Pepe and Santeria.

This is actually part of another thread but, I think the info is pertinent to understanding some of  "Tale of the Goat" so, I am resurecting it here. For those not familiar, my dad had a couple of speaking cameos as "Pepe" the OCB janitor.

If my dad's lines had been cut, the rate would have dropped to the going rate for extras which, I believe was about $125.00 with no residuals. It was pretty cool that as soon as the show was repeated, he got another $750.00 for each one. The amounts dropped to just a few bucks after a time.

The concept of what my dad tells Crockett is pretty interesting. The fact that his question to Crockett was a metaphor about "believing" in the ocean, it hints of, no matter what you believe, there is something there to be reckoned with. "No matter if you do, or you don't. If you step in it, for sure, you're going to get wet." Basically, he was warning Crockett to be careful, regardless of what he might personally believe!

A little background.

Although we are Catholic and the dominant religion in Cuba is Catholic, the religion of Santeria is very prevalent across the country. We have always had family friends that practiced this religion.

Santeria is a combination African religion brought to the new world by slaves and the Catholisism that was already prevalent on their arrival. Santeria, to this day, combines offerings and animal sacrifices to the Saints. These Saints each have their own "area of responsibility" such as Chango, the Goddess of War. Chango's counterpart in the Catholic religion would be Santa Barbara whose identifying colors are red and white.

You can always identify a "Santero" by the multi-colored, bead bracelets and necklaces that they wear. Each pattern of beads and colors represent a different Saint. Anyone other than the person wearing them is forbidden to touch them.

Allthough this is not "traditional" Voodoo, some of the Voodoo rituals found in other cultures are involved. Regardless, it is still a pretty interesting if not, sometimes scary thing. The rituals carried out during these ceremonies include a lot of music, primarily if not exclusively drums, lots of liquor and food and cigars. The person "receiving" the Saint is brought into a state of frenzy, ultimately collapsing in total exhaustion at the conclusion of the ritual. I partook in one of these full-blown events in Guanabacoa, Cuba. This area is just outside of Havana. The high-priest was a very scary looking but very nice guy. His skin was black as pitch and his eyes were clouded over with mild cataracts...frightening dude!

The ceremony was incredible. The place was electric, the drums were relentless in their beat as they brought their faithful subject to the trance state as they "recieved" the Saint. A pretty memorable experience! Thank GOD for lots of rum!

I have some pictures that I took, I'll try to hunt them down and post some, including pictures of the altars.

Hope this sheds a little bit of light on a pretty interesting subject.

Also:

I just started a "Pepe" page on my site, under the "Questions and Answers" link. There, you will find pictures of a Santeria ceremony as well as pictures of different types of altars built to the Saints. These are from a documentary that I worked on in Cuba in 1990.

RB

Wow.. pretty cool information! As far as I know.. we don't have anything like that in boring old Virginia.

But then, I could be wrong.

LMAOOOO @ Vicer!  Hey...how much pain can a rusty machete' cause, anyway???  OK..ok...probably immeasreuable Hellacious pain & terror in your last moments...but aside from that....  OK, anyway...when I was a "plain" detective, I was assigned all the cult/occult type cases.  I had a working knowledge of paganism, witchcraft, druidism/wicca, satanism, santeria, brujaria.  I solved a couple cases...there weren't that many.  My most notable was a witchcraft case in which a self proclaimed gray-witch/pagan (somewhat demented) practitioner left an eloborate defiled Bible & home made scroll at a Church, with whom she was not happy.  I deciphered the runes.  Very interesting. 

Anyway, I doubt your kinfolk intended you harm - quite the opposite, however I understand your reluctance.

Regards, KD

Amen Brother!  Thumbs down to false Gods