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Journal of Undergraduate Research

Keywords

religious restoration, Cuba, faith, repression, persecution

College

Family, Home, and Social Sciences

Department

History

Abstract

On January 1, 1959, armored tanks of Fidel Castro’s rebel army paraded down the streets of Havana, Cuba promising reforms and change in the island nation. For many of Cuba’s religious adherents this came in the form of repression and persecution. Castro began his attack on religion in 1961 by forcing Cuba most powerful clergymen into exile in a series of despotic reforms meant to cripple the powerful influence of the Catholic Church. Thereafter, Castro was excommunicated by the Vatican but persecutions continued as the government discriminated against all Cuban church members by denying them jobs, excluding them from government posts, and ridiculing them in government sponsored media outlets. Although religion was not completely banned, young Cubans were taught in the state-run schools to believe that religion was a foolish superstition and an irrelevant part in the new progressive Cuban state. The Cuban leader officially stamped his seal of disapproval on religion by declaring Cuba an atheist state in the Constitutional Reform of 1976.

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