Electric Santería: Racial and Sexual Assemblages of Transnational Religion

303 Pages·2015·3.108 MB·English

by  Aisha M. Beliso-De Jesús

Electric Santería
RACIAL AND SEXUAL ASSEMBLAGES
OF TRANSNATIONAL RELIGION
Aisha M. Beliso-De Jesús
Electric Santería
GENDER, THEORY, AND RELIGION
GENDER, THEORY, AND RELIGION
Amy Hollywood, Editor
The Gender, Theory, and Religion series provides a forum for interdisciplinary
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Electric Santería
RACIAL AND SEXUAL ASSEMBLAGES
OF TRANSNATIONAL RELIGION
Aisha M. Beliso-De Jesús
Columbia University Press
New York
Columbia University Press
Publishers Since 1893
New York Chichester, West Sussex
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Copyright © 2015 Columbia University Press
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Beliso-De Jesús, Aisha M.
Electric Santería : racial and sexual assemblages of transnational religion / Aisha M.
Beliso-De Jesús.
pages cm. — (Gender, theory, and religion)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-231-17316-2 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-231-17317-9 (pbk.) —
ISBN 978-0-231-53991-3 (electronic)
1. Santeria—Cuba. 2. Cuba—Religious life and customs. 3. Santeria—United
States. 4. United States—Religious life and customs. I. Title.
BL2532.S3B45 2015
299.6'74—dc23
2014043951

Columbia University Press books are printed on permanent and durable acid-free paper.
This book is printed on paper with recycled content.
Printed in the United States of America
c 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
p 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
cover image: Jura , photograph, Marta María Pérez Bravo
cover design: Milenda Nan Ok Lee
A version of chapter 5, “Contaminating Feminities,” was published as “Contentious
Diasporas: Gender, Sexuality, and Heteronationalisms in the Cuban Iyanifa Debate.”
Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 40, no. 4 (June 2015).
Portions of this book originally appeared in the following journal articles:
“Santería Copresence and the Making of African Diaspora Bodies,”
Cultural Anthropology 29, no. 3 (Aug. 2014): 503–26.
“Religious Cosmopolitanisms: Media, Transnational Santeria, and Travel
Between the United States and Cuba,” A merican Ethnologist 40, no. 4
(Nov. 2013): 704–20.

References to websites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing. Neither the author
nor Columbia University Press is responsible for URLs that may have expired or changed
since the manuscript was prepared.
Para Padrino Alfredo
Obá Tolá niré elese Olodumare, alá Aganyú

Contents
author’s note ix
preface D espedidas xi
acknowledgments xv
INTRODUCTION Transnational Santería Assemblages 1
CHAPTER ONE Electric Oricha 40
CHAPTER TWO Transnational Caminos 79
CHAPTER THREE Pacts with Darkness 114
CHAPTER FOUR Scent of Empire 147
CHAPTER FIVE Contaminating Femininities 183
E PILOGUE A Death at Dawn 212
glossary 223
notes 229
references 247
index 271

Author’s Note
Transnational Santería practitioners are from diverse backgrounds, nations,
and ethnicities, and those I worked with spoke Spanish or English with
Lukumí words among other languages. Lukumí, the language of the o ri-
cha , is a Cuban-creole form of Spanish, Yoruba, and Congo languages from
colonial times. This book refl ects this use of Lukumí-creole Cuban or-
thography. For ethnographic interlocutors I have used some actual names
of practitioners who wished to appear in this book and have their contri-
butions noted publicly. However, for most American-based s anteros trav-
eling illegally between Cuba and the United States, and for Cuban nation-
als who engaged in sometimes compromising relationships with foreigners
in Cuba, I have changed details to ensure ethnographic anonymity.
ix