Can You Help with Contacting Masons in Cuba?
Question: Can You Help with Contacting Masons in Cuba?
Answer: (Note this is an updated version of the answer from May 9, 2011)
Freemasonry exists throughout the world and today numbers approximately six million members. In December 2009, the Gran Logia de Cuba (Grand Lodge of Cuba) celebrated its 150th Anniversary. As a “regular” Masonic Lodge, the Gran Logia de Cuba has an international convention (charter) with the United Grand Lodge of England (UGLE). (An “irregular” lodge does not have this convention.) Each Grand Lodge, however, is sovereign and independent. There is no international governing body for Freemasonry.
The Gran Logia de Cuba is based in the 11-story Gran Templo Nacional Masónico, located near a bustling Havana intersection. Constructed in 1954, this building is identified by its stepped, tapering tower crowned by a globe which supports the international symbols of masonry – a large compass and a square, representing virtue and moral rectitude respectively. The Gran Logia de Cuba, which is the order’s governing body, practices both Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rites, as well as the York Rite. In the Gran Templo Nacional Masónico, various Masonic groups hold their rituals in its halls. In addition, the building houses a Masonic parliament, study centres and a supreme court for dealing with administrative or character transgressions of members.
To visit the Gran Logia de Cuba or any of its member Lodges elsewhere in the country, one must abide by UGLE regulations for having such contact. These regulations – which can be found in the document entitled “Information for the Guidance of Members of the Craft” (2009), located in the UGLE website at www.ugle.org.uk – stipulate that no Visitor shall be received into a Lodge without due examination, including producing proper Vouchers of their having been initiated in a regular Lodge. In Cuba, this examination is done by the Gran Logia de Cuba in Havana.
In a May 2011 phone consultation with the Gran Logia de Cuba, they explained that prospective visitors must contact their office either by phone or in person. (They do not have an email address.) The individual to contact is the Gran Secretario (Grand Secretary), Alberto William Rojas Aguilar, at Telephone (537) 878-5065, Monday through Friday, after 3pm. Although he speaks only Spanish, the Gran Logia has excellent translators (José Luis) who can help, including with phone calls. The Gran Logia now has an email (see below) through which queries can also be made.
The way it works is this: The Gran Secretario evaluates the required documents from potential visitors, and then passes the decision on to the Gran Maestro (Grand Master). If approved, the Gran Maestro informs the provincial Masonic body that a visit will be taking place.
The address and general phone numbers of the Gran Logia de Cuba are the following:
Gran Templo Nacional Masonico
Ave. Salvador Allende No. 508, 11th Floor
Esquina Belascoain (Esquina = Corner)
Municipio Centro Habana
Ciudad de La Habana, Cuba
Telephone (537) 874-1506 (secretary’s office) or (537) 878-1071 (library)
Email [email protected]
In Cuba, Freemasonry was first founded in 1859. Although membership declined after 1959, when the revolution led by Fidel Castro triumphed, since 1990 the number of members has grown by almost a third. Today, some 30,000 Freemasons are found around the country in more than 340 Lodges. Since 1993, new lodges have been inaugurated with approval from the Cuban government.
In Cuba as elsewhere in the world, Freemasons encourage principles of liberty, equality, fraternity and morality while keeping both politics and religions outside the lodge. However, neither political activism nor belonging to other social organizations bar an individual from becoming a member. Cuba’s Masons claim some of the island’s most revered sons as their own, including independence heroes Antonio Maceo, Maximo Gómez and Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, the latter considered the father of the Cuban nation. They join other famous Latin American Masons such as Simón Bolivar, Dom Pedro I of Brazil, Benito Juárez of Mexico, and the Socialist President of Chile, Salvador Allende.
Beginning in 2005, a group of women began the process to found a Women’s Masonic Lodge in Cuba, receiving assistance in this endeavour from the Gran Logia Femenina de Chile (Women’s Grand Lodge of Chile). In 2008, the first Cuban women were formally initiated into Freemasonry in both Havana and Pinar del Río, and plans began for creating a third women’s lodge elsewhere in the country.
Among the over 30 women who joined Cuba’s first two women’s lodges, the age span went from 18 to over 60, and consisted of doctors, teachers, technicians of various specialties, musicians, singers, psychologists, homemakers and university students. In forming a Women’s Masonic Lodge, Cuban Freemasonry joins the ranks of similar initiatives in countries such as France, Belgium, Spain, the United Kingdom, Chile, Argentina, Mexico, Uruguay, etc.
I Brother Jason MacFarlane a Master Mason with Empire Lodge no. 63 will be in Varadero this coming Sunday March 24 2019 for one week
I will have a letter from the Grand Lodge Of Alberta plus my Master Mason Cert. I can not attend a lodge but would like to meet up with a Brother or Brothers preferably at a temple as I would like a picture.
hi There please not that I am sligley disletic I am coming to cuba next week Varaddero
I would like to visit a lodge building to a look inside to phone number o line don’t seem to work
Thank you this is my grandfather
My grandfather became a master mason according to the diploma i have dated April 3 1916 at the logia asilo de la virtud in Cienfuegos cuba. I am attempting to obtain information about his life for genealogy purpose. can you please provide information as to whom i should contact.
