Cuban Americans in the metropolitan area have been sending us requests for prayers. Cuba, estamos contigo! We are with you!
Cubans are protesting the authoritarian government, the deteriorating economy, sporadic electricity, and an anemic health care system failing to respond quickly to COVID-19. The demonstrations, which started on Sunday, are the largest since 1994. The Cuban government refused to let the Catholic charity Caritas deliver medical supplies. Critics say that the regime takes the COVID-19 vaccine that it receives and gives it only to members of the Communist Party and supporters of the authoritarian system. Cubans are singing a popular song whose refrain means that the games that the Communist government have played are over. Government, the singer raps, you have ’59’ [the year the regime began] but the people have double-two [2020, the year the artists gathered to start protesting]. The domino game is over. You are over.
Excerpts from the anthem:
It’s over, you five nine, I double two
It’s over, sixty years locked dominoes, look
It’s over, you five nine, I double two
It’s over, sixty years locking dominoes.
No more lies, my people ask for freedom, no more doctrines
Let’s no longer shout Homeland and Death but Homeland and Life
And begin to build what we dream of, what they destroyed with their hands.
That the blood does not continue to flow, for wanting to think differently
Who told you that Cuba belongs to you if my Cuba belongs to all my people
It’s over, your time is up, the silence is broken
It’s over, the laughter is over and the crying is already running
It’s over, and we’re not afraid, the deception is over
It’s over, now it’s sixty-two, hurting.
Michael Carrion, a pastor in the Bronx, visited Havana in 2019 and wrote back, “My heart breaks for Cuba… the poverty, the brokenness, these pastors are champions of the kingdom of God. Doing ministry in a context of struggle like I have never seen in my life.” Pastor Bill Devlin, also of the Bronx, has been teaching in Cuba off and on since 2007.
Luis and Maggie Iza are local Cuban American Christians who founded the after-school program Operation Exodus, mainly for Dominican youth in Washington Heights, and immigrant services at The Open Door at Redeemer Presbyterian Church West Side and a site in New Jersey. Luis says that every night at 10 pm Cubans are united in prayer for the sake of their country and its people.
Manhattan and Flushing used to be the center of Cubans in the NYC area. Now, New Jersey across from Manhattan has almost 80,000 Cuban Americans.
In the 19th Century, The Flushing Institute hosted several Cuban students and maintained connections with Cuba. The school was started in 1827 and operated by Rev. Dr. William Muhlenburg. The cornerstone contained a New Testament, and one of its graduates, Dr. Van De Water served as chaplain to U.S. troops during the fight against Spain. Another graduate, Rear Admiral Spencer Shepard Wood, commanded a ship in the Cuban campaign The school shifted from boys’ education to girls and changed its name to St. Anne’s Hall.
The Flushing connection to Cuba continued in the 20th Century. In April 1959, Fidel Castro went to visit his son Fidel, who lived with a Cuban family while he took classes at John Bowne Elementary School. In the early 1960s, the Church of the Nazarene on Bowne Street offered classes in English for Cubans. St. Michael’s Roman Catholic Church hosted a Spanish mass for Cubans in 1968 honoring Our Lady of Charity, a patron saint of Cuba.
