He became involved, he said, after a priest collared him for throwing stones at the church. At 18, he became a lay reader and has been with the church ever since. Now that people are coming back, Reynaldo said, much of Santa Maria's focus is on the jovenes - the young people. The group would be even larger, Reynaldo said, but mandatory military service takes many of them away during the week. But so attached are they to Santa Maria that they return on weekends in uniform.
Food is rationed in Cuba.
Each person gets about two kilograms of rice, and about 2.5 kilograms of sugar, kidney beans and peas a month. Children under seven get a litre of milk a day. Vitaminosis is less common than it was when the Soviet Union first withdrew from Cuba, but it still occurs. But Cubans share freely with one another. When one has, one gives - even if it means going short a week later.