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Possessed with Old Fervor: Santeria in Cuba
| Article
# : |
11265 |
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Section : |
CULTURE
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| Issue
Date : |
9 / 1993 |
3,244 Words |
| Author
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Bill Strubbe
Bill Strubbe is a freelance writer residing in Oakland,
California. |
On a faded and crumbling street of Old Havana, from a table in the shade, wizened Rosa Diaz Leon sells leaves and bottles of tinctures. Behind her, her workshop appears to be in chaos: Branches hang from the rafters, piles of leaves dry on racks, and containers of dried herbs line the shelves. But Rosa insists she knows where everything is.
The seventy-one year old is among Havana's most revered curanderos (herbalists). Rosa learned about the healing herbs of the wild from her mother, a devotee of Santeria and lucumi slave of Yoruban descent. "After the revolution, the government pushed to modernize Cuba's medicine, and it thought natural medicine was stupid and primitive," explains Rosa. "Conventional doctors looked down on us traditional curanderos. I was arrested three times for illegally dispensing herbs and practicing my trade."
But in 1980, when the government began restoring sections of Old Havana, the persistent curandera was granted a license and a workspace. Now, with medicines in short supply, the government is pushing a "green medicine" program and recognizes Santeria's extensive knowledge of medicinal plants as a way to supplement modern health care and cut costs. Today Rosa's skills are sought by Cuban doctors and pharmaceutical researchers, as well as a number of international experts wishing to document her wisdom for posterity. A smiling Rosa comments, "I always knew it was only a matter of time that we would return to the old ways, to the plants and herbs God gave us."
Cuba's Yoruban Heritage
After the successful slave revolts in Haiti in the late 1700s, Cuba stood to reap enormous profits from "white gold" (sugar) and became a major importer of slaves. From 1821 to 1831, 600,000 Africans--the majority Yorubans from Africa's west coast--were conscripted into Cuba.
Wrenched from their physical and spiritual homelands, the Africans were thrust into a world debased by greed, hatred, fear, and unimaginable suffering. Despite the chaos, they carried within a realm of beauty and order, enabling their spirits to survive the harsh realities. In North America, blacks generally were scattered into isolated rural holdings, but in Cuba's rural provinces slaves outnumbered whites. Usually, they lived in large communities where the African tribal ways were easier to sustain without interference.
Spanish law required that all slaves be baptized
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