Students Join in Santeria Festival

The sounds of praise and ecstatic celebration filled Lowell House's Junior Common Room yesterday as about 70 people joined in a tribute to Shango, the spirit of lightning and thunder in the Santeria tradition.

Santeria is a Cuban religion with traditions drawn from Yoruba tribal worship and blended with Roman Catholicism.

J. Lorand Matory '82, Foster associate professor of Afro-American studies and of anthropology, helped organize the event as part of his film and lecture series on Afro-Atlantic religions.

Matory describes himself as "participant observer," one who researches the religion and culture by taking part in it.

Yesterday's ceremony marked the first time that the House of Obatala, a community of Santeria believers in the Boston area, has celebrated at Harvard.

The festival, or bembe, began with a kneeling by the believers around the throne of Shango, petitioning his blessing and favor. The throne was draped with linens and surrounded by various plants and fruits specific to Shango.

Shango is one of several divine spirits or saints in the Santeria tradition who possess numerous distinct attributes and are worshipped in music, dance and ritual offerings.

The afternoon continued with joyful singing and dancing as a quintet struck polyrhythmic beats on conga drums and calabash gourds wrapped in beads.

Steve Quintana III, who founded the House of Obatala, led the evening's celebration. During the dancing, he actively recruited dancers from the surrounding crowd. Lowell House Co-Master Diana L. Eck joined a circle dance to the rhythm of the drums and gourds.

According to Matory, dancing and music are a central part of Santeria worship. Practitioners believe that a dancer can enter a trance-like state, imbued by a spirit.

"In this tradition they say that the god or the saint mounted the person, just as a rider would mount a horse," Matory said.

Some attendees said they felt the event was inconsistent with its location.

"My friends and I were discussing how interesting the contrast is between this space [the Lowell House JCR] and the aesthetics of the folk ceremony," said graduate student Diana I. Williams '95.

Attendees included the actively worshipping, comparative religion researchers, curious on-lookers and leaders of other religions.

Father Julian von Duerbeck, a Benedictine priest who takes part in the Catholic Church's "Monastic Interreligious Dialogue," said he was interested in promoting dialogue between the Catholic Church and practitioners of Santeria.

"I really think there's a great sense of God in rhythm, God in music--the involvement of the whole person," he said.

Jalane D. Schmidt, a teaching fellow for one of Matory's classes, said this bembe might disabuse people of the misconception that Santeria includes devil-worshipping and human sacrifice.

"There has always been a veneer of secrecy about [Santeria], but now it's above ground," she said.

Onlooker Joseph A. Rodriguez, who was born in Cuba but had not witnessed a bembe since childhood, said it was a particularly emotional event.

"In the Castro era, it was very difficult to get into the religion. What I learned, I learned from my parents," he said. "Being from the old country, to have this in the United States is unbelievable."