Politics Aside – Cuba, Orishas, Syncretismo and Desi Arnaz

In an email exchange this evening, a friend who lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota and I enjoyed an abreviated discussion about Cuba and spiritual warfare.

U.S. Catholics, my experience, assume they share common values with their Cuban counterparts. To some degree, yes, but for the most part, no.

When slaves came to our U.S. shores, generally speaking, they were parceled and sold individually without respect to tribal origins. Cuban slavery was very different. Cuban slaves from Africa were encamped by tribes, leaving in tact local government, culture and religion.

After indigenous Indian slaves died off from European diseases in Cuba, Spain began importing African slaves. They bought from traditional Arab slave traders. Muslims have been in the slave business continuously up to this very day, from long before Columbus sailed the ocean blue.

Being the ardent evangelists, the Catholic church required, forced, slaves to become Catholics, assume Catholic names and worship Catholic icons. I place below a photo of two popular orishas. I made this picture while staying in a casa particular (private home) owned by a communist lady from Canada.

orishas de santeria seguidores — I photographed these Orishas that decorated a ‘casa particular’ in Santiago de Cuba.

Those slaves appeased their Catholic masters by pretending to become Christians. They simply synchronized their orishas with Catholic saints. Syncretism is the technical name. You would recognize the more familiar term Santeria, ‘the way of the saints‘.

Older Americans like me enjoyed old black-and-white I Love Lucy television shows in which Desi Arnaz (Lucille Ball’s husband) played a role natural for him – Cuban band leader. His most memorable song was Babalu. A video below is a brief 1946 performance of this once very popular song often played to conga line dancing.

There are over 400 orishas (orichas) including Babalu, Osun, Ogun and Chango. African slaves in Cuba didn’t want to forego their traditional pagan relgions to appease Catholic masters, so they synchronized orishas behind Catholic saints. For example, Yoruba practitioners synchronized Chango (Shango) behind Santa Barbara. [Bit of trivia: Chango is male, Santa Barbara is female.]

Watch movements in this dance to Chango. Recognize the Conga line dance?

I close with the chorus to Babalu.

Yo Quiero pedir (I want to ask)
Que mi negro me quiera (that my black man will want me)
Que tenga dinero (that he has money)
Y que no se muera (and that he doesn’t die)
Ay! Yo le quiero pedir a Babalu (I want to ask of Babalu)
Ay! un negrito muy santo como tu (a little black man very holy like you)
que no tenga otro negro (that no other has)
y que a mi me quiera. (and that he will want me)

If you haven’t lost interest by this point, listen to the progeny of Desi and Lucy Ball Arnaz, their children Desi Jr. and his sister Lucie talk about Babalu, development of Conga line dancing and their dad.

“It’s a prayer, it’s a pleading, to this god, Babalu.” – Lucie Arnaz

Open Letter to all Hispanics from a native-born Hispanic

I am Cuban-Born Hispanic who is well aware of Obama’s harmful socialist agenda and its far-reaching destructive consequences to America’s future from a moral, religious, economic, and military standpoint as well as to the very survival of America as a free nation, a shining beacon of liberty and opportunity to the entire world.

Obama has blatantly disregarded our religious beliefs and sensibilities by forcing the Catholic Church to provide insurance that would cover the use of contraceptives and other pro- abortion measures (murder of innocent unborn babies) that go radically against our beliefs, morals, and religious beliefs and those of the Catholic Church.

This president has forcefully supported the homosexual agenda by publicly proclaiming that he whole-heartily supported homosexual marriage, an abomination before the eyes of The Lord, according to our Holy Scriptures. Remember what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah where homosexual depravity ran rampant and were,as a punishment, utterly destroyed by the angels of The Lord with fire and brimstone, no one within those cities survived.

Our children and grandchildren in the Public Schools are being programmed by the homosexual blueprint to accept, celebrate, and consider being homosexual themselves. Case in point, in California teachers are forbidden to address school children as boys or girls (that would be discriminatory), just students, also they may not address parents as father or mother (that would be discriminatory as well), just partners or parents. Beware, as California goes, so goes the nation, unless we stop it.

We, Hispanics, came to this nation seeking the American Dream, if Obama is reelected, there will be no America left for our children and grandchildren; It will be a nation totally destroyed morally, economically, and spiritually. Obama’s dream of a Marxist paradise would be realized.

Current unemployment: 23.1 million

National debt: 16 trillion and rising Americans in poverty: 46.2 million

Family income: Down $4, 908

Newt Gingrich: Obama Awash in a Sea of Green Scandals

Dear Friends,

In the final weeks of campaign a series of failures and scandals involving green energy companies that received large sums of money from the federal government is calling into even greater question President Obama’s second term agenda.

We already know that President Obama hates oil. In 2007, he compared oil to the worst atrocities of the 20th century, saying “the country that faced down the tyranny of fascism and communism is now called to

Newt-Gingrich — **58th Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives**
**Co-Author and Architect of the “Contract with America”**

deal with the tyranny of oil.” In 2007 he promised to “end the age of oil.” And in his Iowa caucus victory speech he promised he’d be the president “who harnesses the ingenuity of farmers, scientists, and entrepreneurs to free this nation from the tyranny of oil once and for all.”

