Santeria The Beliefs and Rituals

Books on Cuba

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of a Growing Religion in America

by Miguel A. De La Torre

This book by Miguel De la Torre offers a fascinating guide to the history, beliefs, rituals, and culture of Santeria -- a religious tradition that, despite persecution, suppression, and its own secretive nature, has close to a million adherents in the United States alone.

Santeria is a religion with Afro-Cuban roots, rising out of the cultural clash between the Yoruba people of West Africa and the Spanish Catholics who brought them to the Americas as slaves. As a faith of the marginalized and persecuted, it gave oppressed men and women strength and the will to survive. With the exile of thousands of Cubans in the wake of Castro's revolution in 1959, Santeria came to the United States, where it is gradually coming to be recognized as a legitimate faith tradition.

Apart from vague suspicions that Santeria's rituals involve animal sacrifice and notions that it is a "syncretistic" form of Catholicism, most people in America's cultural and religious mainstream know very little about this rich faith tradition -- in fact, many have never heard of it at all. De La Torre, who was reared in Santeria, sets out in this book to provide a basic understanding of its inner workings.

He clearly explains the particular worldview, myths, rituals, and history of Santeria, and he discusses what role the religion typically plays in the life of its practitioners as well as the cultural influence it continues to exert in Latin American communities today.

In offering a balanced, informed survey of Santeria from his unique "insider-outsider" perspective, De La Torre also provides insight into how Christianity and Santeria can enter into dialogue -- a dialogue that will challenge Christians to consider what this emerging faith tradition can teach them about their own. Enhanced with illustrations, tables, and a glossary, De La Torre's Santeria sheds light on a religion all too often shrouded in mystery and misunderstanding.

--Wm. B. Eerdmans, Publisher

Miguel De La Torre has performed the almost magical academic feat of balancing the objectivity of a trained observer with the insights of an insider. He leads his readers on a historical, theological, and cultural journey that goes tot he heart of this rich religious tradition unfolding within a rapidly changing America society.

--Anthony M. Stevens-Arroyo, Brooklyn College, CUNY

Table of Contents

Tables	viii
Figures	x
Preface	xi

1. Santeria: What Is It?	1

2. Creation	31

3. The Orishas and Their Legends	57

4. The Rituals	101

5. Oracles	139

6. Historical Roots	157

7. A Religion of Resistance	189

8. An Emerging Religion within a Christian Environment	205

Glossary	225
Bibliography	235
Index	241

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Dr. De la Torre is a Cuban, a professor of religion at Hope college, with specialization in Christian Social Ethics, Theologies of Liberation and Postmodern/Postcolonial Studies. He is the author of a seminal article on the denial of racism in Cuba entitled, "Masking Hispanic Racism: A Cuban Case Study": "I am a recovering racist, a product of two race-constructed societies. Exilic Cubans see themselves as white and the Island's inhabitants as mostly black."

"A major issue which will arise in a post-Castro Cuba is intra-Cuban race relations, an issue mostly ignored because of the myth proclaiming Cubans as non-racists. I propose to debunk this myth. Any serious discourse on intra-Cuban reconciliation must unmask the hidden tension existing between seemingly white Exilic Cuba and black Resident Cuba."

For the rest of this fascinating article, see http://www.hope.edu/delatorre/articles/jhlt.html

Philosophy of Pedagogy

My educational development has been significantly influenced by Paulo Freire's work, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, which, doubting the existence of an objective, neutral educational system, finds its students lead toward either domestication or liberation. All too often, the educational system serves to normalize existing power structures contributing to maintaining a "culture of silence." Our advance consumer-society rapidly dehumanizes individuals into Objects who concur with the rationality of the present system. The role of the educator, as I see it, is to facilitate the student's consummation of their ontological vocation in becoming a Subject. My task as a professor is to cultivate the student's ability to find their own voice by creating an environment in where individual and collective consciousness-raising can occur.

In order to construct a response to injustice and oppression, I have taught classes combining liberationist perspectives with postmodern analysis. Upon the tension created by these diverse narratives, I have constructed an approach to religious studies from the periphery providing a unique outlook to the normative discourse, a view I believe enhances traditional curricula. Because individuals enter the educational system with a lifetime of experiences and knowledge, courses can be designed to bring their suppositions into conversation with postmodern and liberationist paradigms. Students partake in forming a learning environment by leading segments of the discourse and participating in projects to encourage the interweaving of scholastic rigor with their personal backgrounds.

As both my curriculum vitae and corporate résumé indicate, I posses practical and academic knowledge in public policy and economics, specializing in how the socio-political culture normalizes the oppression of the Other. My controversial approach to marginalized theologies (specifically Latino/a) moves beyond what Edward Said terms "the rhetoric of blame" by concentrating upon intra-ethnic structures of oppressions. A review of the articles I have published, the papers I have presented and the courses I have taught demonstrate and are consistent with my focus in analyzing race, class, and gender oppression.

Publications:

Doing Christian Ethics from the Margins. Orbis Press, forthcoming in 2004.

Handbook of U.S. Theologies of Liberation. Chalice Press, forthcoming in 2004.

Santería: The Beliefs and Rituals of a Growing Religion in America. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., forthcoming in 2003.

La Lucha for Cuba: Religion and Politics on the Streets of Miami. University of California Press, forthcoming in 2003.

The Quest for the Cultural Cuban Christ: A Historical Search. University Press of Florida, forthcoming, in Fall 2002.

Reading the Bible from the Margins. Orbis Press, forthcoming in May, 2002.

Introduction to Hispanic Theology: Latino/a Perspectives, co-authored with Edwin Aponte, Orbis Press, 2001.

Ajiaco Christianity: Toward an Exilic Cuban Ethic of Reconciliation, Ph.D. diss., Temple University, 1999.

Dr. Miguel A. De La Torre / Hope College / Religion Dept.

Holland, MI 49422 / 616-395-7756 / www.hope.edu/delatorre/