Creolization in the Caribbean Heliana Fortes de Roux For most Americans the Caribbean evokes spectator or manipulator of distant Carib­ an image of sunny, fine sand beaches bean transformations, but also an arena for lapped by crystalline waters. For many, it is ongoing cultural innovation. a synonym for tropical music and fun, rest The program brings together folk musi­ and relaxation, vacations and tourism. This cians, ritual practitioners, folk performers, stereotype, however, is a commercially moti­ and cooks from the islands of the Antilles to vated image that distorts the rich diversity of demonstrate the interactions between native, Caribbean cultures. The region encom­ European, African and even Asian cultures passes a wealth of cultures that have that have resulted in the creation of new evolved over centuries of complex, turbu­ cultural forms. In the Caribbean region lent, and profound interactions-within a people of diverse ethnicity live side by side. limited geographical area-among the in­ Though they do not indiscriminately share a digenous peoples of the area, Europeans uniform common culture, their lifeways from several countries, peoples from West crisscross and intermingle. If one is inter­ Africa, and in some cases, indentured ser­ ested in origins, single elements of belief vants from India and East Asia. and practices can be teased out, but in most The Caribbean program at the Festival of cases they cannot easily be attributed to any American Folklife is but one of many ways single place or time. to present Caribbean cultural traditions. The A visitor to the Caribbean program at the program traces the creative integration and Festival might wish to listen to Puerto Ricans synthesis of new cultural traditions from singing decimas, witness a Haitian Vodoun elements of diverse origin that had been ceremony or learn how to make bammies juxtaposed or had previously coexisted inde­ from cassava, a root indigenous to the New pendently. The music and ritual perform­ World. Many can recognize the European ances and foodways demonstrations do not instruments played by the son musicians; merely trace the static persistence of indige­ most can trace the Vodoun ceremony to an nous, African, or European culture traits in African past. Perhaps some visitors will rec­ the Caribbean, but instead illustrate their ognize the Arawak indigenous presence as transmutation into a fresh cultural amalgam they observe the cassava cook. The Festival that forms the base of emergent identity. program only begins to trace some of the This emergence occurs not only in the Car­ cultural traditions at the root of complex, ibbean but also in the mainland United unique and dynamic Caribbean expressions. States, whose eastern cities have become The Caribbean region is one of the most havens for disinherited peoples of the Carib­ diverse and heterogeneous in the world. bean. The United States is no longer a mere Such are its complexities that there is no The Caribbbean: Cultural Encounters in the New World bas been made possible, in part, by the Music Performance Trust Funds, and the government ofjamaica , the government of Puerto Rico, American Airlines, and Marazul Charters. 67 Maroon abeng player from Moore Town, Jamaica. This wind instrument was used during the 18th century war against the British and has retained sacred meaning to this day. (Photo by Heliana Portes de Roux) consensus even on its geographic definition; Basin definition and an overly narrow West this controversy is not necessarily esoteric. Indies definition there are other alternatives. The broadest prevailing geographic defini­ One uses the concept of the Caribbean tion of the Caribbean is that given in the archipelago, which stretches from the Ba­ Atlas of the Caribbean Basin (1984), which hama Islands at the north to Trinidad and defines the Caribbean to include "the islands Tobago. In another view the Caribbean is of the Caribbean Sea as well as the countries thought to be constituted by the islands of on its shores." This definition includes 30 the Antilles chain and by Surinam, Guyana, countries and a total population of nearly French Guiana and Belize. Common to all 400 million people since it encompasses the of these places was a plantation economy United States, Mexico, the five Central sustained by the labor of slaves of African American republics, Panama, Colombia, origin. We must not forget, however, that Venezuela, Belize, Guyana, Surinam and the social history of the Caribbean region French Guiana. A narrower definition of the shares much both with the South American Caribbean includes only the 13 independent mainland societies stretching from Brazil former British colonies of the West Indies, northward and with the Gulf Coast and At­ whose total population is slightly over 6 lantic seaboard of the United States. million. Between an overly broad Caribbean The Caribbean is not only a geographical 68 Santeria Enslaved Yoruba from southwestern Nige­ ria, brought to Cuba in great numbers be­ tween 1790 and 