Santería

Historical and National Context

Santería's ritual and mythical system developed in the second half of the 19th century, initially in the western part of the island and probably in connection with legal associations (cabildos de nación) that gathered slaves and freed them according to their regional origins.

Progressively, Yoruba initiatic traditions, separated from their territorial and community roots, underwent a deep process of adaptation to the new sociocultural environment: Ceremonies were altered and condensed. In addition, they integrated elements of other African and European religious traditions (e.g., before the initiation, neophytes must be baptized and “spiritualist masses” must be performed). Equally, the mythological corpus and the sacerdotal system were, to a certain extent, remodeled. This process of adaptation and syncretism, also driven by divergent tendencies, contradictions, and dynamics of power that still endure, shaped the pattern of “modern” Santería or Santería criolla (Creole).

During the Cuban “pseudo-republic” (1902–1959) and the first decades of the Castro Revolution, the practice of Santería was frequently stigmatized and sometimes even criminalized. However, some of its choreographic-musical rituals were studied by local intellectuals and progressively folklorized, aestheticized, and theatricalized. Since the 1990s and the ideological reorientations adopted in post-Soviet Cuba, Santería has gained great prestige and important visibility. Today, definitely conceived as a specific manifestation of a whole historical national process, it has finally become a symbol of national identity, an element that probably plays a part in its contemporary popularity and diffusion among certain foreigners and the public.

Cosmology and Initiatic System

Santería's pantheon consists of a creator god, who allocates the aché (a mystic and sacred energy circulating in the cosmos), and about 20 orichas (deified ancestors) who have several avatars. Orichas, the main figures of mythological narratives, are respectively associated with elements of the social and natural world, and every human being is considered to be the “child” of one of them. Santería's cosmology and rituals also attach specific importance to eggun (“deceased's spirits”).

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