A neglected, weed-strewn field in a small Cuban town where there are more horses than cars seems an unlikely setting for a major shift in government policy.
But in the isolated town of Sandino, Cuba’s first Catholic church since the 1959 revolution took power is set to be built.
“There is money to start, there is the construction material to start, there are the permissions to start, so everything is ready,” said Bishop Jorge Enrique Serpa Pérez, who oversees the diocese where the new church will be built.
The Sandino church has been 56 years in the making, ever since Fidel Castro took power and Cuba became an officially atheist state.
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“It was a process to make a community for political prisoners,” Martinez said. “They took our farm away and brought us here.”
A lifelong Catholic, Martinez said one of the most devastating things about being forced to move 500 miles away from her home to a town she had never heard of was that there was no church.
“Having a church is very important,” she said. “Many of the people here were brought up Catholic and need a church. We were baptized and prayed when we went to bed and woke up, just like our parents and grandparents taught us.”
