Can Freemasonry survive in countries which have extreme form of government? Not normally, but Freemasonry survives in Communist Cuba.
14th April 2005

By Gary Marx
Tribune foreign correspondent
April 14, 2005

HAVANA -- In a nation dominated for generations by President Fidel Castro and the Communist Party, one group is emerging as a refuge for those chafing under the constraints of daily life on this Caribbean island.

Widely popular before the 1959 revolution, Cuba's Masons suffered a precipitous decline in the ensuing decades, but the group has since recovered its appeal as some Cubans look for an alternative to the uniformity inherent in the nation's one-party system.

Membership in the all-male group in Cuba has soared to nearly 30,000 from about 21,000 in 1990, even as the Masons and other fraternal groups have seen memberships elsewhere decline in the same period.

United by a belief in a supreme being and a strict code of moral conduct, Cuba's Masons--like the island's Roman Catholic Church--managed to carve out a limited and precarious autonomy by carefully avoiding open confrontation with Cuban authorities.

Cuba's Masons say discussions about democracy, human rights, abortion, globalization, cloning and other issues of the day are common, though members refrain from talking about the island's politics inside the nation's 316 lodges, or meeting places.

Some Masons say the organization has a history of promoting civil liberties and could play a role in Cuba's political future, though top Masons say their mission is to foster ethical conduct and brotherhood.

The group, however, risks getting sucked into the battle between authorities and the island's weak and divided dissident movement. Twelve of the 75 opposition figures imprisoned by Cuban authorities in 2003 are Freemasons. All but one--independent journalist Jorge Olivera--remain incarcerated.

"In Masonry, everybody has the right to think freely, and your point of view is respected," said Arnaldo Gonzalez, Cuba's top Mason. "Dissidents and non-dissidents are the same."

Such tolerance is a powerful draw to many Cuban opposition figures who are ostracized from mainstream life.

"I'm treated as a persona non grata by the Cuban government--like I'm the living dead," said Olivera, standing at the entrance to the Grand Lodge of Cuba, the island's Masonic headquarters. "But I haven't felt any discrimination here. I feel part of a fraternity."

When dusk comes each Monday, Olivera puts on a neatly pressed pair of jeans and walks eight blocks from his apartment in historic Old Havana to the Grand Lodge for his weekly meeting.

There, in the marble-floored lobby of the art deco-style building, Olivera joins dozens of men chatting in groups before they ascend in the elevator and begin their secret rituals dressed in ceremonial aprons.

Olivera, 43, said he joined the Masons after a pastor at a Seventh-Day Adventist church gave him a stark choice: drop his political activism or leave the congregation.

Olivera said he chose the latter option and became a Mason in February 2003 to "find the peace that I couldn't find in other places in Cuba."

One month later, Olivera was sentenced to prison. After being freed last December, he was stunned by his reception at the Masonic lodge.

"I thought they would kick me out," Olivera recalled. "But they weren't afraid of having me as a member despite the fact the government was calling me a counterrevolutionary. They hugged me and welcomed me."

Even non-dissidents say they feel a sense of freedom inside their Masonic lodge. One 46-year-old Mason who joined the group eight years ago said he was tired of Cuban authorities "imposing ideas" on society.

"They don't allow differing opinions or another form of thinking," he said, asking not to be identified out of fear of retribution. "There comes a moment when you need to relieve this pressure. The lodge is a place for me to freely express my point of view."

`A tactic to attract'

Mark Falcoff, a Latin American scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank in Washington, said the Masons' non-confrontational approach toward authorities has allowed them to survive independently in a system where most civic groups are affiliated with the government.

"It's a tactic to attract people who do not want to get into trouble but at the same time wish to be free," Falcoff said. "It's an attempt to split the difference."

French planters fleeing Haiti's slave insurrection brought Masonry, which is believed to have emerged from Europe's medieval guilds, to Cuba in the 19th Century.

Masons claim Cuban independence heroes Jose Marti, Antonio Maceo and Maximo Gomez as members, along with South American liberator Simon Bolivar, Mexican hero Benito Juarez, and U.S. Presidents George Washington, Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman.

Interest surges in the '90s

Officials say Masonry's popularity dropped sharply after the Cuban Revolution. Interest surged again in the early 1990s when Cuba suffered a prolonged economic crisis after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the island's main trading partner.

"People were looking for new answers to their problems that they didn't get in the official discourse," said Gustavo Pardo, president of the National Commission of Masonic Teachings.

Pardo said Cuban authorities also eased some restrictions on the Masons, allowing them public ceremonies and two new lodges in recent years, the first since 1967.

The group still needs government permission for everything from laying a wreath at the foot of a statue of a famous Mason to publishing a pamphlet of Masonic teachings. Members are convinced government agents have infiltrated the group to keep tabs on it.

In an impoverished country with a state-controlled economy, the Masons lack the resources to repair more than 100 lodges that have fallen into disrepair.

The Grand Lodge, once a landmark building, is a shell of its former self, with broken light fixtures, ripped leather sofas from the 1950s, shuttered rooms and faded murals.

"It's a crisis," Pardo said. "Some lodges are completely destroyed, and others are working, but with serious structural problems."

A self-described democrat who was imprisoned in the 1960s for opposing Castro, Pardo said he would like the Masons one day to play a role in reconciling the vast political differences among Cubans.

But, for now, Pardo spends much of his time assisting the families of the 11 imprisoned Masons, providing them moral support along with medicine, food and other aid donated primarily by Masons in the United States.

Two of the imprisoned Masons are friends.

"I visit all of the families of the imprisoned Masons regularly," Pardo said. "It is important that they do not feel like they are alone."

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