So central is walking to this enterprise that people call it the caminata-the special walk, instead of a pilgrimage. Some have walked from their homes in Santiago, and others from Bejucal, the next town over.Īround dusk, the police shut down the main road to cars in order to accommodate the crowds. ![]() Some have flown into Havana from overseas and traveled the 25 miles to the little town. On December 17, pilgrims flood the streets of Rincón, home to a leprosarium and a church dedicated to Saint Lazarus. On my first research trip in 1992, as a guest of the Academy of Sciences, my single daily meal consisted of one cup of rice and one fried egg each day, along with mangos and coffee. More recently, the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989 resulted in an economic contraction of some 50 percent, and again many Cubans went hungry. Before the Cuban Revolution, many agricultural workers lived through annual cycles of poverty and hunger as they waited for the sugar harvest to provide work. Before the American occupation of Cuba in 1902, scarlet fever epidemics erupted almost every year, and thousands died. Like the modest altar for alms, these improvised carts usually include a statue of St. Some people push a carretilla, a little cart. They also teach that everyone should always pray for health, and Babalú is one of the guarantors of this most important blessing. ![]() The elders teach that he is an irascible old man and so mysterious that his omnipotence is nearly impossible to comprehend. Oricha elders tell of his exile from his homeland with the Lucumí because he spread smallpox among them, and they tell of his journey to the Arará, who were healed by him and ultimately made him their king. Thought to be responsible for bringing epidemics like smallpox, leprosy and AIDS, Babalú-Ayé also cures these diseases. In the African-inspired religious tradition known as Santería or Oricha, Babalú-Ayé is both feared and beloved. Cuba’s Lazarus works miracles for the destitute and the infirm, making him one of the country’s most popular saints. ![]() Some say he was a fourth-century bishop, but most Cubans imagine him as the Biblical Lazarus-the poor man who cannot enter the kingdom of heaven, who Jesus raises from the dead. In Cuban Catholicism, Lazarus, the patron saint of the poor and sick, is represented as a homeless beggar surrounded by dogs. (Yes, this is the same Babalú that performer Desi Arnaz sang to in “I Love Lucy.”) Lazarus and the African-inspired Babalú-Ayé. Since 1992, I have been visiting Cuba as an ethnographer and researcher of a unique Afro-Cuban tradition that honors both the Catholic St. Many of my Cuban friends and colleagues told me that this momentous event “had” to take place on this day. “It’s a day of great significance to Cubans, when thousands of them make an annual pilgrimage to the shrine of Rincón to mark the feast day of San Lázaro.” “Isn’t it amazing that this occurred on December 17,” exclaimed Cuban-American anthropologist Ruth Behar in a piece she wrote for the Washington Post. Some called it a miracle, as it occurred on an auspicious day for Cubans. For many, particularly Cuban exiles around the world, it was one of those unforgettable historic moments, like the first man on the Moon or the fall of the Berlin Wall. ![]() Washington, D.C., had been awash in rumors that a change was in the offing, but almost no one guessed at the magnitude of this remarkable development in global geopolitics. After more than 50 years of economic embargo and political brinksmanship, the announcement one year ago of the renewal of diplomatic relations between Cuba and the United States came as a surprise.
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