April 7, 1997

Where Catholic equals dissident By Mary Murray

HAVANA, Cuba — Aida Sarduy recently turned 43 but she easily looks a withered two decades older.

She is thin and bent and has an agitated look in her eyes when she speaks about her life as a practicing Roman Catholic in officially atheist Cuba.

Sarduy knew she was courting misery 17 years ago when she decided to relinquish her membership in Cuba's Young Communist Union in order to practice her religious beliefs.

Fired as a hostess in a government-run restaurant catering to visiting dignitaries, it was the last time she would ever hold public employment.

"Survival then became a struggle," she said, and she admits that has made her "amarga" — bitter.

"I went from just being a Catholic to also being a dissident," she said.

Sarduy uses the platform of the church to speak out against Cuba's communist government. She dedicates her time soliciting food, clothing and money from fellow parishioners for the families of political prisoners. Although she has never been jailed for her dissidence, her house was targeted in 1993 by dozens of pro-government neighbors holding an angry protest.

Even though she believes "human suffering is part of life, paving the path to heaven," she has gone to the American Mission in Havana three times over the years to request permission to leave for Miami. She says she has been denied because she can't prove recent persecution. So she has just about given up on the idea of leaving Cuba.

Instead Sarduy hopes for a miracle that will change Cuba to her liking. And she is not alone in her pleas, although wishes do vary.