Thank you,
Hugo Vega
[email protected]
never forget Martin Morua Delgado
Tony there are dozens of hotels and legal “casa particular” homestay options in Trinidad.
Hi I will be visiting Cuba and staying in a town called Trinidad could you let me know if there is a lodge situated there
Regards
Tony
Could anyone please, get me contact to brothers in Camaguey?
I would like to visit/help the Lodge there.
Fraternally,
Bro. Krystof Sloniec
Tuscan Lodge # 99 A.F. & A.M.
NEWMARKET, ONTARIO, CANADA
Could any one get me contact to brothers in Camaguey ?
I would like to visit Lodge there.
Fraternally,
Bro. Krystof Sloniec
Tuscan Lodge # 99 A.F. & A.M.
NEWMARKET, ONTARIO,
CANADA
i like to see a picture of the mason temple in habana Cuba
Can anyone get me the address of the Masonic Lodge in Santiago de Cuba as i will be traveling to the area from January 14 2010 to Jan 18 2012 I would like to make contact so i could deliver some recycled Masonic aprons which I understand that they need also maybe a contact person Gord Robbins
on a recent holiday to Cuba 2011 it was quite a suprise to me to find that masonary was so strong in Cuba on a visit to HABANA our tour guide showed me the Gran Templo Nacional Masonico and I was very impressed and I hope to go back to Cuba soon. B. GUYAN SCOTTISH FREEMASON
We will do a new check.
Two of the telephone numbers provided for the Grand Secretary’s office in Cuba are out of service and the third one connects to a private number. Is there a more current number that I can use?
To visit the Gran Logia de Cuba or any of its member Lodges elsewhere in the country, one must abide by UGLE regulations for having such contact. These regulations – which can be found in the document entitled “Information for the Guidance of Members of the Craft” (2009), located in the UGLE website at http://www.ugle.org.uk – stipulate that no Visitor shall be received into a Lodge without due examination, including producing proper Vouchers of their having been initiated in a regular Lodge. In Cuba, this examination is done by the Gran Logia de Cuba in Havana.
In a phone consultation with the Gran Logia de Cuba, they explained that prospective visitors must contact their office either by phone or in person. (They do not have an email address.) The individual to contact is the Gran Secretario (Grand Secretary), Alberto William Rojas Aguilar, at Telephone (537) 878-5065, Monday through Friday, after 3pm. Although he speaks only Spanish, the Gran Logia has excellent translators (José Luis) who can help, including with phone calls. The address and general phone numbers of the Gran Logia de Cuba are the following:
Gran Templo Nacional Masonico
Ave. Salvador Allende No. 508, 11th Floor
Esquina Belascoain (Esquina = Corner)
Municipio Centro Habana
Ciudad de La Habana, Cuba
Telephone (537) 878-1071 or (537) 874-1506 or (537) 874-1566
I AM VISITING HAVANA 8 / 9 FEB 2011 AND WOULD LIKE TO VISIT Gran Templo Nacional Masonico
IS THAT POSSIBLE..
Fraternally,
Bro HIJMANS
33 SUPREME COUNCIL OF THE NETHERLNDS
In a previous phone consultation with the Gran Logia de Cuba, they explained that prospective visitors must contact their office either by phone or in person. (They do not have an email address.) The individual to contact is the Gran Secretario (Grand Secretary), Alberto William Rojas Aguilar, at Telephone (537) 878-5065, Monday through Friday, after 3pm. Although he speaks only Spanish, the Gran Logia has excellent translators (José Luis) who can help, including with phone calls. The address and general phone numbers of the Gran Logia de Cuba are the following:
Gran Templo Nacional Masonico
Ave. Salvador Allende No. 508, 11th Floor
Esquina Belascoain (Esquina = Corner)
Municipio Centro Habana
Ciudad de La Habana, Cuba
Telephone (537) 878-1071 or (537) 874-1506 or (537) 874-1566
Thank you; is there a lodge in Varadero
Can’t think of anything special. Bring a sweater or jacket as the temperatures have been cool of late.
My family & I will be in Varadero from Dec 18-26; is there anything to be cautious of?
Fraternally,
Bro Burick.
I AM VISITING HAVANA 16 / 17 FEB 2011 AND WOULD LIKE TO ATTEND A MASONIC MEETING, CAN ANYONE PLEASE HELP.
THANKS
My family will be visiting Cuba the first week of January 2011. We will be in the Varadero area. Are there any protestant ministers that would come to the resort to Baptize someone (an adult)? I am not sure how to go about finding this out but it is very important to my 28 yr old daughter that wants to be baptized in the ocean. Any suggestions? If you know of someone, could you put me in touch with them and any idea of the cost? It would be nice if it was able to be done in English as i don’t speak Spanish. Thanks