GROWING FAITH: Yarima plays with Islamic prayer, beads as her father, Ali, 33, holds her. Ali and his wife converted to Islam in 2014; Yarima is one of the first babies in Cuba born a Muslim.
PHOTOGRAPHS BY JOAN ALVADO
THE FIRST TIME a pope ever set foot in Cuba was in 1998, when John Paul II traveled to the Communist state. The visit was the result of a thaw between the Vatican and Cuba’s president, Fidel Castro, who banned religion in 1959 when he seized power. Cuba’s majority-Catholic population welcomed the pontiff with great excitement; several hundred thousand people, including Castro, attended the Mass led by the pope in Havana. Meanwhile, a small number of other Cubans drew their own conclusion from the regime’s growing tolerance of religion: Perhaps soon the state would increasingly accept Islam too.
HARD ROAD: Two men from an Islamic studies group walk home from a meeting in Havana. Because there are few houses of worship in Cuba, many Muslims face long journeys to fulfill their religious duties.