I went to Daniel Rodriguez’s lecture on Santeria on November 15. He gave an overview of Santeria but also talked about how it’s viewed in culture and media. One of the things he talked about that I found really interesting was the assigning of orishas to people. In Santeria people have “head orishas” that are their main orisha and although they may also honor other orishas, that one will still be their main orisha. He specifically mentioned Obatala and the story of the creation of the human race. Obatala was tasked with creating humanity, however he got drunk and when he was drunk he decided that that was the best time to start creating humans. He ended up creating humans with deformities, such as missing limbs or birth defects. Rodriguez said that kids who are born missing limbs, or with birth defects, or autism are immediately initiated to Obatala because they are seen as being his children.

He also talked about the way Santeria is viewed by outsiders. The name “Santeria” has a negative connotation because of the ways the media portrays it. There’s a song by the artist Sublime that has the lyrics “I don’t practice Santeria,” and one thing that I’ve seen with the media’s portrayal of Santeria was in an episode of Criminal Minds where a killer they were trying to catch was a practitioner of Santeria. They pretty much only showed the pieces that could be viewed as wrong, such as rituals with animal sacrifice. Rodriguez stated that many practitioners of Santeria actually call it Regla de Ocha, meaning “the order of the orishas.” However, he also mentioned that there was some controversy about it because some people want to use the name Santeria in order to sort of reclaim it and try to change the connotation but many would also much rather use the name Regla de Ocha.

Overall I found his lecture incredibly interesting, not to mention the fact that he was funny and very interesting. He talked a lot about ritual and about what being initiated is like and about how it’s not for everyone. In class we talked a lot about the outsider’s point of view, especially at the beginning of the class with the article about the Nacirema. Daniel Rodriguez’s lecture made me think a lot about the outsider’s point of view and how understanding the religion is a big part of not perpetuating the ignorance around Santeria.