| In the Caribbean nation of Cuba, two historical religions have influenced the social and cultural identity of its people: Roman Catholicism and West African Yoruba Santeria. Through the Catholic image of Our Lady of Charity or Nuestra Senora de la Caridad, a local Virgin Mary symbol found in both beliefs, Cubans have developed a unique sense of individual and collective identity. The image's worship originated in the Eastern part of the island, El Cobre. The dissertation's research material addressed the following questions: To what extent has Our Lady affected Cuban ethnicity in history and culture? And, conversely, in which ways have ethnicity, different cultures, and the island's history contributed to the creation of the image? Other questions of meaning and experience and their influence on the nation's people in everyday social expressions have also been explored. Primarily, the elements of such social and religious phenomena have been investigated through the theories of Mircea Eliade, whose works have analyzed religious expression via phenomenological, historical, and comparative principles. The theories of a second thinker, analytical psychologist Carl G. Jung, were also used in an auxiliary capacity, based upon the collective unconscious and its archetypes.;Through a review of the literature and analysis of the image's symbols and nation's historical and cultural narratives, Our Lady's strong connection to the socio-cultural lives of the Cuban people has been established and supported. In addition, the works of seminal Cuban scholars have provided social scientific material toward the unique synthesis of ideas in this dissertation, framed within Eliadean perspectives. Finally, this work has established that the influx of West African and Spanish peoples to aboriginal Eastern Cuba has contributed to the foundation and evolution of the image of Our Lady; the Marian image having historically influenced the people's religious, cultural, and social identity. This study is important in its analysis and articulation of Our Lady's importance in ethnic and cultural contexts, fusing specific themes in unique ways. |
