epiScope

"Same dog, different color"

Cuba won't change, Tiers residents say
Castro's resignation means little, according to those with ties to the country.
By George Osgood
Elminra (NY) Star-Gazette
February 20, 2008

The resignation of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro will likely have little impact on life on the island nation, area residents with ties there say.

"I don't think it's going to make any difference," said Paul Heim of Elmira Heights, who dealt with Castro before he took power and also traveled to Cuba as a tourist. "I think probably the same policies will be followed in general. I think there will be some economic relief but politically, things will stay pretty much the same."

Part of the reason: Fidel is likely to be succeeded by his brother, Raoul, a virtual political clone.

It’s all here …

Cautious pessimism greets news from Cuba
Despite his resignation, Jacksonville Cuban-Americans expect little to change while he is alive.
By Charlie Patton
Florida Times-Union
2/20/2008

As word spread Tuesday that 81-year-old Fidel Castro was officially relinquishing his position of president after controlling Cuba for half a century, many Jacksonville Cuban-Americans reacted with cautious pessimism.

"Same dog, different color," said 82-year-old Roberto Andrade, describing Castro's decision to turn official control of the government over to his younger brother, Raul Castro, 76.

"I don't think today's announcement will have much effect," said former U.S. Attorney Paul Perez, 53, who left Cuba in 1960 when he was 5.

It’s all here … 

Si, se puede

New challenges for a venerable church
BY GILDA FARIÑAS RODRÍGUEZ
Granma International
Havana, Cuba
July 16, 2007

NERVA Cot Aguilera, the untiring forerunner of women’s right to occupy high-ranking positions in her church, refuses to end her quest. Synods, seminaries, religious services, informal meetings... any tribune, more or less weighty, has served for her to demand or claim the presence of women in religious leadership.

Her own path to the pulpit has had to withstand not just the church’s male hierarchy, but also a series of crossroads. In fact, over the many years of the Anglican Church’s presence in Cuba, the number of women who have held ecclesiastical posts can be counted on one hand. In fact, worldwide, Nerva is the 11th woman to hold the title of bishop.

In her small office, simple and book-filled, we find the newly-appointed bishop reading the Bible. It is late afternoon, and the silence of Havana’s Episcopal Cathedral lends an air of somberness to her interview with Granma International.

It’s all here … but a few details need correction, compadres.

Cuban happenings

A female bishop for Cuba's Anglicans
by Anthony Boadle
Reuters
Monday, June 11, 2007

The Episcopal Church broke new ground in Cuba yesterday by ordaining its first female bishop in the developing world at a ceremony that mixed incense with Caribbean music.

Rev. Nerva Cot said she will bring a feminine touch to leadership of her church's small but growing congregation in communist Cuba, where religious worship was freed a decade ago.

It's all here...

First woman bishop in Cuba won't copy men

Wed Feb 7, 2007 8:02 PM ET

By Anthony Boadle

HAVANA (Reuters) - The Rev. Nerva Cot, the first woman bishop named by the Episcopal Church in a developing nation, said she will bring a feminine touch to leadership of her rapidly expanding congregation in Cuba.

The former school teacher was appointed suffragan or auxiliary bishop on Sunday and will be consecrated on June 10 at Havana's Episcopal Cathedral.

"Our mission is not to copy what our brothers have done until now," Cot, 69, said on Wednesday.

Qualities such as tenderness and the ability to listen and mediate will help unite her church like a "real family," she said.

It's all here ...

And we'll have a video interview with Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori about her trip to Cuba on the ENS site this Friday.