 The
Cuban State is lay. However, the national Constitution
guarantees the religious freedom of all citizens and
the equality, by law, of all religions and churches.
According to some sadistic, most of the citizens have
some religious beliefs, although only the 15 % of the
population practices some organized faith of a cult.
The Roman Catholic Church is the predominant religion.
It arrived to Cuba with Christopher Columbus´
caravels, and during almost five centuries it maintained
the hegemony as the official religion of the colonial
regime. Later on, it was also the predominant religion
of the Republic, from 1902 to 1959.
Nowadays, although it is the strongest due to its bonds
with tradition and culture, it shares the spaces with
evangelical churches that first came to the island in
1899, when the North American troops occupied the country.
Hundreds of temples and cult houses were erected all
along the country, among them Baptist, Episcopal, Methodist
and Presbyterian churches, as well as other denominations
of Protestantism.
But in all Cuban municipalities there are parishes
and catholic chapels that are distributed in 11 dioceses.
The current archbishop of Havana is member of the Sacred
School of Cardinals.
Catholicism and Christianity have, in Cuba, a distinctive
feature. From the XVI century, the African slaves, when
being evangelized, mixed the forms of their religious
conscience with the dogmas and the Catholic liturgy.
The Yoruba and other African cultures mixed with the
Catholic saints in a phenomenon called Syncretism, that
still exist and characterizes a considerable portion
of the inhabitants of the Island in the practice of
cults and rules of which the Santería is one
of the most spread.
In Cuba, there are also Jewish and Muslims.
The Santería
in Cuba
It is very popular in Cuba. It arrives to the
Island in the minds of the black slaves brought from
Africa several centuries ago, during the Spanish colonization.
They became the labor force to work in the sugar cane
plantations, and they brought with them the beliefs
in the African deities. It was a new and unknown religion
for the Spaniards who implanted Catholicism in Cuba
like in the rest of Latin America.
 The black slaves had nothing but their divine obsession
for their gods, symbols, rites, legends and myths when
travelled hungry, nude and chained in the Spanish ships
listening a different language, away from home to where
they will never return.
In their moments of scarce rest, after long and inhuman
work days in the sugar cane fields and under the inclement
sun, the Afro-Cuban slaves worshipped their gods, feared
punishments and gave their more secret cults, the only
ones that could protect and provide them faith, hope
and happiness I such as awful life.
With the passing of the years, the African symbols
mixed with the Catholic religion, and a very interesting
process of cultural and spiritual integration occurred.
Some explain this phenomenon due the mimicry, the fragility
of their lives derived of so much oppression and the
intimidation of the Spanish authorities. The slaves
succumbed, even in their most internal and deeper beliefs,
before the absolute supremacy of their masters.
Others affirm that it was a natural and human insert,
a way of surviving the predominant culture, the only
form of existence of their rites, gods and legends.
They did it very wisely, giving and taking.
It was an intelligent metamorphosis after a long process,
centuries. It was the only way that the national integration
could takes place. It was the emergence of the Cuban
nationality and without omitting its typical and essential
elements.
The death of the slave’s gods didn’t happen,
instead, the mixture of the oppressed and the dominant
cultures as a result of a human, underlying, psychic,
sensorial and unconscious evolution took plce.
The Cubans are the mixture of Spaniards, African and
mulattos.
In the country there are several tendencies of religious
practices of African origin, apart from others of the
same origin that exist in the rest of the world. They
have their resemblance and differences.
In Cuba, for instance the Santería was of Yoruba
or Lukumí origin. It is the Rule of Ocha, known
as the Vault of the Orishas.
 The origins of this cult are strongly associated with
Catholic religion and its most known virgins and saints.
The Regla Conga or Palo Monte origin is also practiced.
They use the cult to symbols of Nature. It is a much
extended religion.
Other African religions exist such as the Regla Abakúa
of the Carabalíes, a secret sect of mutual help.
The Vudú is also practiced.
The Cuban Santería is very associated with dance
and music. Its influence is present among the musical
tendencies, dance, or Fine Arts and theatre.
The religious symbols are used to identify postures,
situations, scenarios and circumstances.
It is very difficult to calculate the number of followers
or believers of these syncretism religions, because
people have these beliefs inserted with other Catholic
divinities to worship them or practice their rites in
a non-visible way, in their interior world.
Nevertheless, this cult has been incredibly extended
in the last years.
Some deities of Santería and their syncretism
Obatalá (Nuestra Señora de las
Mercedes): Peace and Purity
Elegguá (San Antonio de la Padova)
Shangó (Santa Bárbara): Sexuality
Oggún (San Pedro): Work
Orula (San Francisco de Asís): Dance
Yemayá: (Nuestra Señora de Regla o Virgen
de Regla): Life
Oshún: (Nuestra Señora de la Caridad del
Cobre) Patron Saint of Cuba: Love and Sex
Babalú-Ayé San Lázaro
Enjoy a Yoruba Ceremony !!!
Adelaida, Wilkey and Danzamor Company offer an authentically Yoruba Ceremony, legacy of its Nigerian ancestors. There you can appreciate the African symbols, the Yoruba deities (Orishas), and through an attractive dance the explanation of how occurred the integration of this cultural and spiritual process in the Cuban religion.
In the ceremony you will be blesses by orishas in a Yoruba Santuary, you will dance, you will fell and finally you will be a very good friend of this unusual couple, with a very interested history.
Nowadays Adelaida and Wilkey were nominated Traditional Celebrities of the Old Havana, by Eusebio Leal Spender, the Havana Historian. The pictures of this couple are famous in the entire world and appear in many publications and TV reports.
For reservation click here
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