Across Cuba, the legacy of the Cuban Communist Party’s behind-the-scenes organizing in favor of political radicalization in the 1960s is still visible. In Santiago de Cuba, I was surprised to find something right out of a historical memoir of the early times: here is the house of the President of Cuba’s Committee for the Defense of the Revolution, a nationwide surveillance network founded by the Communist Party in September of 1960 to watch against critics and counterrevolutionaries; his/her door announces the family’s faith in an atheist revolution alongside a Catholic, who boldly posts evidence of divine belief. Next to images of the elderly Castro brothers, the door of the President of the CDR declares, “The Revolution, vigorous and victorious,” while the door of neighbors immediately to the right states, “Only Christ saves.” Santiago de Cuba, July 2016.