When he came into office, one of the President’s first acts was to throw $90 billion at green energy companies as part of the stimulus. The Department of Energy got billions to loan green startups. The Treasury got $9 billion to give away for green projects. And the Department of Labor got $500 million to administer a “green jobs” training program.

All of this “investment”, President Obama told us, would lead to a rebirth of America and a new clean energy economy.

Instead, the President’s top-down, reckless approach to financing exotic technologies wasted tens of billions of taxpayer dollars, enriched political allies, and failed miserably at creating jobs.

Two breaking scandals within the last 24 hours highlight the astonishing failure of the Obama green energy agenda.

Scandal #1: Senior Department of Energy Official Recognizes Loan Recipients Likely To Be Losers

The Washington Examiner reported today that a senior Energy official helping to oversee the Department’s Loan Program made a remarkable confession in an email to colleagues.

The email authored by Jim McCrea, a “senior government executive working on President Obama’s clean energy loan program at the U.S. Department of Energy,” read in part:

“I really cannot fathom how one figures out whether a loan to a PV [photovoltaic (solar)] manufacturer is being made to one that will survive. Everything about the business argues for the failure of many If not most of the suppliers…. All in all in the solar field, I think it is extremely easy to pick losers and l really do not know how to pick winners.”

McCrea was a senior official engaged in credit analysis at the DOE’s Loan Program Office. More than 80 percent of the DOE loan guarantees were for solar. So this is really all you need to know about the President’s flagship stimulus program: even the people charged with running it recognized these companies were very likely to fail. But how could anyone, including the President, have believed any different? As the House Oversight Committee found, 22 out of 26 companies that got DOE loans had “JUNK” ratings at the time of the loan.

Scandal #2: The $500 million “green jobs” training boondoggle

Yesterday, the Department of Labor Inspector General issued a report on the Department’s $500 million green jobs training program — a project financed with stimulus money. The Inspector General found the program had been an abysmal failure, successfully placing just 11,000 people in permanent jobs (16 percent of the goal). The training was superficial — 20 percent of the programs were just one day long, and half were less than five days long. More than half of those trained already had jobs and, according to the IG, “we found no evidence that they needed green job training.”

An earlier report by the Department of Labor IG found that many of the grants for green jobs training went to political allies of the Obama administration — like the $1.5 million to La Raza, which successfully placed zero people in permanent jobs, and the BlueGreen Alliance (the largest labor unions and environmental groups), which got $3 milliion but got employment for only 230 people.

In that assessment, the Department of Labor Inspector General said there was “no evidence” the programs financed would “effectively use the funds and deliver…employment outcomes.” The IG recommended recouping any of the remaining funds that could not “realistically” be used to place workers in green jobs “given the current demand for green job-related skills and the job market for green jobs.”

In other words, the President’s imaginary green jobs haven’t materialized.

What’s amazing about all this news is that green energy is still at the heart of President Obama’s hollow second term agenda. Despite the obvious failure of his plans and the billions of taxpayer dollars wasted, he’s sticking to his guns. That tells us something about the reflection he’s put into his first term failures — not much.

Your Friend,
Newt

San Antonio Mayor’s Mom Calls Heroes of Alamo ‘Drunks and Crooks’

Drunks and Crooks, Mrs. Castro?

I refer the reader to my earlier blog post, titled “San Antonio – Do You Know the Mother of Your Mayor”

Julian Castro Mother — **San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro and his mother Maria del Rosario Castro**
**she says, “I can truly say that I hate that place (the Alamo) and everything it stands for.”**

Approaching the ‘eleventh hour’, Mexican Dictator Santa Ana ordered Texian warriors to surrender or “be put to the sword”. Surrender was an easy choice for ‘drunks and crooks’, as Maria del Rosario Castro calls Travis, Crocket and all the heroes of the Alamo. Maria del Rosario Castro is the mother of racist San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro. Racism and hate seem to run in the family.

On occasion of display of the final letter from South Carolina-born Alabama lawyer and militiaman, Col. William Barret Travis, I share with you the text and substance of that ‘drunk and crook’ who fought to the death to liberate us from the iron grip of a Mexican despot.

Victory or Death – Letter penned 177 years ago by Col. Travis, his last from the Alamo

Retired State Archivist David Gracy opposed public display of this letter, knowing how light exposure fades it, but Texans need to know the truth about our heroes.

Said Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson, “There is a balance between preservation and public access. In my view, in every Texans’ lifetime there should be one opportunity to see this in person.”

I have answered the demand with a cannon shot, & and our flag still waves proudly from the walls — I shall never retreat or surrender.

If this call is neglected, I am determined to sustain myself as long as possible & die like a soldier who never forgets what is due to his own honor & that of his country — Victory or Death. – Col. William Barrett Travis

When next visiting San Antonio, be sure to take a moment to reassure Mayor Julian Castro and his mother Maria del Rosario Castro that our heroes were real people willing to die for their fellow Texians.

We owe special thanks to Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson for reinforcing the history of the Great State of Texas.

Julian Castro and his family are the best the Democrats have to offer?

Upside Down America