Afro-Caribbean

Bradenton couple’s business fills a niche for Santeria practitioners - News

November 11, 2019
Tucked away amid a nondescript strip mall off Tamiami Trail is an equally unpretentious storefront barely visible from the road. But according to the eclectic fare advertised in Spanish and English on the picture window, this place would appear to have a monopoly on a highly specialized local niche market. Offerings range from powders and books to readings and initiations, the store is called Botanica, generically defined as a shop that sells “traditional remedies” and other items associated with religion or spirituality. Accordingly, say Vicky and Gabriel Baeza Hasbun, the wife-husband team... Read more about Bradenton couple’s business fills a niche for Santeria practitioners - News

Ogun

Ogun or Ogou is the lord of iron, metal-work, and technology and is understood to be a warrior god. As such, he is identified through syncretis. in Haiti with St. James, and in Cuba with St. Peter.

Cuban Fusion Pioneers Sintesís On Queen, Santería And Prog Rock

October 31, 2019
Just when you think you know a lot about Cuban music, along comes a pair of musicians who tell me one that of the major influences on their pioneering jazz/rock/santeria band was Queen. Yes, that Queen. In 1976, Carlos Alsonso and his wife Ele Valdés started Síntesis as a prog- and jazz-rock outfit in Havana, Cuba. After participating in a festival that featured santería — the Yoruba spiritual tradition that developed in Cuba among West African descendants... Read more about Cuban Fusion Pioneers Sintesís On Queen, Santería And Prog Rock
Metrraux, Alred, and Charteris Hugo (Ed.). Voodoo in Haiti. 3rd ed. New York: Schocken Books, 1989.

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