SanterÍa

Santería, or "saint worship," is a religion that has its roots in both the spiritual practices of the Yoruba people of western Africa and in Roman Catholicism. The Yoruba people believed in the supreme God Olodumare and in lesser deities known as orishas. As slaves brought to work on sugar plantations in Cuba, they were baptized and catechized in the Roman Catholic Church in accordance with the Slave Code of 1789. The synthesis of these two religious practices occurred as slaves began to recognize Catholic saints as spiritual beings similar to their orishas. Eventually each orisha was matched with a Catholic saint and came to be known by both the African and Christian name (for instance, Orula and St. Francis of Assisi describe the same being). Under Spanish rule, the followers of this religion, santeros, continued to honor their spiritual ancestors and sought power through them. They communicated to the orishas through the ashe, the blood and power, of animal sacrifice and other offerings, such as food or clothing; today, community service is also a method of communication. The orishas, in turn, spoke to santeros through divination, performed by babalawos, who could read the future in sea- or coconut shells or in cards immersed in clear water.

Santería became a presence in the United States largely as a result of the exodus of Cubans after the revolution of 1959. There is little public display of the religion. Botanicas, which sell candles, beads, oils, herbs, plants, and plaster statues of Catholic saints, are found in Latino sections of New York, Miami, and Los Angeles. The number of followers is not easily determined. In southern Florida, which has had a large Caribbean immigration, roughly seventy thousand people practice Santería.

The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has protested the ritual slaughter of animals by adherents to Santería on several occasions. One 1980 raid on an apartment in the Bronx where Santería was reportedly being practiced yielded three goats and eighteen chickens. A larger case arose when Ernesto Pichardo opened a public church for Santería followers—the first in the United States—in Hialeah, Florida, in 1987. After a two-year struggle, the town passed an ordinance banning animal sacrifice. Pichardo and others claimed such rulings to be hypocritical in a society where meat is slain daily for consumption, especially since in Santería the animal sacrificed is often eaten afterward. In June 1993 the Supreme Court removed the ban on religious animal sacrifices as discrimination against religious practice.

See also Catholicism in the Americas; Orisha; Yoruba Religion and Culture in the Americas

Bibliography

Gonzalez-Wippler, Migene. Santería, the Religion: A Legacy of Faith, Rites, and Magic. New York: Harmony, 1989.

Murphy, Joseph M. Santería: An African Religion in America. Boston: Beacon Press, 1988.

walter friedman (1996)

grissel bordoni-seijo (1996)