Santeria

St. Lazarus (Babalu Aye)

I was in Cuba recently and was interested to learn about the religion of Santeria. It is an example of syncretism, the melding of two religious traditions. Santeria is a religion of the West African slaves who were brought to Cuba to work on the sugar plantations. These slaves brought their spiritual traditions with them and, when forced by the slave owners to convert to Catholicism, they hid their religious secrets inside the imagery of their masters’ Saints. Santeria, or “the way of the Saints,” is the term the slave owners applied to what they perceived as their slaves’ primitive worship of the Catholic Saints in preference to the more traditional Catholic focus on Jesus Christ. The slaves themselves referred to their beliefs as Lucumi, “La Regla de Ocha” (the Rule of Ocha), or simply, “la religión.”

I found this video on YouTube about Santeria in Cuba. Take a look!