Past 2003 Cuba Religious Event !!

Fulfilling License Requirements

The US Treasury Department requires that those traveling to Cuba under religious license participate in activities that are accord with the license application.

Religious license application describes a multifaceted exploration of the Cuban religious and spiritual landscape, based on the religious nature of the license.

The core of Cuba's spiritual traditions is reflected in the centuries-old practices in many faiths - Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, as well as the unique Afro-Cuban influence.

These faith traditions are interwoven into every aspect of Cuban life - culture, music, education, architect, art, sciences, cuisine, dress, and dance.

Because you are traveling under a religious license, we request that you make a donation to a religious institution of your choice.
Click here to see donation list.

Possible Schedules
Weekly Friday to Friday Itinerary
(Events & Times subject to change 8 days 7 nights)

• Attend mass at Iglesia La Inmaculada on San Lorenzo Street in La Havana Vieja. Meeting with church members including Madre Superior Dolores Perez and Hija de la Caridad Marta cid. We explore the influence of the Catholic church in Cuba and the similarities and differences that exist between adherence in the Cuba and the U.S.
  Walking tour of La havana Vieja, featuring four major plazas, cathedrals, convents and other sacred architecture. Learn about the history of the city and Catholic faith and how it is spiritually expressed in daily life in formal and informal settings.

• Attend Shabbat services at Centro Safardi, Conservative Synagogue in Havana. The Service lasts until about noon and is followed by a traditional kosher meal and social hour.
  Visit Casa de la Comunidad Hebrea, the Jewish community's largest building in Havana, where Cuban born Jewish have maintained their religious traditions. Lecture by Dr. Jose Miller, president of the Comunidad Hebrea, about Jewish history in Cuba. (Cuba gave refuge to more Eastern European Jews during World War II than any other Latin American country.

• We will explore Santeria, the Afro-Cuban religion with origins in the Yoruba culture of West Africa, at the Empresa Adolfo Guzman, Onda Folklorica in Miramar. Director Adolfo Guzman will explain how Christian slave owners in the New World forbade the practice of pagan religions so followers disguised the Orishas (African gods and goddesses) as Christians saints.
  We will study each of the orishas like Yemaya, Ochun, Chango and others. Attend a traditional santero ceremony and rumba prayer session.

• Study-Tour of greater Havana, including a visit to Necropolis Cristobal Colon. Laid out between 1871 and 1886, the cemetery includes more than 500 mausoleums, chapels and family vaults sculpted by leading Cuban and European artists. Learn about the history of the leading families of Havana, and witness the highest quality funerary and religious monuments in the region.

• Visit provincial city of Santa Clara, where religious institutions are flourishing. Tour of the following churches:
  Convencion Evangelica Los Pinos Nuevos, Iglesia Bautista de Cuba Occidental, Iglesia de la Purisima Concepcion, Iglesia de Nuestra Señora del Buen Viaje, Iglesia de la Santisima Madre del Buen Pastor, Iglesia de los Pinos Nuevos, Iglesia Metodista, Iglesia Presbiteriana Reformista.

• Meet with Reverend Otoniel Bermudez of the Protestant Alliance in Havana as well as Reverend Miguel Suarez of the Martin Luther King Center in order to arrange people to people contacts.
  Recommend that donations be distributed to the churches, synagogues, and Afro-Cuban religious sites we have visited throughout the week. Donations includes Bibles in Spanish, Jewish religious texts, as well as medicines, toiletries, schools supplies and other humanitarian aid.

• Spend day in Matanzas meeting the members of the cultural and religious institutions and conducting personal study of the history of the city. Meet residents of Matanzas and learn about their religious faiths and customs.

• Briefing on Cuba's unique blending of decisive influence: African roots and Catholicism  and their influence on the development of Cuba's broad spectrum of spirituality, culture and architecture. (Lecture by Isabel Rigol)
  Walk to the Museo de Bellas Artes for a guided study tour with resident art historian of the Cuban art collection from the 1500s to the present.
  Lunch at the the rooftop of the restaurant of the Hotel Ambos Mundos.
  Visit the room where Ernest Hemingway lived for seven years and wrote For Whom the Bells Tolls.
  Visit Maqueta De La Havana Vieja. Continue with a walking tour of Old Havana featuring the four major plazas, Cathedrals, convents and other sacred architecture. Learn about the history of the city through its colonial and modern architecture and how it's spirituality is expressed in daily life in formal and informal settings. (Lecture by Isabel Rigol)

• We will be joined by one of Cuba's foremost architectural scholars for a visit of the Vedado and Miramar districtis, the heart of the Twentieth Century city. We will visit historical hotels, such as Hotel Nacional (McKim Mead and White, 1930) and the Rivera (Developed by Meyer Lansky, 1956). We will also visit 20th Century Religious institutions in Vedado. (Lecture by Isabel Rigol)
  Visit the new landmark exhibition El Otro Lado Del Alma. Afro Cuban Religion in Contemporary Photography at the Fototeca de Cuba. Participate in the openings festivities. Study images of Afro Cuban religion in contemporary Cuban life.

• Breakfast at the hotel. Transfer to Trinidad. Arrive at Valle de los Ingenios "El Mirador" and meet Mario Lopez the conservator of Trinidad.
  Walking study of the historic and religious city of Trinidad led by a member of the office of the Conservador of Trinidad and visit the Romantic Museum housed in a 16th century mansion.
  Visit the Central  Cathedral and an Afro Cuba religious site.
  Discussion of the colonial period at La Canchanchara. Visit local homes.

• Spend the day in Trinidad meeting the members of the cultural and religious institutions and conducting personal study of the history of the city. Meet residents of Trinidad and learn about their life in this "living museum". Visit Ancon beach.

• Departure from Havana Friday evening on TACA airlines flight to LAX arrival approximately at 10 to 11 PM