Spaces of Dissent: Violence and Cuban Catholic Resistance, 1959–1961

Abstract

This article examines why the Catholic clergy's political response to the Revolutionary government increasingly resulted in violence from 1959 to 1961. This article focuses on two spaces—churches and public Catholic celebrations—where violence between Catholics and government forces received the most attention. Violence erupted at these spaces when they functioned as spaces of political dissent. Tracing the evolution of these spaces of dissent adds to more recent understandings of the clergy's political influence, which seems to have increased during this period. The decline of Cuba's free press and the position of Cuba's remaining press to denounce clerical opposition as illegitimate contributed to a heightened interest in the clergy's political messages. Catholic spaces operated differently than the press, which made Catholic public dissent more resilient because it was more difficult to control or close. The transformation of Catholic celebrations into spaces of dissent also highlights the emergence of a more coherent Catholic political identity that could challenge the government's vision of a loyal revolutionary. Given the resilience of Catholic resistance and the movement of people to Catholic gatherings, pro-government forces resorted to violence mainly to cripple opposition clerics' political voices and eliminate their spaces of dissent.