I went to the lecture Thrones of the Gods and Altars of the Soul that was presented by a man named Daniel Rodríguez. This lecture took place at 6:00 pm on Wednesday, November 15th. Mr. Rodríguez came to speak to us about his work as an altar builder. He works specifically on Santeria altars. The spectacular Santeria birthday altar in the Spirited Things exhibit was built by Mr. Rodríguez and the Flemming museum staff. Mr. Rodríguez spoke to us about his work and how he is an Obá Oriaté. An Obá Oriaté is a person who helps worshipers find their guardian Orisha. The reason he was invited to speak was to give us a more in-depth look into the background of the Santeria religion due to the fact that he is an Obá Oriaté.
Mr. Rodríguez started the lecture off with a brief definition of Santeria for those in the audience who had never been exposed to this before. He explained that Santeria is a product of religious syncretism between Christianity and the religions of the African diaspora. After he felt that had given the audience enough background information. Mr. Rodríguez started going into detail about certain religious practices of Santeria like healing rituals, the practice of animal sacrifice, and importance of colors and clothing. After describing the religious practices of Santeria worshipers Mr. Rodríguez started to talk about the significance of altars in relation to Santeria. He explained that your altar is supposed to grow with the worshiper, and that they are not supposed to remain constant. For example, the Altar of a young child who just built their altar should be nowhere near as extravagant as the altar of an elderly worshiper who has been adding to their altar their entire life. Directly after this Mr. Rodríguez invited us into the exhibit to answer any questions.
This lecture was incredibly specific. The Santeria religion is a great example of syncretism because it truly is a mix of Christianity and the religions Christianity and Yoruba. Mr. Rodríguez touched on this, but within the work that we have done in altars of the black Atlantic we learned how the slaves were brought over to the Americas with their own religions and beliefs. once here they were forced to practice Christianity. the possession of any “false deities” could get you killed, so the slaves used the Christian saints that matched up with the characteristics of their gods. This is why Santeria is called Santeria. Santeria means “worship of saints”.
This lecture was more than worth my time. Mr. Rodríguez was a great speaker, and his work as an Obá Oriaté was something I hadn’t been exposed to before. His work with helping people find their guardian Orisha was incredibly interesting. I wish we could have had him speak with the class. I think that a Q&A session with him about his work would have been awesome. Mr. Rodríguez was obviously very passionate about his work, which made the lecture what it was. If he didn’t have the passion that he had the lecture would have been interesting, but not nearly what it was.