The ceremonies reflect deep spiritual practice among Cuba’s Afro-Cuban population, where African and Spanish traditions have syncretized into Santería. They underscore how ordinary Cubans are responding to geopolitical shocks and economic hardship through religious traditions rooted in community, ancestors, and the natural world.
Priests and priestesses of Cuba’s Santería religion held several ceremonies on Sunday, offering gifts to deities and asking for spiritual peace as tensions between Cuba and the United States intensify.
The ceremonies, held in the courtyard of an old house in Havana, reflected a wave of spiritual concern sweeping through Cuba’s Afro-Cuban population. According to Lázaro Cuesta, a renowned Santería priest who organized one ceremony, “We believe that through sacrifices and prayers we can alleviate the impact of harmful issues.”
Escalating Crisis
In early January, Cuban Santería priests known as babalawos had predicted the possibility of war and violence affecting Cuba and the world in 2026. Those predictions took on urgency on January 3, when the United States struck Venezuela’s capital, Caracas, and arrested then-President Nicolás Maduro. Thirty-two Cuban soldiers from Maduro’s personal security detail died in the operation.
The attack reverberated across Cuba. Venezuela is one of the island nation’s main political, ideological and commercial allies. Meanwhile, Cuba faces a radical tightening of U.S. sanctions designed to pressure for political change, and President Donald Trump has directly threatened the island.
Rituals for Peace
Within this landscape of economic strain and geopolitical tension, the Santería ceremonies drew hundreds of participants. At the foot of a leafy mango tree, priests sacrificed a hen, a rooster and a dove while chanting in Yoruba—a language brought to the island by enslaved Africans and passed down orally for centuries. The chants repeatedly invoked Eggun, the deity of ancestors, asking permission to invoke his power and presence.
The second part of the ceremony moved indoors, where priests and parishioners, dressed in white and wearing necklaces and headdresses, made their offering to Azowano, one of the forms that Saint Lazarus takes in Santería. They knelt before a large basket filled with beans, corn, and two eggs—a generous offering in a country where eggs are expensive.
Several hundred people then formed a single file, circled the basket and participated in a cleansing ritual, being swept with live chickens while attendees continued chanting in Yoruba.
Faith and Community
Yusmina Hernández, a 49-year-old homemaker who participated, described the religious impulse behind the gathering: “As religious people, we always try to distance ourselves from anything negative that comes into our lives.”
For Eraimy León, a 43-year-old babalawo, the ceremonies held broader meaning. “This is being done for the good of society,” she said, “so that there is no conflict or violence, so that there is harmony and health.”
The ceremonies reflected the deep syncretism of Santería itself—a faith born from the collision of African and Spanish traditions during centuries of colonial encounter. What emerged was a distinctly Cuban spiritual practice that has remained central to the island’s cultural and religious life, drawing believers across class and education lines in seeking connection to the ancestors and the divine.