Eva Bravo Collection

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.