God and the Nation: Protestants, Patriotism and Pride in Cuba, 1890–1906

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.13169/intejcubastud.8.1.0074
• Pages: 74-96
• Published date: 01 April 2016
• Date: 01 April 2016
• Author: James A. Baer
• Subject Matter: Cuba,Cuban Republic,Protestants,Presbyterians,religion

InternatIonal Journal of Cuban StudIeS 8.1 SprIng 2016

ACADEMIC ARTICLES

GOD AND THE NATION: PROTESTANTS,

PATRIOTISM AND PRIDE IN CUBA,

1890–1906

James A. Baer

Northern Virginia Community College, USA

Abstract

The career of Evaristo Collazo demonstrates the nuanced aspects of Cuban-American

relations within the Protestant community at a critical moment in the history of Cuba at

the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century. US influence on the

Cuban political system and economy is well documented. The significance of Protestant

activity in Cuba is less studied but often conforms to the notion of US hegemony.

Collazo and other Cuban Protestant pastors operated in an environment strongly

influenced by US teachings and values. Nevertheless, they responded in ways that

suggest Cubans found some space for leadership and authority within a transnational

bond of religion. This study of Collazo and the Presbyterian Church in Cuba provides

a deeper understanding of the importance of transnational approaches to issues that

transcend national boundaries and offers a clearer picture of the ways Cubans reacted

to and resisted US hegemony.

Keywords: Cuba, Cuban Republic, Protestants, Presbyterians, religion

Evaristo Collazo was a humble man with a tenacious spirit. Photographs show

him in his forties with a receding hairline and a great moustache. He is dressed

in a three-piece suit with a cravat, holding a Bible in his right hand. His back is

straight and his eyes stare outward, looking like a man with a purpose. He had

left the Cuban Catholic Church, joining first the Episcopalians, then the Baptists

and finally, the Presbyterian Church in 1890. He found a home in the Reformed

theology and structure of the Presbyterian Church as an alternative to the

GOD AND THE NATION: PROTESTANTS, PATRIOTISM AND PRIDE IN CUBA, 1890–1906 75

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hierarchical constraints many Cubans felt with the Catholic Church that served

more faithfully the Spanish king than the people of Cuba. He desired to see his

homeland free from the Spanish monarchy and served in the War of Independence

from 1895 to 1898. Evaristo Collazo also advocated for Cuban leadership in the

Presbyterian Church in Cuba, at times coming into conflict with the American

missionaries who wanted to retain control. The origin of the Presbyterian

Church in Cuba, however, did not begin with the American missionaries who

descended on Cuba during the US occupation from 1898 until 1902. Instead, it

was a Cuban, Collazo, who requested Presbyterian missionaries, and then asked

to be ordained by them in order to lead the church he had established. This

Cuban-ness–evangelical and nationalist–was something Presbyterians in Cuba

shared with other Protestant denominations in adapting Protestant theology to

the needs of Cuban society as nationalists who advocated for reform and social

justice. This relationship between Cuban and American Protestants is significant

because it afforded Cubans opportunities to blunt US hegemony, permit Cuban

leadership and placate Cuban pride. These ties continue to this day and present

an important dynamic as US-Cuban relations continue to evolve.

In the years leading up to a new war of independence, Cubans increasingly

found US Protestant denominations in Cuba to be supportive of rebel goals.

Then, when the United States took over the conflict and occupied the island,

increasing numbers of US Protestant missionaries arrived. Most studies of Cuba

in this period focus on the military occupation, the political foundation of the

republic and the importance of US business interests. American and Cuban

Protestants were involved in all these aspects but are seldom studied in depth.

Richard Gott (2004) suggests that a horde of US missionaries descended on the

island at the turn of the twentieth century and helped impose a US-based struc-

ture on the island’s evangelicals. Histories of Cuba by North American and

European scholars and writers describe the importation of US institutions and

values in the period of occupation and the early Republic. Luis A. Pérez (1995:

63) states, ‘Almost immediately, the small Cuban ministry was overwhelmed

and displaced by a vast influx of North American missionaries of all denomina-

tions’. He identifies several Cubans who became Protestants while in exile in the

United States. However, his theme of hegemony leads him to undervalue the

significance of the Cuban spirit, and he makes these early Protestants tools of

North American domination, despite showing several of these Cubans standing

up to their Protestant denomination and its missionaries. Jason M. Yaremko

(2000) presented details about Baptists and Methodists in Eastern Cuba to

explain tensions between Cuban pastors and US missionaries by the 1920s and

the 1930s. However, the example of Evaristo Collazo indicates that differences

in church organisation allowed more flexibility to Cuban Presbyterians, and the