Author explains widely misunderstood practices of Santeria

 

By Michael Rosen-Molina
Daily Bruin Senior Staff

Santeria might not be familiar to many Americans. In fact, the
Yoruba African-based religion might be better known by the old
Anglocentric misnomer voodoo.

Far from old media-driven stereotypes about voodoo dolls and
midnight sabbaths, however, Santeria is a rich spiritual faith
devoted to the divinity of nature and the balance of the
elements.

With wit and warmth, Marta Moreno Vega, Santeria Priestess,
President and Founder of the Caribbean Cultural Center and
assistant professor at the City University of New York’s
Baruch College, reveals the truth about the oft-maligned religion
in her new book, “The Altar of My Soul: The Living Traditions
of Santeria.”

“Hollywood has demonized Santeria,” said Vega of
popular attitudes toward traditional African-based belief
systems.

“Part of European colonization of Africa was the
designation of everything traditionally African as primitive,
exotic, cannibalistic,” she continued. “Slaves being
brought over for plantations in the new world were often baptized
on route, to “˜civilize’ them and increase their value.
Even today, Hollywood movies like “˜The Belief’ and
“˜The Serpent and the Rainbow’ enforce negative
perceptions of traditional beliefs.”

In reality, Santeria is a relatively new religion, created in
America and based on the traditions of the Yoruba of West
Africa.

Santeria accepts the majesty of nature, paying respect to the
ancestor divinities, or orisha, who traveled to the new world in
the hearts of enslaved Africans.

For many years, Santeria and other Yoruba-inspired faiths were
forced into hiding. Considered to be dangerous pagan influences by
the Catholic Church, the original practitioners carried out the
religion in secret, hiding their divinities behind the icons of
Catholic saints.

“They would be killed if they were ever caught
practicing,” explained Vega. “So, they had to come up
with inventive ways to hide.”

“We thank the saints for protection, but the orisha stand
alone,” she continued. “In the U.S., Africans found
images that reminded them of important qualities in the divinities
or have visual relationships with them.

Officially, Santeria is said to have 401 divinities, but as Vega
explains, this is more of a symbolic number.

“There are actually 400 known divinities, but the real
number is infinite,” she said. “That’s why we add
the one ““ it’s symbolic of how there could always be
one more.”

Growing up, Vega did not realize that her family practiced
Santeria. Her parents never discussed the meanings behind the holy
images in Vega’s childhood home and she grew up believing
that her family was devoutly Catholic.

Although she was fascinated by the altar her grandmother kept to
the orisha, it was not until a trip to Cuba in 1979 to observe the
Cari Fiesta festival, that she became truly curious about the
faith.

“We had lots of traditions growing up,” said Vega.
“A lot of times when parents come over to this country, they
get the mixed message that to celebrate the old world will keep
their children backward.”

“I was part of these traditions, but they were never
explained to me,” she continued. “When I went to Cuba I
started to see the same images that I remembered from my childhood
and I started to see what I was a part of. In a way, the journey
was circular, starting in East Harlem, going around the world and
ultimately leading me right back home.”

While in Cuba, Vega observed the public portion of a
friend’s initiation into the Santeria priesthood. During a
ceremony, Vega believed she saw her mother’s spirit
manifested through a medium.

“Her spirit manifested startling, frightening, comforting
things,” said Vega. “She knew things that no one else
knew, nicknames and such. I realized then that when she made her
transition, it did not mean that she was no longer
there.”

Although Santeria rituals sometimes include divination through
methods like possession or reading palm nuts, there is more to the
religion than communicating with the departed.

Vega explained that Santeria is based on balance, on activating
the sacred within. The religion allows one to empower oneself with
sacred energy, drawing on the inner sacredness that each person
carries with them as part of their nature.

“It tells us to respect one another, to recognize certain
sacred powers, and it helps us all to function as a family,”
Vega said. “We see nature as sacred, an extension of
ourselves.”

“Thus, you can’t pollute nature,” she
continued. “You must maintain it for your own survival. If
you disrespect the environment, then you’re really
disrespecting yourself, saying that you have no value. When
there’s a society that values money over human life, then
you’ve got a problem.”