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Eva Fernández Bravo (1926-1997) was a Cuban spiritual practitioner. She was born into a large family of children and described herself as a “Marasa Twa” or “Marasa Dosa,” which is a term that comes from Haitian Vodou and means that she was the third child after a set of twins and had special spiritual capabilities. Fernández’s spiritism was both “Caridad” and “Cruzado.” Nancy B. Mikelsons, a scholar of Afro-Cuban religions who knew Fernández for many years, writes, “Eva practiced Caridad, usually to protect the health or solve health-related problems of those who asked for help. Practitioners of Spiritism Caridad do not ask for a fee. Whoever comes is assisted freely” (229); she furthers, “Espiritismo Cruzado contains elements of all the historic religious tumultuousness of eastern Cuba” (230), that is, it is a combination of African Yoruba Santería, other Afro-Cuban religions, Catholicism, and Amerindian sources.

Fernández’s connection with spirit began at a young age to her mother’s dismay – she was a devout Catholic and disapproved. Upon the death of an elderly blind man who was her friend, Fernández often visited the cemetery and picked flowers and it was here that she nurtured the presence of spirit. She was unsurprised when the spirits came to her as she knew her grandfather to be a spiritist. Around the same time, Fernández’s sensibilities with regards to charity were formed. She fostered a friendship with an old woman who was a former slave of her grandfather’s; “Eva went with this woman through her hometown of Sagua la Grande begging for money. Her mother disapproved of Eva’s friendship with the ex-slave, but Eva said that this woman loved her and helped her” (Mikelsons 233). For a long time afterwards, Fernández had no further interactions with spirit, but continued to hold Santa (Saint) Barbara close to her heart, describing her as “her friend” (Fernández 18). She married and had six children and when her last son was born – by which time she was twenty-four – spirit returned to her and never left.

In the course of her life, Fernández performed countless ceremonies; she has been commended by the scholars who recorded the details of these ceremonies for her generosity in trying to help others, as Mikelsons relays: “What was truly heroic about Eva was that no one left her ceremonies without the saint/spirit having spoken to them directly and personally. People lined up as if they were going to receive Communion … Through her, the spirit had something personal and significant to say to each individual, however briefly … The coming and going of the Orisha/saints at Eva’s ceremonies were among the quietist and most gentle of all the spirit possessions I have witnessed over the years” (232).

In winter 1996, Fernández left Cuba for North America for the first time and traveled to York University in Toronto, Canada, in order to present a talk, titled “Faith, Hope, and Charity” concerning her spiritual mission, saying to the audience “I came here today because I am driven by the spirits to seek out faith, to unite us, to strengthen the chain because faith, faith is now divided … I am proud to look back, honoring those who brought the orisha to the world of the Caribbean and the Americas” (pp. 17-21). That talk, along with the talks of fellow practitioners Yvonne B. Drakes and Deloris Seiveright, is published in Patrick Taylor’s edited volume Nation Dance: Religion, Identity, and Cultural Difference in the Caribbean under the title, “Across the Waters: Practitioners Speak.” The work as a whole is dedicated to Fernández as, in Taylor’s words, “she is a symbol of the strength of Caribbean spirituality and its ability to reconcile difference without homogenizing the human spirit” (8).

In 1996 she performed her last Santa Barbara ritual (she died in October 1997 in Santiago de Cuba), in which almost 150 people received individual advice, council, and blessing from Santa Barbara through Eva. Even after her “deincarnation,” Fernández’s legacy is safeguarded by her family members who learned from her while she was still alive and continue her work: “When Eva needed ritual assistance, her granddaughter was at her side in an instant. This beautiful young woman was eleven years old when I met her. Lucy had been ‘training’ to share and eventually assume Eva’s spiritual responsibilities since childhood. Eva’s grandson, José, also occasionally assisted her, and he too is developing Espiritismo capabilities” (Mikelsons 231-232). At the time of her death, Fernández had six children, thirteen grandchildren, and eight great-grandchildren.

