CU Masonic Lodge
1 March 2994

HAVANA - South Florida Sun-Sentinel - Overlooking a bustling central Havana intersection, the Grand Lodge of Cuba might easily be mistaken for a nondescript office building were it not for the international Masonic symbols perched on its rooftop: a large compass symbolizing reason and a square for rectitude. By day, the 11-story lodge houses offices for Cuba's telephone company and the Ministry of Education, as well as its own administrative headquarters and small printing press with turn-of-the-century machines. But on weeknights it is home to 45 Masonic groups that hold their ritual-filled meetings in its vast, if slightly dusty, halls. Membership in the popular and powerful secret brotherhood dwindled after Fidel Castro's revolution, when many Freemasons fled the island while others were swept up by the winds of social change and felt they no longer needed the institution. "The decrease [in membership] was vertiginous," said Gustavo Pardo, president of the national commission of Masonic teachings. "There were lodges who supported the government and others who didn't."

Until the past decade, Cuba's officially imposed atheism contradicted the Masons' belief in a Supreme Being or "great architect of the universe" and some Masons were limited from high-level positions in selected fields. In recent years, however, as Cuba became more secular, Masonic lodges have started to fill with young members again -- from about 18,000 in the early 1980s to 29,000 today. Last year Cuba's Masons inaugurated their first two new lodges since 1967 with approval from the Cuban government. Around the world, from New Zealand to a group of exiled Iranians, Freemasons encourage principles of tolerance and morality while keeping discussions of politics and religion strictly outside the lodge. Cuba is no exception."In our lodges there can be opposition members or members of the Communist Party," said José Collera, a pediatrician who followed his father into the fraternity in 1968 and is now grand secretary at the central Havana lodge. "We don't talk about topics that can divide us."

Masonry, which is thought to have its roots in medieval guilds, was brought to Cuba by French landowners who came here fleeing Haiti's slave rebellion. This year marks the bicentennial of Cuba's first Masonic lodge, founded under the sponsorship of a Pennsylvania lodge. Cuba's Masons claim some of the island's most cherished sons as their own, including independence heroes Antonio Maceo and Maximo Gómez and Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, considered the father of the Cuban nation. Whether or not José Martí, the "apostle" of Cuban independence, was a Mason recently became the subject of two dueling newspaper articles in the Communist Party mouthpiece, Granma. Today the group appeals to men who are searching for self-improvement, an alternative to government-affiliated organizations and, in some cases, a network to lean on during Cuba's enduring economic crisis. Ernesto Sanchez, 35, a language interpreter, joined the Masons three years ago seeking "a guide to stimulate my intellect and spirituality." "If you go to a church everyone thinks alike; if you go to the [Communist] Party everyone thinks alike. This is a place where everyone can contribute something," Sanchez said on a recent afternoon in the library at the Grand Lodge. "Every person has the right to share their thoughts regardless of political or religious ideas."

Cuba's Masons gave up most of their philanthropic activities after the 1959 revolution and now depend largely on donations from international lodges for everything from fabric for their ceremonial aprons to repairs on their temples. The Grand Lodge's deed is still held by the Masons despite property laws that expropriated most privately owned buildings in the 1960s. It recently received an overhaul thanks in part to donations from Masons abroad, including a delegation from Washington, which gave about $15,000. The building houses a Masonic parliament, studies center and a supreme court in which members may be tried for administrative or character transgressions. It is also home to a small museum with a motley assortment of antiquities, including toaster oven-sized links from the anchor chain of the USS Maine, one of the first mule-drawn fire engines used in Havana and dozens of medals, swords, caps and uniforms donated by deceased members. Like Masonic groups across the world, Cuba's Masons share secret handshakes and passwords. But here their meetings hold a special significance, some say. "They democratically elect the officers. They vote on expenditures. It's probably one of the few organizations in Cuba where democracy is actually at work," said Robert H. Starr, a former grand master from Washington who has visited Cuba's lodges four times in the past three years.