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3 Private Experience When I first met her on a residential side street, Elena handed me a something from a short stack of photocopies she was carrying under her arm. It was a pastoral newsletter entitled “No hay patria sin virtud” (There Is No Country without Virtue), published by the Cuban Conference of Catholic Bishops. It was dedicated to Padre Félix Varela on the 150th anniversary of his death and signed by Monsignor Jaime Ortega, archbishop of Havana.1 It criticized the government’s strict control over the Catholic Church. In particular, it condemned state restrictions on religious education and lack of access to mass media, as well as the increasingly amoral and godless character of Cuban society under communism. She encouraged me to read it carefully. Scanning the title, I thanked her, folded the newsletter, and placed it discreetly in the recesses of my jumbled diaper bag, quite curious about her cause, but not sure if I wanted to be associated with the document. In theory, no news circulates in Cuba that is not broadcast, published, or written by representatives of the regime. Therefore, openly dissident texts are nearly nonexistent in Cuba.2 The government does, however, allow an estimated twelve to twenty independent Catholic magazines or newsletters, with small circulations, to be distributed. These are the only legally produced documents not to come from state-owned printers and distribution networks, though technically their legal distribution is restricted to church premises. Elena casually handing them out on the street was thus not technically legal. There is, however, an unwritten rule that the state neither censors church publications nor comments on them officially. As a result, David explained, church officials may print controversial material, but they still present it suavemente (smoothly, softly, gently)—they maintain a respectful tone concerning the government, and their criticism is consistently indirect. He said this as he handed me a stack of a year’s worth of issues of Palabra nueva (New Word) magazine,3 which his parents had bought for him at their church for eight pesos an issue (about 80 U.S. cents). The articles generally hold much more Private Experience / 53 resonance for readers than do those of official news organs. Therefore, the Catholic press provides an important gray space for the expression of dissenting opinion, even if journalists, not “ordinary citizens,” write the articles and opinion pieces. I write about the gray space of this alternative press not to discuss the existing “freedom of expression” or “freedom of the press” that certain publications have in Cuba. On the other hand, I do not want to underestimate this channel for expression and formation of opinion, excluded from and seemingly incompatible with official news organs and official discourse. Rather, I want to describe the private ways in which the texts that are of interest to the shadow public are handled, must be circulated, and are read by individuals. I also want to suggest, following Michael Warner’s stream of thinking, that that “texts cross one’s path in their endless search for a public of one kind or another” (2002: 7), suggesting that the text itself could assist in identifying the public, and assist in forming their self-understanding. But what public? Certainly a more specific public than the readers of the Communist Party organ Granma, which people routinely told me was best used as toilet paper and for the discreet disposal of sanitary napkins. The editor of Palabra nueva, Orlando Márquez, explains, “our problem is to see that we’re not confused with the opposition press. We are clearly the Church press and the Church is not allied with the government or with the opposition. But caution doesn’t mean silence or complicity. Our message is for everyone, whatever their political affiliation” (Lionet 2003). So, purportedly, Palabra nueva’s message is perhaps directed to the “Cuban public” at large, but nevertheless at a weak public (Fraser 1992) that cannot safely be identified with the opposition; furthermore, the Catholic Church takes all the credit for the publication’s sins (partly to protect citizens), which makes the actual “public ” more difficult to identify. It knowingly encourages the private discussion of common concerns, and takes measured stances in opposition to existing power structures. But witnessing the actual circulation of the magazine reveals how such efforts perpetuate the existence of a shadow public. Private Circulation, Silent Marginalia An article in Palabra nueva on renumeración salarial, about the importance of decent and fair salaries...

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