José J. Fernández Partagás was born in Havana, Cuba on May 14, 1935. In 1954 he graduated from the Instituto Edison de Bachiller en Ciencias y Letras. In 1960 he received from the University of Havana a doctorate in math, and in 1964 he received his MS in Meteorology from Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida.

His areas of specialization were weather analysis, specialized forecasting, climatology, hurricane studies, and tropical meteorology. He held the following professional positions:

• Meteorologist, Cuban National Observatory (1960 -1961)

• Graduate Assistant, Department of Meteorology, Florida State University (1962-1964)

• Meteorological Offices, Department of Civil Aviation, Nassau, Bahamas (1965-1966)

• Research Associate, Division of Meteorology and Physical Oceanography, University of

Miami, 1967-1987

• Honorary Research Associate, Remote Sensing Lab, College of Engineering, University of Miami, 1987-1990

• Consulting meteorologist and private researcher in meteorology, 1990-1997

Fernández Partagás wrote a great amount of articles and papers and gave numerous lectures sponsored by scientific organizations. He was also a guest weather expert on talk shows on various Spanish radio and TV stations.

José J. Fernández Partagás died in the Otto G. Richter Library of the University of Miami on August 23, 1997.

Tomás Fernández Robaina is a researcher and professor at the Biblioteca Nacional José Martí in the Department of Cultural and Historical Research and Library Sciences.

He has published numerous works on Afro-Cuban topics including identity, race relations and religion.

Teresa Fernández Soneira is a writer and researcher of Cuban history, particularly of the XIX century and religion. She was born in Havana, Cuba in 1947 to Cuban parents of Galician Spanish ancestry. In Cuba, she went to school at the Colegio del Apostolado del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús de Vedado. She and her family went into exile and relocated from Cuba to Miami, Florida in 1961. She then traveled to Madrid, Spain to finish her education at the Colegio del Apostolado de Madrid in 1964. She then returned to Miami and received an Associates Degree in Philosophy of Arts from Miami Dade College and later earned a degree in Humanities from Barry University.

She has made important contributions to scholarship on the history of Cuba and has seven books published, including: Mujeres de la Patria (Women of the Motherland) (2014) in which she has brought to life more than 1,300 Cuban women and their work during the struggles for independence in Cuba, Con La Estrella Y La Cruz: Historia De La Federación De Las Juventudes De Acción Católica Cubana (2002), Cuba: Historia De La Educación Católica, 1582-1961 (1997), about which a reviewer states: “The work identifies sixty religious orders, both feminine and masculine, that founded and staffed schools on the island; reproduces twenty-four historical documents; and lists Catholic schools in Cuba from 1582 to 1961, all arranged chronologically. As far as I can ascertain, no work containing this vast amount of information on the topic has been published until now.” (Miranda, Salvador. "Book Review: Cuba: Historia De La Educación Católica 1582-1961, Volumes 1 and 2." Cuban Studies. 30 (2000): 160-162.), Apuntes Desde El Destierro (1989), Niños Que Triunfan (Leading Children to Success): Centro Mater Sus Historias y Sus Colaborades) (2008.)

She has also published several scholarly articles on topics of Cuban history and historical figures. And written articles for El Nuevo Herald, Semanario ¡Éxito !, Geomundo, La Voz Católica, Buenhogar, El Pinareño, Convived, Ideal, and Heritage of Cuban Culture. She was the editor of the magazine Maria Stella for alumni of Colegio Apostolado of Cuba as well as a columnist for 7 years for the monthly publication La Voz Católica. She has participated in radio programs such as Radio República del Movimiento Democrático Cubano and Radio Martí, and given conferences to different organizations and presented at the Miami Book Fair. In 1990, she won the award given for the first literary contest of the Father Felix Varela Foundation of Miami, one of several honors she had been awarded for her work.