I live in Miami, with all you lovely Cubans. Since Cuban cuisine is my favorite, I’m almost always talking to a Cuban at the restaurants.
One thing that doesn’t make sense to me is why San Lazaro (St. Lazarus) is such an important figure in Cuba. I almost always see Cubans wearing gold pendants of Lazaro.
I’ll go in a Cuban small business and they’ll have a giant statue of St. Lazaro in crutches and the two dogs looking at him. Cubans will know what I’m talking about.
As bible critic it doesn’t make sense to me, because Lazaro is only mentioned once in the New Testament in John - Chapter 11, two times if Luke - Chapter 16 is indeed talking about the same Lazarus as the gospel of John. In other words, in the bible, Lazarus is but a footnote.
But how did this, for lack of a better term, footnote of a character become so predominantly important to Cuba and even Miami as a whole?
Did something in Cuban history happened regarding San Lazaro? Be it a politician used him in his speeches or whatnot? Is it a history predating Cuba itself?
The google is pretty useless in this topic so I’m hoping maybe some Cubans can lend me some knowledge? Historians of Reddit as well.
Ok, so San Lazaro for Cubans is a combination of three different figures. As you know there are two stories of Lazaro in the bible. One is the Lazaro that Jesus brings back to life. Lazaro is sick so his sisters send word to Jesus. When Jesus arrives Lazaro is already dead so he brings him back to life. That's the Catholic Saint Lazaro. The other story of Lazaro is the one about the rich man and the beggar. Lazaro is a poor beggar who the rich man ignores so when they both die the rich man goes to hell and Lazaro goes to heaven. That's the Lazaro you will see depicted in all the statues around Miami and Cuba. He's the beggar on crutches, full of sores and accompanied by two stray dogs. You may see an image of him in some Catholic churches where Cubans worship but technically he is not the saint. Both these stories of Lazaro are often combined by people but there is no proof that they were the same person.
The third "Lazaro" for Cubans is actually the Orisha/Spirit/God Babalu-Aye. As you probably know when the African slaves were brought to Cuba they weren't allowed to practice their African religions so they "converted" over to Catholicism. In order to continue practicing their religion in secret they chose to worship the images of Catholic saints that most closely represented their African gods. That's how Santeria came to be. Babalu-Aye is closely associated with diseases, smallpox, sores, healing, etc. So you can see why Lazaro from the bible was chosen as the Catholic representation of Babalu-Aye.
Now, to your question. Why do Cubans worship San Lazaro. Because Babalu-Aye is one of the most popular Orishas in African religion. His popularity transferred over to his Catholic representation which is Lazaro. When Cubans have a problem that seems unsolvable they usually go to a Santero. Not all Cubans believe in Santeria but there's a popular saying in Cuba that goes something like "I don't believe in it but I respect it." There are many different versions of Santeria and Santero priests. Some Santeros are actual priests who have rules and follow African traditions but many other Santeros are more of a sort of "mystic" who combines many different beliefs into one. They read tarot cards, coffee grounds, or seashells. They tell you to do simple rituals to purify yourself or to pray and give simple offerings to certain Saints. It's basically the same popular beliefs you can find in many other cultures around the world. So when Cubans have a problem and they go to one of these Santeros or mystics they will be told to either go pray to San Lazaro or Babalu-Aye.
So that's why San Lazaro is popular in Cuba despite most Cubans not knowing the actual details of his story. I hope I answered your question. I also found this paper which goes into further detail and provides a few more sources if you are interested in looking further into the subject.