Identity elements
Reference code
Name and location of repository
Level of description
Title
Date(s)
- 1961-1966 (Creation)
Extent
3 folder(s), 31 item(s), 56 page(s)
Name of creator
Biographical history
Evora Arca de Sardiña was born in Cuba, attended high school in New York, and returned to Cuba in 1950. In Cuba, she was involved in social work the poor. When Castro came to power in 1959, she fled to the United States with her husband and her five sons and settled in Miami. Her husband, Eugenio, was part of the CIA-trained anti-Castro assault force captured at the Bay of Pigs. (Source: «Witness to Freedom».)
Content and structure elements
Scope and content
In this group of letters, Merton provides spiritual direction to a Cuban expatriate who fled after Fidel Castro came to power. Subjects of the letters include the Cuban Revolution, the Bay of Pigs Invasion, and the Cuban Missile Crisis. Merton "Warn[s] her against those who would turn to violence but also against those who would embrace a comfortable and wealthy Catholicism" (Shannon, p. 77). (Source: <a onClick="return popup(this, 'link')" href="http://bellarmine.on.worldcat.org/search?databaseList=638&queryString=ti:Witness+to+Freedom"><i>Witness to Freedom</i></a>.) Many letters from Merton are photocopies from the published letters. However, a few carbons of his letters and original handwritten letters from Evora Arca de Sardiña are present.
System of arrangement
Records are arranged chronologically. Records are not divided into Series.
Conditions of access and use elements
Conditions governing access
Regulations governing use of the collection can be found here: (‹https://bellarmine.libraryhost.com/index.php/rules›).
Technical access
Conditions governing reproduction
Languages of the material
Scripts of the material
Language and script notes
Finding aids
Acquisition and appraisal elements
Custodial history
Immediate source of acquisition
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information
Accruals
Related materials elements
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related archival materials
See also Cold War Letters #27, #93, #109 and other letters from Merton to Arca de Sardiña published in «Witness to Freedom» (‹https://bellarmine.on.worldcat.org/search?queryString=no%3A32625479›), 76-85; and see also the "Rodríguez, Marta Elena" file.