‘I’ve always considered Christ to be one of the greatest revolutionaries in the history of humanity’ – Fidel Castro.
The Cuban revolution launched by los barbudos (the bearded men) – including the famous Fidel Castro, Che Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos – stunned the world in the late 1950s. Almost 65 years on, the country is still one of the few officially Marxist-Leninist states in existence. The late Fidel Castro governed for 55 years before passing on the reins to his brother Raúl. Miguel Díaz-Canel has been President for the last five years, bringing the rule of the Castros to an end, but keeping the Revolution alive.
However, on a recent visit to Cuba it appears that the revolution of Jesus Christ is also having a deep (and eternal) effect on the country. Fidel once stated: ‘I never saw a contradiction between the ideas that sustain me and the ideas of that symbol, of that extraordinary figure, Jesus Christ.’ Many would agree to differ with that statement, but in a country hit incredibly hard by Covid, it is the spiritual dimension – whether forms of African religion or Christianity – that are flourishing, as a beleaguered nation wonders what the future might hold.
