(9 Sep 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Havana, Cuba – 8 September 2025
1. Musicians playing instruments in procession
2. People walking in religious procession
3. Virgin of Charity or the Virgin of Cobre in religious procession
4. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Darlin de la Caridad Jaime, devotee:
++SOUNDBITE STARTS ON SHOT 2 AND SPLIT SCREEN WITH SHOT 3 AND IS PARTIALLY OVERLAID BY SHOTS 5-6++
“I come to ask the Virgin for a change for everyone. We need unity above all things and to return to what we always were: human and supportive.”
5. Various of procession
6. Pan from balcony of procession
STORYLINE:
Hundreds of Cubans followed the statue of the Virgin of Charity or la Virgen del Cobre, on her feast day in a procession through the streets of Havana on Monday.
The tiny golden image of the patron saint of Cuba is an enduring symbol of the resilience of religious beliefs on the socialist island, which has been subjected to one of the strongest economic crises in decades.
“Let’s unite, people. We are people, not animals. Let’s unite so we don’t suffer so much,” said Odalis Hernández as she walked behind the Virgin.
Power outages, lack of water, and basic supplies have strained the population’s daily life over the past four years.
For his part, Darlin de la Caridad Jaime asked the Virgin for "a change for all Cubans".
But devotion to the Virgin stretches back more than four centuries, to when the original statue of Our Lady of Charity was discovered off the coast of Cuba, near the village of El Cobre.
In 1916, she was officially named Patroness of Cuba by Pope Benedict XV.
The popularity of the saint persisted on the island after the Cuban Revolution in the 1950s, despite Fidel Castro dismantling religious structures and strictly prohibiting them.
Popes who visited Cuba, such as Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis, made a pilgrimage to the sanctuary of the Virgin near Santiago de Cuba.
Our Lady of Charity is honored by both Catholics and followers of the African-inspired religion Santeria, where she is combined with the golden deity Oshun.
AP Video shot by Ariel Fernández and Milexsy Durán
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