Mary's Veiled Presence in Communist Cuba
Marks of Faith and Masks of Spies
Dear Friends,
Never could I have imagined that, the very same week when I finally released publicly some writing about my undercover mission trips to Cuba, the island nation would be undergoing perhaps its most fragile moments since the Communist Revolution that began in 1959.
A few days ago, on March 18th, 2026, Plough magazine published the online version of my memoir of how Mary helped me have the courage to resist the Communist regime when I was searched at the border and then later followed by secret police on the streets of Cuba.
I am the protagonist, the main character, in the story, but the heroes are the Cuban people who kept the faith alive amidst persecution.
A longer memoir about my experiences with Mary in Cuba will be released on May 5, 2026, by Odysseus, a new imprint of Skyhorse Publishing. The book can be pre-ordered now and will be shipped as soon as it is ready—in time for Mother’s Day 2026!
In this precarious moment in world history, Mary is appearing in unexpected places. My heart sinks every time I read the bad news coming from Cuba. Earlier this week I wrote to my friend, a sacred artist in Havana named Jose, and told him I’d be praying this prayer for him… “Santa Maria…” (Holy Mary….) I couldn’t finish my sentence. No words seemed adequate to express my concerns, but I put my trust in my mother, Mary, to finish my prayer.
I’m convinced that we do not walk alone through the valley of darkness. Nearly seven decades of communist rule in Cuba has not extinguished the faith. The worldly power that claims in public slogans “patria o muerte” (fatherland or death) had not crushed the desire for God in Cuba. I recall watching Pope Benedict XVI’s 2012 trip to Cuba. Preaching to thousands gathered in public places covered with images of el Che and Fidel Castro, the pope proclaimed emphatically, “No hay patria sin virtud!!” (There is no fatherland without virtue.)
Here are some selections from my piece in Plough, which in turn is a selection from the full piece in my forthcoming book:
“After landing in Havana, my mother and I drove through the beautiful countryside, searching for El Dolores, a sugar mill her family had operated in a village…After the Cuban Revolution, the church had been converted to a movie theater. Now the building stood vacant; its windows’ empty frames covered with wooden panels. Inside, wild grass grew on the dirt floor.
We were taken to the house of one of the lay Catholics who had not abandoned his faith. Like many in Cuba, his backyard was filled with various knickknacks and random pieces of equipment…
“Las vitrinas!” my mother exclaimed as a tarp was pulled back, revealing two stained glass windows from the church. We admired one window framed by roses. In the artwork, Mary held Jesus on her lap, surrounded by angels and shepherds who were worshiping him…
The second stained glass window spared from the iconoclasm of the Communist revolution depicted Mary standing at the foot of the cross, her hands crossed, her eyes distressed, her heart wrenched with grief…
The salty air and high winds eroded the triumphant faces of the then-still-living Fidel Castro and the long-dead Ernesto “Che” Guevara on walls and billboards across Cuba. Meanwhile, in private homes, I saw no images of Communist heroes. No one spoke of Castro or Guevara as if they were friends. Instead, Mary – depicted as Cuba’s patroness and protectress, Our Lady of Charity – reigned inside Cuban homes. Time and again, people referred to Mary as someone close to them in their struggles.”
Margarita Mooney Clayton, PhD
Founder and Executive Director, The Scala Foundation
Scala Foundation is a non-profit public charity under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of the United States. All donations to the Scala Foundation are tax-deductible.