THE most bizarre offering that the Reverend Jorge Alejandro has witnessed at Cuba's most cherished shrine came from the man who bent down and began clipping his toenails. One by one the man deposited them at the altar, among the many other mementoes left by the faithful for the Virgin of El Cobre, widely considered the mother and protector of Cubans.
At this shrine in the foothills of the Sierra Maestra, Cubans leave the Virgin locks of hair, baby clothes, baseballs, diplomas, letters, candles and bouquets. They offer photographs, trinkets, lockets and pendants as well.
Some have even left ban
ners criticising Cuba's Socialist government, which might be unthinkable anywhere else on the island.
Lina Ruz, the late mother of Fidel and Raul Castro, visited the Virgin in the late 1950s when her sons were fighting to topple the American-backed government of Fulgencio Batista. She left a metal figurine that is now kept under lock and key.
Ernest Hemingway donated the medallion from his 1954 Nobel Prize for Literature to the shrine. It was pilfered in 1986, but the police recovered it days later. The Virgin makes an appearance in Hemingway's The Old Man And The Sea; the fisherman at the centre of the story pledged to visit the shrine if only he managed to catch his elusive fish.
In the case of the man trimming his nails, Alejandro felt compelled to intervene, explaining that the man's idea was noble but unnecessary.
"We humans relate to the body and to objects," Alejandro said. "But I try to explain that this is not a store where you give and then you get. It's not important how beautiful the flowers are or how valuable the diamonds are that one leaves. What God wants is faith, and that's the best offering you can give."
It is not a message that sinks in easily. On a recent morning, a crowd of believers filed past him carrying offerings, known as ex votos, many sold by hawkers on the winding road leading up to the church.
Overlandis Cobas Utria brought flowers for the Virgin, whom he asked to help heal his infant daughter. The baby had a fever so high her forehead was hot to the touch. "The Virgin is everything for us," he said, as his wife and mother-in-law nodded in agreement and his daughter let out a wail.
The shrine is packed with sports memorabilia left by Cuban athletes. There are signed baseballs, as well as Olympic medals offered by athletes who believe their victory came about because of her intervention.
Offerings included sweet bread that a nun said was left by a follower of Santeria, the Afro-Cuban religion that honours the Virgin – though not as a representation of Christianity's Virgin Mary, but as Ochun, the goddess of love and femininity.
In the years after the 1959 revolution, public processions venerating the Virgin of El Cobre were restricted by the government, which feared that any unsanctioned gathering could spin out of control. Only in the late 1990s were such displays allowed more regularly.
The Virgin, who was supposedly first spotted bobbing in the ocean off Cuba in 1611, has an undeniable political dimension. She has been adopted both by backers of the Castro brothers and by those who believe their rule has run the country into the ground.
Several banners called on the government to release prisoners jailed for speaking out against the leadership. "Amnesty for Cuban Political Prisoners!" one says.
When Fidel Castro fell ill two years ago, his supporters from El Cobre, the area he has long represented in the National Assembly, visited the Virgin to ask for his recuperation. No doubt there were critics as well, quietly praying for change. Before Cubans flee the island on risky rafts, many come here to pray for a safe journey.
"People who are against the government bring their dreams and their suffering and their pain," said Alejandro, an outspoken critic of the lack of freedom of expression in Cuba. "And those who support the government come here too. The Virgin brings them together. She's the mother of reconciliation."
The full article contains 691 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
