.
Before the revolution, funeral homes in Havana used to be pri-
vately owned.^4 With the revolution, funeral homes became state
owned and were stripped of the Catholic religious symbols prevalent
in pre-revolutionary times. Cemeteries had been owned by the Catho-
lic Church prior to the revolution, but also they were annexed to the
state in the 1960s. To my knowledge, a little chapel in Havana’s main
cemetery, Cristobal Colon, is the only exception and remains the prop-
erty of the Catholic Church. The blessing of bodies in this chapel has
continued throughout the revolution.
Although Cuba was never a particular stronghold of the Catholic
Church, after the revolution the Catholic Church was left in a very
weak standing within the country. After some decades of rather strict
state atheism, distinct religious and ritual practices experienced a gen-
eral revival in the country in the early 1990s, when the fall of the
Soviet Union lead to a general relaxation in Cuban state policy (see e.g.
Azicri, 2000; Eckstein, 1994: 122; Holbraad, 2004). The popularity of
Catholic rituals also ascended during this period. Currently the domi-
nant religion in Cuba is likely to be Afro-Cuban Santería, but the
majority of Cubans would probably still label themselves as Catholic
simultaneously. In addition, other Afro-Cuban religions (e.g. Palo, Aba-
kuá), spiritism and general brujeria (‘sorcerism’) are widely practiced in
the country.- With society-news I refer to announcements and articles concerning births, bap-
tisms, birthdays, weddings, funerals etc., which appeared in the pre-revolutionary news-
papers (see also El Diablo Ilustrado, 2006: 198, 204 on the “vain,” “ridiculous” character
of such news). It is possible that the current lack of a dress code in Cuban funerals has to
do with similar ideological notions, since I was told by my informants that before the
revolution Cubans used to wear black clothes in funerals, but currently they wear clothes
of any colour and type. However, I have not managed to locate the exact information on
when and why the habit of wearing black in funerals disappeared. - After the revolution many of these funeral home companies moved over to the
other side of the Bay to Miami, where they continued operating with the same names as
in pre-revolutionary Cuba, such as Caballero Rivera or Maspons.