Santeria

Santeria is an Afro-Caribbean religion that has many different views. Santeria in English means “way of the saints”. This religion comes from what is today Nigeria, this religion is influenced by roman catholic elements since slaves were brought to the Caribbean island of Cuba and forced to practice the roman catholic religion. Most people believe that Santeria is a way of worshiping the devil or as Latinos would say “brujeria” which means witch craft. But what it really is the worshiping of Mortal spirits along with catholic saints. According to Brown and Keely the fallacy used in this article is called Either-or (false dilemma). This is because two there are two dilemmas but it is not restricted to only two. There are more opinions on how Santeria is viewed. These worshiping rituals are for specific purposes.

Mortal spirits need the worshiping of humans in order to survive. Worship in Santeria includes dancing to rhythmic drums, the use of charms, herbs, symbols, potions and initiation rituals. This sometimes includes animal sacrifice, usually of chickens, is used mostly to gain favor with the orishas (spirits) and to bring good fortune and forgiveness of sin. The religious leaders, Santeros (male) and Santeras (female), serve as earthly representatives or extensions of orishas. These men and women train for many years to gain their status in the faith as they learn the dances, songs, divination, and healing methods of Santeria.

The different types of music are Santos(saints), Palos and mesa espirituales (spiritual mass). Santos are also called tambores(drums), this music is used to praise the spirits and to have a good time dancing with other worshipers. Palos is the music of sacrifices; this is used to ask the spirits for help doing a job. When sacrificing people either do offerings or cleaning spells. Once you are done draining the blood from the animal you sacrificed you may eat it if you sacrificed the animal as an offering. If the sacrificed animal is for a cleaning which is draining the blood to clean yourself from all negative vides and evil, you must not eat the animal and ask the spirit that you offered the blood to as to where you shall dispose of the animal.

Like many religions there are people that use these powers for good and some that use them for evil. The last type of music is called mesa espirituales, this is the calling of souls to come down and be in you or present around you. Not all people who practice the religion have the ability to be possessed. So they use a medium which is usually an elder that gets possessed and wears the gifts you gave to the spirit in order to work miracles that you’ve asked for. You must have faith in order to fully appreciate this religion. The problem with this music is that all of the songs are sung in the dialect Yoruba also called Lucumí. This dialect is very hard to understand and not many people really know it. Even people who have practiced this religion for years still do not fully understand the language.