Florida International University's's Santeria class gets praise

Nevyn

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking_news/story/360171.html

hose who came to Oba Ernesto Pichardo's fall semester course at Florida International University's Biscayne Bay campus expecting chicken heads, seashells and drum circles probably left disappointed.

The controversial, charismatic and enterprising Pichardo, a Yoruba priest and the country's leading expert on Santeria, spent hours talking about the transatlantic slave trade, paraded in cultural anthropology professors and expected both Powerpoint presentations and 12-page research papers at semester's end.

It was a different side of a man best known for having spent the last few decades fighting lawmakers and Santeria detractors. His most notorious tussle: with the city of Hialeah over sanctioning animal sacrifices in religious ceremonies. He won, earning the U.S. Supreme Court's blessing.

He also won over his sixteen undergraduate students this year. The class included several religious studies majors, a Peruvian-American Broward school teacher, a 61-year-old auditor and a grandfather-grandson duo. Many of them came to get in touch with their Afro-Caribbean roots.

Four months ago he concluded FIU's first three-credit Santeria class, with a grand prediction: ``You are making history here today.''

''This is not some fringe movement,'' Pichardo told his students. ``If you can get a Ph.D. in Judaism or Christianity, you should at least be able to take a course in Santeria.''

Taught through the school's African-New World Studies Department, where Pichardo is spending the academic year as a research fellow, the class has been a success, administrators say. At semester's end in December, the students said they now know more about the history of Africa and the Americas.

The class encouraged them to examine their own beliefs and practices.

'I knew of Santeria practices in my parents' countries,'' said Elizabeth Prochet, 21, a Haitian-Dominican student who is majoring in international relations. Prochet, who has lived in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, became interested in Santeria after visiting Cuba with a friend several years ago.

''It was different when I was in Havana,'' she said. ''And since coming back, I've been deeply interested in trying to learn as much as I can.'' Her final presentation in Pichardo's class was on the rise of Santeria following the Mariel boatlift.

''These are all so interesting,'' said Cuban-born Yanelis Diaz, 28, a hospitality major, following a class presentation. ``People think it's all just Orishas [the name of Santeria dieties] and animal sacrifices but it's not. This class has been totally different from every other class I've ever taken.''

Students say they leave the course with newfound knowledge of Africa's influence in Caribbean culture.

''I was an altar boy in Hialeah,'' said Pichardo. ``But I was also exploring Santeria.''

Over time, Santeria has become commonplace in Miami. Both Haitian and Cuban botanicas throughout South Florida sell Catholic saints alongside the potions and powdered egg shell used for Santeria practices. Internet botanicas are a thriving business. Public places of worship operate openly. Pichardo is the priest at one, The Church of Lukumi Babalu Aye in Hialeah.

Many practice Santeria solely at home, either out of convenience or tradition.

''My family and I are into it,'' said William Colas, 22, a Cuban-American liberal studies major. ``It's been passed down, it has always been present.''

The class had a suggested reading list, including Christine Ayorinde's book Afro-Cuban Religiosity, Revolution and National Identity and David O'Brien's Animal Sacrifice and Religious Freedom.

Many of the guest lecturers, such as Miami Dade College professor Teresita Pedrazza Moreno, are long-time acquaintances of Pichardo's. His wife, Nydia, and 22-year-old daughter Magena, a hospitality student, attended class, too.

The Pichardos first met in a classroom in 1986. She was recently divorced and had arrived in South Florida from her native Puerto Rico when Pichardo was the featured guest speaker in an anthroplogy class she was taking at Miami Dade College.

''Watching these kids learn on such a deep level,'' she said of the new class, ``it's been great.''

Pichardo hopes his course will grow into a major.

His supervisor, Akin Ogundiran, director of the African-New World Studies Department, told Pichardo's class in August: ``This is not just about religion. This is about civil rights. This is about freedom of speech.''

And for some, it's about questioning belief systems.

''This is interesting, '' said Santiago Valdez, 21, who took the course with his grandfather Manuel Valdez, 63. ``But just because he [Pichardo] says so, doesn't make it real. Just because it's in some book doesn't make it real. I'm exposed to this at home. Just because I learn it doesn't mean I believe it.''

I doubt we would see classes on that here

Hivemind187

I'll be damned.

Thats a class I wouldnt mind sitting in on.