Author: Michael Kunzelman

Source: The Washington Post

Wire Service: AP

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/01/AR2009040102132.html

A Santeria priest who sued a Texas city for denying him permission to sacrifice a goat as part of a religious ceremony asked a federal appeals court Wednesday to let him resume the ritual in his home.

Jose Merced, 46,...

Author: Tony Castro

Source: Los Angeles Daily News

https://www.dailynews.com/2009/02/15/world-of-santeria-includes-southern-california/

The crucifix adorning the gate and a life-size figure of a...

Author: Georgia East

Source: South Florida Sun-Sentinel

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-flbvodou0206sbfeb06,0,1655908.story

Ricardo Petit-Homme left Haiti when he was 4, and was raised a staunch Catholic.

"From christening to penance and then confirmation, I did it all," the 30-year-old interior decorator said.

But not that long ago, he felt spiritually disconnected. He had...

Author: Religion News Service

Source: Dan Ring

Author: Martin Finucane

Original Source: The Boston Globe. December 2, 2008.

The right of a business to control its public image doesn’t trump workers’ right to dress or groom themselves differently if they are required to do so by their religious beliefs, the state’s highest court ruled today.

The Supreme Judicial Court...

Author: Jennifer Kay

Source: The Houston Chronicle

Wire Service: AP

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/life/religion/6137867.html

Goat meat stewing on the stove and sweet potatoes baking in the oven. Cooked fish, complete with bones and eyeballs. Spicy peppers soaked in bottles of rum.

The food is an offering to the spirits expected to dance among the revelers at Voodoo priest Erol Josue's Miami...

Author: Staff Writer

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

Wire Service: AP

A Santeria priest accused of decapitating and mutilating animals during religious rituals has been ordered to stand trial in Torrance.

Rafael Giralt is charged in Superior Court with felony animal cruelty. Prosecutors say he decapitated pigeons, roosters, chicks and a turtle, and dismembered a goat for religious sacrifice.

Giralt, who is free on $20,000 bail, says he is a priest of Santeria...

Author: Daniela Caride

Source: The Bay State Banner

https://www.baystatebanner.com/2008/10/15/hub-gallery-to-show-haitian-voodoo-flags/

Mermaids and Catholic saints. Pyramids, hearts...

Author: Staff Writer

Source: The Los Angeles Times. September 22, 2008

Jesus Suarez, a Santeria priest, had slit the throat of one goat that June afternoon. He had three more goats, two sheep and 44 chickens to go.

But before he could finish the ritual sacrifice, Coral Gables police swarmed the house where he and about 20 other followers of the Afro-Cuban religion had gathered to worship.

The officers, Suarez recalls, pointed their guns at the devotees and screamed at them to freeze. Suarez could...

Author: Martin Espinoza

Source: The New York Times

Author: David Olson

Source: The Press Enterprise

http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_W_orisa31.496ba6a.html

The sounds of chanting, drumming and traditional West African music streamed Saturday afternoon from a backyard near San Bernardino, as about 100 people gathered for the biggest festival of the Orisa religion in southern California.

The yard belongs to two of the West Coast's best-known Orisa leaders: Nigerian-born Chief Fama, author of several books on Orisa...

Author: Richard Fausset

Source: The Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-santeria11-2008aug11,0,7248211.story

Jesus Suarez, a Santeria priest, had slit the throat of one goat that June afternoon. He had three more goats, two sheep and 44 chickens to go.

But before he could finish the ritual sacrifice, Coral Gables police swarmed the house where he and some 20 other...

Author: Marc Lacey

Source: The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/28/world/americas/28cuba.html?em&ex=1217390400&en=cc3ea75cbba2e93c&ei=5087%0A

The most bizarre offering that the Rev. Jorge Alejandro has witnessed at Cuba’s most cherished shrine came from the man who bent down and began clipping his toenails. One by one, the man deposited them at the altar, among the many other...

Author: Mike Clary

Source: South Florida Sun-Sentinel

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-flbsanteria0727sbjul27,0,3756634.story

Although Santeria has been widely practiced in South Florida for decades, the Afro-Cuban religion, which at times includes animal sacrifices, remains cloaked in mystery and sensation.

Just last year, police staged an armed raid on a Coral Gables home...

Author: Staff Writer

Source: Cuban Daily News

http://www.cubaheadlines.com/2008/07/19/12486/the_yoruba_culture_survives_cuba.html

The yorubá or lucumí religion which is also known as Santeria or Regla de Osha is the most expanded religion of African origin in Cuba.

Due to the abrupt change of environment from Africa to Cuba in the middle of horrific and humiliating conditions imposed by the slavery system...