Esclavos, patriotas y poetas a la sombra de la cruz: Cinco ensayos sobre catolicismo e historia cubana (review)

Esclavos, patriotas y poetas a la sombra de la cruz: Cinco ensayos sobre catolicismo e historia cubana. By MANUEL P. MAZA MIQUEL, S. J. Santo Domingo: Centro de Estudios Sociales Padre Juan Montalvo, S. J., 1999. Bibliography. 266 pp. Paper.

This volume resembles the famed Cuban stew--ajíaco--a combination of somewhat dissimilar ingredients whose blending together enhances each of the elements. Drawing on his many years of research on the Catholic Church in Cuba, as well as related topics, the author offers six essays examining five centuries of the history of the church in Cuba, the positions of clerics on slavery from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century, an analysis of Nicolás Guillén's poem West Indies, Ltd., a conflict over the hierarchical authority of the Catholic Church and a progressive cleric in nineteenth-century New York that intrigued José Martí, the relationship of the Catholic Church and the independence leader Máximo Gómez, and finally the diplomatic role of Father Desiderio Mesnier in the independence movement.

Maza links together these topics by arguing that the perception of the role of the Catholic Church in Cuba as a monolithic bulwark of the status quo is a gross oversimplification, just as some church leaders have tended to misperceive the objectives of liberals and progressives. Both these tendencies, he feels, flow from the church's historical inclination to cultivate political, economic, social, and cultural authorities, thereby identifying itself with both their accomplishments and failures. The weakness of the Catholic Church in Cuba inclined it towards such a strategy, although there were notable exceptions including Fathers Félix Varela and Desiderio Mesnier, both of whom supported independence and justice for Afro-Cubans. Hence, while institutionally the Catholic Church opposed independence and, at times, supported slavery, it also produced some of the most influential opponents of those positions. Furthermore, even José Martí felt compelled to revise his opinion of Catholicism somewhat when he encountered the case of Father Edward McGlynn, who called for radical socioeconomic reforms in late nineteenth-century New York in light of the poverty of Afro-Americans and many immigrants. Similarly some priests tried to convince the church leadership to support the reformist ideas of Máximo Gómez in the early years of the Cuban republic. Maza's exegesis on Guillén's early poem, West Indies, Ltd., illustrates the extent to which Cuban history has been molded by complex racial and cultural elements.

The author's goal is not to present an overarching interpretation of Cuban history, but rather a taste of its diverse elements, in order to highlight complexities. Thus Maza combines documentary sources with his own insights as a Cuban and a Jesuit priest. His interpretations reflect the tradition among Cuban intellectuals to combine politics, economics, sociology, anthropology, and poetry in an effort to better understand the Cuban past. The study of colonial Cuba has only begun to come into its own in the last 20 years and there is still a tendency to pay more attention to ideological imperatives than primary sources. The author does not pretend to offer a new theoretical framework for Cuban history, but rather an insightful corrective to interpretations that tend to oversimplify and stereotype. In this he is successful.

For Cubanologists who wish to delve into the history of the Catholic Church in all its contradictions, as well as to appreciate the breadth of a contemporary Cuban intellectual, this volume is well worth reading. For those who have only limited knowledge of the prerevolutionary history of Catholicism in the country the first two and last two essays are useful. And for sheer pleasure there is the chapter on Nicolás Guillén's early attempt to capture the flavor of Cuba's racial mix. In short, this is an insightful serving up of aspects...