How and why did Santería first take root in Cuba?
Miguel De La Torre: Santería originated when the Yoruba people were brought from Africa to colonial Cuba as slaves and forced to adopt Catholicism. They immediately recognized the parallels existing between their traditional beliefs and the ones newly imposed on them. Both religions consisted of a high god who conceived, created, and continued to sustain all that exists. Additionally, both religions consisted of a host of intermediaries operating between the supreme God and the believers. Catholics called these intermediaries saints, while Africans called them orishas. In order to continue worshiping their African gods under the constraints of slavery, they masked their deities behind the ‘faces’ of Catholic saints, identifying specific orishas with specific saints. These gods, now manifested as Catholic saints, were recognized as the powerbrokers between the most high God and humanity. Catholic Cuba was more conducive to preserving the faith of the orishas than was the Protestant Unit
