Unlike the proliferation of small businesses or the emergence of digital media and bloggers, many changes taking place in contemporary Cuba are barely visible to the observer. A little noticed but potentially significant shift is taking place within Freemasonry in Cuba, as it gradually regains membership, expands international links, and presses to occupy public space. The non-state organization is widespread throughout the island and was historically linked to the major Cuban independence leaders. Its membership has steadily expanded in recent years, and is currently estimated at 29,000. This followed a drastic decline during the first decades of the Revolution, though it was never outlawed as it has been under communist regimes elsewhere.
Freemasonry is an international fraternal association of initiates, predominantly men, devoted to the improvement of self and society, and based on principles of freedom of thought and belief. Though its members only assert a belief in a higher power, however they may understand it, it is erroneously classified by the Cuban state as a religious organization. Thus, its members faced obstacles to social and professional advancement under the Revolution, until the constitutional reform in 1991 recognized freedom of religion. Freemasonry is now quietly pushing some of the boundaries that have restricted its activities in public spaces and social arenas. Notably, in Havana and a few other cities, Freemasons have taken to the streets to commemorate the national heroes of the independence wars, particularly José Martí, Antonio Maceo, and Mariana Grajales.
At first glance, the fact that groups of Freemasons on occasion march through the streets to the monuments of national heroes may appear entirely unremarkable, and in keeping with the state’s nationalist commemorations of those who it depicts as initiators of the struggle for sovereignty that culminated in the Cuban Revolution. However, the Freemasons’ twentieth-century pre-revolutionary practice of holding marches, or peregrinaciones, to honor the heroes of independence—which had reflected its prominent role in the formation of the republic and of the separation between church and state—was suspended shortly after the triumph of the Revolution. At that time, the state’s mass organizations developed rallies and marches as a means to strengthen revolutionary ideology and support, while public gatherings by non-state organizations were restricted and required prior state approval.
Freemasonry claims Martí as one of its own
The speeches and rallies that have been a mainstay of the Revolution typically pay homage to José Martí, who is seen as the intellectual founder of Cuba’s anti-imperialist project based on principles of national unity and equality. However, Freemasonry claims Martí as one of its own. Like most leaders of the independence wars, Martí was a Mason, and his ideas concerning freedom, rights, secularism, and equality built on the principles of the Masonic thought of that era. Historically, Martí’s poetic yet ambiguous vision has provided contending forces with a complex terrain on which to claim their role as interpreters and defenders of his legacy, as argued in recent historical studies and as illustrated by President Obama’s citation of a poem by Martí in his speech to Cubans during his visit this year. Thus, reference to Martí by Masons and other groups may be charged with contestatory meanings.
There is growing sentiment among Masons and others that General Antonio Maceo Grajales—second-in-command of the Liberation Army, Freemason, anti-racist, anti-imperialist, and military strategist—has not received the kind of recognition that he deserves in contemporary Cuba. A military commander who refused to sign the 1878 Pact of Zanjón with Spain since it did not abolish slavery, he was the object of Spanish racist attacks and assassination attempts. As a skilled leader of largely Afro-Cuban forces, the struggle for racial equality was at the heart of his political project and transnational activism. Yet Maceo has been made an icon of military skill and physical bravery, secondary in nationalist discourse to Martí, and is popularly known as El Titán de Bronce (The Bronze Titan). Today, the racialized distinction between the two leaders—imagined as white intellectual and black military combatant—has taken on new significance in the context of the widening discussions of race.
The Masonic lodge Gral. Antonio Maceo, founded in 1902 and located in Centro Havana, has recently led public gatherings to honor Maceo and his mother, Mariana Grajales. Portraits and busts of both of them decorate the lodge, which has had a racially mixed membership since it was founded and is now predominantly Afro-Cuban. The lodge has long hosted a public event that features speeches and music to honor Maceo on the date of his death in battle December 7, a date that was a holiday and occasion for much public ceremony during the early republic.
However, race is not discussed at Masonic events, not only because Maceo and Martí have become symbols of racial fraternity, but because Freemasonry is based on the premise of the equality of all members, and the discussion of race, along with religious or political affiliation, is considered divisive. But Masonry’s rhetoric of raceless unity, which parallels that of the state in certain respects, is combined with an inclusive practice of electing leaders and an acceptance of diverse religious faiths. Afro-Cubans are present in the leadership of many lodges in Havana and recently in the leadership of the national governing body, the Gran Logia de Cuba; Lázaro Cuesta Valdés, the current Gran Maestro of the Gran Logia, which is an elected position, as well as most of his officers, is black. Notably, many Masons of all racial backgrounds, including Cuesta, are practioners of Afro-Cuban religions.
The Gral. Antonio Maceo lodge applied for a permit in 2013 to renew its long suspended practice of marching from its premises on Jesús Peregrino street to the statue of Maceo by the Malecón to pay him tribute on December 7. Granted the permit, its leaders convoked other Masons and the public to join them in a march, replete with Masonic banners and symbols, that occupied the width of the street. The march took place the two following years without incident. Pressing further to assert its autonomy, in 2015 the lodge did not request a permit to march, but simply informed the Registro de Asociaciones of its intended activity, as required by law.
In July of 2015, the Gral. Maceo lodge organized a small gathering in honor of Mariana Grajales to mark the bicentennial of her birth. This was headed by members of its recently reactivated youth lodge, which is named after Grajales. As mother of twelve children who participated in the independence struggle, along with herself and her husband, she is popularly known as La Madre de la Patria, and is particularly venerated in Oriente. At the Masons’ tribute, the young speakers stressed her virtues as a mother and a patriot. The occasion attracted, among others, the presence of two women admirers of Grajales who sang to her, and women vendors who sold books about Maceo.
These public actions by Masons to claim and define the history of Maceo and his family respond to a range of intentions and should not be given a single interpretation. Yet they do reflect a growing awareness of the contemporary relevance of that history for a changing Cuban society in which inequalities of various kinds are ever more visible.
Feature Image: Founding members of the General Antonio Maceo Lodge (photo by the author).