1865, carried with them numerous powerful divinities called orisha. In Cuba the Yoruba were called the Lucumi, and their worship of the orichas (Spanish spelling) came to be known as La Regia Lu­ cumi, La Regla de Ocha, or Santeria. San­ teria appeared in Cuba not as a static sur­ vival or retention of African practices but as a dynamic Afro-Caribbean religion shaped Domestic shrine for orichas and saints with offerings, by the needs of creole communities that Guanabacoa, Havana, Cuba, 1986. Saints' images tradi­ emerged and changed in slavery and free­ tionally stand above the porcelain soperas (tureens) dom. At first Santeria was the exclusive reli­ containing the deities' "secrets." (Photo by David gion of colonial Cuba's Lucumi "nation" Brown) (ethnic Yoruba and their early direct descen­ dants), but it evolved as a spiritual path seen to own or control a domain of nature available to all Cubans in the 20th century. and human experience; is distinguished by Santeria also flourishes in Puerto Rico, Mi­ legends, attributes, colors, and favored ami, New York, New Jersey, Illinois, and foods; and is praised with distinct drum California, in communities of Cuban mi­ rhythms and chants in the Lucumi ritual lan­ grants. Its adherents now include White and guage. Santeria's principal ritual goal is the Black Americans and other immigrants from effective tapping and channeling of the the Caribbean. orichas' power for the health and benefit of In the 19th century the emerging creole the community, within a moral context sanc­ religion creatively borrowed or remade tioned by the ancestors (egun). This task Catholic elements, icons, ritual, and mythol­ belongs to corps of specially initiated and ogy within an Afro-Cuban ethical context. trained priests or santeros who, as mediators As Santeria grew up inside the larger society, of ritual power, discern the orichas' will the Lucumi o1ichas came to be celebrated through sophisticated divination systems and on the feast days of their Catholic saint solicit the orichas' aid with proper tribute counterparts-a creative use of the Church and sacrifice (eb6). As the orichas' servants, calendar as an armature to reconstitute the they act as "mounts" or "horses"-mediums sacred festival cycle. Spanish military attire of spirit possession-when the gods come and courtly costumes and crowns, which down in the heat of drumming celebrations had earlier entered Afro-Cuban carnival pro­ to dance, eat, and prophesy. cessions, appeared in the sacred Lucumi Santeria ritual practice centers in the initiation process called the coronation. "house of Ocha," which refers to both the Saints' images, votive candles, and flowers place where a shrine is maintained and the appeared on altars alongide Yoruba-derived ritual family of Santeria worshippers-a headwork and sacrificial offerings. Ornate circle of "godchildren" initiated by an elder porcelain soup tureens came to contain the "godparent." The ritual family provides orichas' sacred objects-stones and cowrie mutual support to its members; godchildren shells embodying the orichas' power (ache). owe respect to their ritual elders and are Layers of European-derived materials adorn obliged to assist in house rituals such as and guard a secret, essentially African, drummings and initiations. In their homes sacred core. initiated priests establish altars for their an­ The orichas are understood as so many cestors and orichas and conduct consulta­ refractions of a distant, incomprehensible tions and spiritual cleansings. Supreme Being or Creator. Each oricha is David Brown 69 unit: it is a region with a common history African slaves' and their descendants' creative rooted in the interplay of European powers use and transformation of European cultural in their efforts to gain political and eco­ institutions, products and patterns (and, to a nomic control over land, sea lanes, people lesser extent, those of Asian and Native and potential resources. In the Caribbean American origin). Creolization-a process to many complex relationships developed be­ which people of African heritage contributed cause of this historical experience. The Car­ greatly-was a fundamental factor in deter­ ibbean was the first gateway to the New mining the basic fabric of each Caribbean World, from which Spaniards organized their society. invasion of the American mainland and con­ The term "creole" was used from the 16th quest of its native peoples. Throughout the to 18th centuries to denote people born in colonial period it was the bridge between Spanish America of Spanish parents, distin­ Spain and its new viceroyalties on the main­ guishing them from those born in Spain itself. land. As England, France and Holland suc­ It has since been used with various-often cessfully challenged Spanish domination of conflicting-meanings. In the Spanish colo­ parts of the Caribbean, new plantation sys­ nies, Creoles were generally excluded from tems were established, especially for grow­ high office in both church and state, although ing sugar cane.