Religion is not very big in Cuba. When it comes to practice, one of the most popular is Santeria (saint worship).
An amalgam of Afro-Cuban influences, it is a mixture of Catholicism and Yoruba beliefs brought to Cuba by African slaves between the 16th and 19th centuries. The several hundred gods of the Yoruba religion, with its pronounced emphasis on ancestor worship, have become amalgamated with the many saints of the Catholic Church, each with his or her own unique powers and personality.
Before the revolution in 1959 about 85 per cent of Cubans were nominally Catholic, with an estimated 10 per cent of those attending church regularly. Today, out of a population of 8.9 million, 3.8 million are believed to be Catholic, with an estimated 5 per cent of those attending church regularly.
Catholicism has always been associated with the affluent in Cuba, and has been weaker there for centuries than it has been in any other Latin American country.
Article 8 of the current Cuban constitution says "the state recognises, respects and guarantees religious freedom". In practice the Catholic Church has been crippled by a combination of financial need and denial of access to the media and education system.