The Marian devotion of Our Lady of Charity is intimately linked to the history of Cuba since the beginning of colonization and evangelization. The myth of the appearance of the image on the waters of the Bay of Nipe (north of the eastern region) describes how two Indians and a black boy took her to the heights of Barajagua (Holguin province) where he was venerated after moved to the mines of Santiago del Prado (El Cobre) by the Franciscan Francisco Bonilla, to be recognized and placed in the course of the seventeenth century, in a chapel located in the Cerro de Cardenillo, and where he later called cobreros (descendants realengos old Angolan slaves) built a shrine to him by devotion to her and as an expression of unity in the long struggle for their rights and their freedom Creole.
During the Ten Years' War the belief in the Virgin del Cobre also served to encourage the great effort for freedom of Cubans. Her image was confused with independence revolutionary cause to identify with the nickname of La Virgen Mambisa, as exposed Emilio Bacardi in his testimonial novel Crucis.
The rebels, led by Brigadier Felix Figueredo, occupied the town of El Cobre, and on January 2, 1869, Carlos Manuel de Céspedes visited the Shrine and the presence of rebel troops and the inhabitants, who "accompanied with their graves, rattles and other instruments of African origin ", he gave a patriotic tribute to the Virgin. More than sacred was a political gesture of the Father of the Nation, which recognized the native religious tradition and considered the devotion to the Virgin of Cobre as a powerful source of identity among Cubans.
In his campaign diary, the member of the House of Representatives of the Republic of Cuba in Arms, Ignacio Mora, describes the feast of Charity in the jungle, where the people:
"Regardless of what to eat, he spent these days looking for wax to make party in the mambí style, that is, light candles and many assume that the image of the Virgin is present. In all ranches is no fire to cook but candles for the Virgin of Charity.
Restarted the struggle for independence in 1895 in the popular religious tradition remained the same principles of ethics linked to patriotic cult of the Virgin cobrera. As in 1868, members of the Liberation Army used to carry shelters and medals with his picture to ensure their protection in combat.
In the last quarter of the XIX century, the cult of the Virgin of Cobre drew on his relationship with the claiming aspirations of the mambises in the jungle, and the utopia of nation conceived by many during the struggle, until it was impossible to separate it from national personality.
Within the Catholic Church in Cuba the greater involvement of local clergy struggled, essential task, with national sense, influenced the popular changes that were necessary and in the Republic. Many Cuban priests raised their voices to demand attention to the cult of Our Lady of Charity because:
"Today the sovereign power that the 'Virgen Mambisa' is the soul of the Cuban people is the surest guarantee of national unity and continuity of the Catholic tradition." [2]
The country was devastated during the war and under the uncertainty of their destiny as a nation, then just spoke of the feast of September 8. The objective will be the official proclamation of the patronage of the Virgin of Charity, as requested in 1901 by the bishops of Santiago de Cuba and Havana. In May 1906, the shrine built by cobreros, the inn and up the stairs suffered from landslides tillage by irresponsible mining companies in the galleries located underneath the building.
Aware of the political value of the Virgen del Cobre, completed in 1912 the "little war of blacks" with the violent repressive actions became more urgent approach to the veterans of the War of Independence to the cult of the Virgin of Charity.
The September 24, 1915, a group of former officers, along with 2000 Mambi fighters led by Major Generals Jesus Sablon Moreno "Rabbi" and Agustin Sanchez Cebreco were riding from Santiago de Cuba to El Cobre to ask Santa See the solemn recognition of Our Lady of Charity as Patroness of Cuba.
The signatories were blacks, whites and mulattos; militated in the conservative, liberal and socialist parties; they passed through on their political differences in order to iron out rough edges and estates reminiscent of slavery accentuated by the events of 1912.
It was not long before Pope Benedict XV to answer that request, eager as it was the Catholic Church to recover what was lost in Cuba during the second half of the nineteenth century. Papal prescribed by the May 10, 1916 image of Charity and Patroness Remedies of the Republic of Cuba was declared.
In 1918 the first stone of the new (and current) sanctuary on the heights of La Maboa placed. Completed in 1927, unless the finished staircase two decades later, it was funded by numerous donations throughout the island. The sanctuary, Mecca pilgrims from all over, it became a place of spiritual meeting of the Creoles of the Great Antilla and value the cobrera was strengthened during the early twentieth century.
The triumph of the Revolution an immense wave of pilgrims overturned on copper to give thanks to the Virgin, by the fall of the dictatorship and to fulfill the promises of mothers and wives who feared for the lives of their families "rebels" in the mountains or committed to secrecy in the cities of the island. The 28 and 29 November 1959, Catholic authorities organized a visit to the capital of the original image of the Virgin of El Cobre, to receive samples of a great devotion crowd gathered in the Civic Square (now Revolution Square).
In 1936 he was crowned by Archbishop Valentin Zubizarreta in papal representation. His significant role in the evolution and status Cuban national symbol be underlined during the presence of Pope John Paul II he crowned his own right, with Benedict XVI who came to her shrine as a pilgrim, and the upcoming visit of Pope Francisco Havana, Holguin, Santiago de Cuba and El Cobre who expressed his love of Cubans through their paid homage to the Virgin of Cobre, venerated by the liberators.
Benedicto XVI que llegó a su Santuario como peregrino, y en la próxima visita del Papa Francisco a La Habana, Holguín, Santiago de Cuba y El Cobre quien expresará su amor por los cubanos a través de su rendido homenaje a la Virgen del Cobre, venerada por los libertadores.