Santería

Historical Overview and Theology

As the conquistadors exerted their colonial influence throughout the Spanish-speaking empire in the 16th and 17th centuries, plantation-based industries harvesting tobacco, sugarcane, cotton, and other goods became mainstays of the colonial economies. These labor-intensive industries resulted in the importation of large numbers of enslaved Africans as workers to meet production demands. The vast majority of slaves taken to the Spanish colonies were ethnic Yorubans from present-day Nigeria and Benin; more than 1 million Africans were taken to Cuba alone between 1500 and 1800. Over the course of colonial history, the Spanish clergy was generally more tolerating of the animist and polytheistic beliefs of African and indigenous peoples than their Protestant counterparts in North America, thus permitting a hybridization of traditional West African and Roman Catholic religiosity.

Santería does not feature a centralized authority (such as the Vatican) or an official written canon or dogma; as such, Santería practices are largely passed down orally and specific practices and beliefs vary geographically. However, basic Santería theology consists of a belief in one supreme deity (named Olodumare) who communicates to humans through a variety of orishas, who are akin to Catholic saints. More than 400 orishas exist within Santería. In order to receive favors or protection from evils, Santería worshippers sacrifice the blood of animals as offerings to various orishas. These sacrificial rituals (known as obé) are accompanied by ceremonial dancing and drumming.

Francisco “Pancho” Mora, the first-known Cuban santero (a low-ranking Santería priest) to settle in the United States, arrived in New York City in 1946. However, it was not until the 1960s and 1970s that Santería began to enter the United States in significant numbers with the arrival of various waves of refugees from Cuba following Fidel Castro's Communist takeover. More than 450,000 Cubans fed to the United States between 1959 and 1975.

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