Regla de Ocha (Santeria)

The Regla de Ocha, also known as Santeria, is the most popular religious practice in Cuba. It resulted from a syncretism between the African religion, profoundly influenced by Yoruba (a Nigerian ethnic group) and Catholicism, practised by the Spanish people, that met in Cuba during the colonization.

In this period the European colonizers tried to evangelize the African deported people in order to subject them. The slaves were forced to practice the Catholic rites but at the same time they would not give up their traditions. They began to identify their divinities, the Orishas, with the Catholic Saints in order to hide their ancient rites to the Spanish autorities. This was possible because both these faiths were considered as the expression of the same spiritual being.

In the long run this “strategy” caused a profound transformation: there was no more a definite division between the African culture and the Catholic one; as a result many people apparently accepted Catholic dogmas but continued to profess their old religion in private.

The integration process of these two different cultures, named Transculturatión by the anthropologist Fernando Ortiz, has originated a new religion and helps to better understand the evolution of Cuban people. This process is due to various phenomena and complex cultural transformations, which are the basis of real transition process, thus creating a new reality: Cuban identity.

These short notes cannot give a complete vision of Santeria that, as every religious system, has is own structure, composed by sacerdotal hierarchies, liturgies and cerimonies...

It’s necessary to add that Regla de Ocha, being a cultural phenomenon so rich and complex, is not only a religion, but also a real phylosophical system focused on human beings, their existence, their capabilities and their relation with divinities.

All these characteristics make the Santeria one of the most interesting and typical aspects of Cuban culture and identity.