Greetings everyone! I am happy to announce that our search for a new place to live is over! We have found a house to rent in a safer part of Cúa and hope to be moving there within a few weeks. I hope to have picture or a video of the new place up within a month or so. We praise God for a new place to live and new people to meet on the new street where we will be living. Blessings!
Matt J.
Venezuelans increasingly turn to Santeria for spiritual needs
published: Saturday | February 9, 2008
File
A pilgrim drags himself on the floor while trying to reach th of St Lazarus on St Lazarus' Day or Babalu Aye in Cuba's Santeria religion, in Rincon, near Havana. Hundreds of followers of Cuba's Santeria religion celebrate one of their holiest saints while walking for days hoping to obtain relief from dreadful diseases or to fulfil promises for granted wishes.
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP):
The man says he is possessed by a god. He shouts, his body trembles and he lifts a sacrificed lamb to his lips, drinking its blood from the jugular.
This initiation ceremony, seldom witnessed by outsiders, has become increasingly common in Venezuela, as the Afro-Cuban traditions of Santeria and other folk religions gain followers.
The rituals have become an attractive option for Venezuelans seeking a unique spiritual path, including healing ceremonies aimed at curing everything from illness to heartache. Some even believe certain gods will offer protection from Venezuela's rampant violent crime.
The surge in Santeria, which is practised by many in Cuba, can partly be explained by the arrival of thousands of Cuban doctors in Venezuela. President Hugo Chávez has been providing Cuba with subsidised oil in exchange for thousands of physicians who come to the South American country to treat poor people.
Santeria priests are also making annual predictions for Venezuelans and issuing warnings - just like Cuban 'santeros' do in Havana. Last month, one group of priests said the gods have indicated that the twice-divorced Chávez would be a more effective leader with a woman at his side.
It's a familiar pattern. Santeria has grown in popularity in New York, Miami and Puerto Rico in the past following influxes of Cubans, according to Margarite Fernandez Olmos, a professor at City University of New York who has researched the religion. She said Santeria's popularity also has grown in places "where African-based spirituality becomes a more acceptable social and spiritual option".
Selling animal for sacrifice
In overwhelmingly Roman Catholic Venezuela, many shops have sprung up in recent years selling roosters, goats and other animals to be sacrificed in Caracas' working class barrios. In the city's churches, believers can be seen in head-to-toe white, praying to their gods before statues of Catholic saints.
Santeria was born in Cuba among Yoruba slaves from West Africa. They were forbidden to practise their own religion, so they fused their beliefs with the Catholicism of their masters, starting a tradition that has spread throughout the Americas. The Catholic Church considers the rituals idolatrous, but has come to tolerate the popular practice.
Santeria has been present in Venezuela for decades, though some experts say it is more out in the open now due to the political situation.
"The current political ambience created by a populist government with its emphasis on nationalism has made Santeria more visible,'' said Leslie Desmangles, a religion and international studies professor at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut.
Along with Santeria, Venezuela is home to other folk religions, such as the sect surrounding the Indian goddess Maria Lionza, which has also been flourishing.
Believers in Maria Lionza make quick dashes through highway traffic in Caracas to reach a statue of the goddess in a highway divider. They lay offerings of flowers, liquor or coins at the foot of the statue, which depicts the naked goddess riding atop a tapir, a hoglike jungle mammal.
The Santeria movement nowadays cuts across racial groups and class lines, and includes lawyers and other professionals as well as the unemployed among its adherents. In spite of rapid economic growth propelled by Venezuela's key oil industry, people here face problems from crime to inflation that some say increase stresses on their lives.
