The santeros I met had almost no evangelical tendencies, but after suffering through many of my questions, Eduardo was kind enough to invite me to his home to discuss some aspects of his faith. The orishas, he explained, share human foibles and vices. Some like perfume, or wine, or a particular kind of cake. They are concerned with the color of the fur and feathers of the animals and fowl killed to pay them tribute. They can be potent counselors or healers, powerful or wise, but they can also be jealous, vain, extravagant, and vindictive. Failure to attend to the whims an orisha might express through its human mount has consequences. The orishas often demand things that require considerable effort or personal sacrifice to obtain. Stones that must be collected from the ocean, or from a particular river or mountain, for instance. Dirt, scraped up from the courtyard of an embassy. Rounding up powerful rocks from “the four corners of the wind” is not easy in transportation-challenged Cuba, but should the orishas take offense, anything from crop failure to impotence and death may result. next back photo home