https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vD4jV6YJz0U
The interest in doing the series “the Cabildo de Regla” was basically instructions I received from the newspaper where I was working. The newspaper Revolución. This was 1961. There was a newspaper man by the name of Cumillas, who wanted to do a photo story in the newspaper of this event. And he told me, more or less of what it was, because I didn’t have any knowledge at all of what was going to happen. I had no previous information of what was going to happen. And he just gave me a name of a person to go and see in Regla. And to get together with this person, a woman by the way, to take pictures of the procession. When I asked him, what is the procession like, he said, “well it’s just like the ones in Spain.” You know, religious processions, stuff like that. And I went to Regla. But I took enough film. I didn’t have the idea of doing an enormous essay of anything like that, I went with the idea of doing a normal picture story on the event for the newspaper.
When I get there, I go see this woman, and then I start to realize that I’m in something that I didn’t know anything about. In other words, the attraction of all these Afro-Cuban saints, etc, etc. This mystical atmosphere you might say. The procession hadn’t started, I think it was going to be starting about, about an hour later. And, I asked what was going to happen, they told me, well there’s a part that’s public, there’s a part that’s private. And because I came recommended by Cubillas, the newspaper man. I said “well, I would like to take pictures of everything.” And she tells me, “Well, the private part we will have to ask the saints if they agree with having this work done.” I said ok. I had nothing against that. They gave me the possibility, of participating in the private ceremonies of the cabildo. She’s still the Virgin, the Virgin of Regla, she’s still in that house where she lives, and there’s a ceremony of drums that they give her, and they ask her if she wants to go in the procession, etc, etc. But this is a private session, it’s not open to the public. But yet, they allowed me to take pictures of all this. And part of the collection was a couple of pictures of that. And I started to, you know, I started to get very curious about this, uh, this situation. I took pictures of this, and then little by little I started to see all the different things you know, that are related to this. To get her out of the house. They ask again, right at the doorway. They ask her again, we show in the photographs. They throw coconuts at the door. “Do you want to come out?” And she says Yes, the Virgin answers Yes. And she comes out. And all this is with drums playing. And for some reason or another, I have more or less those steps one by one, in the collection. And then you know, the procession. Which was, you might say, very curious to me because I had seen films of religious processions in Spain for instance, where everything is very solemn and everybody walks in a straight line. And it was curious to me with the Virgin they danced her. They took her out on these, uh, I don’t know what you call them, the way they carry her [a litter]. But instead of walking like they would a normal religious procession, they danced her from one side to another, that was all the way down to the sea coast, all the way down to the bay. The church of Regla, I think we’re going to go there, we’re going to go to Regla, more or less there, I would explain more, you know, on the territory what exactly happened to her, what I remember. I say what I remember because its been more than 50 years since that happened, you know. And every once in a while, I’ll go back to Regla and I remember this, I remember little details.
There are things that I didn’t do. Uh, I would say the end of the procession, I didn’t do it because I didn’t know. Because the procession ends at the cemetery. They go to the cemetery and there’s something that happens there which I don’t know. But I didn’t know about this. Because when the procession is going back to the home, up the avenue in Regla, I’m asking what’s gonna happen now? He says, no we’re going back to the house. So, I said, you know, that’s about it, I’ve had enough. And I left out, this important part. Which is a ceremony that they have at the cemetery, which I don’t know how it is because I never saw it. I never saw it simply because, history, and you might say opportunity, and you could say coincidence. This Cabildo, this procession, these photographs was the last time that this Cabildo was ever taken out of Regla. It was in 1961. Due to the political changes in Cuba, opinions, what they thought about religions. The system was becoming very extremist. They were very extreme, anything that was religion they said, this wasn’t correct, etcetera. That’s why the cabildo never came out again. I have in Spanish, the title for this series. I called it The Last Cabildo of Yemayá. Because it was the last time it was free, it came out.
There’s one thing that has to be clear. The procession, visually, seems, for whomever doesn’t know, seems like it’s a catholic procession, of the catholic religion. And it’s very important, that this, although it seems visually up to a certain point, as a catholic virgin, it’s not. It’s a representation of an African god. The goddess of the uh, the goddess of the sea the goddess of the Bay of Regla or the Bay of Havana. Now, visually, the only way you can separate the catholic religion from the African religion, is because the procession, as I had mentioned before, instead of normally you know, solemnly carrying the virgin they dance her. That’s number one. And the second thing is that the music that accompanies this, are a set of drums that are called the Batá, which are African drums that are used in African ceremonies, and Afro-Cuban religious ceremonies. And by the rhythm of these drums is that the dance her and they sing songs all the way. Songs I can’t remember what they are but they sing different phrases and different songs and things like that. So in other words, although visually it might give the first impression that it belongs to the catholic church, it doesn’t at all. And that goes all the way back because that’s one of the reasons, the Spaniards were very, uh, you might say, I don’t know I can’t I’m trying to find the word. The Spaniards were very tolerant you could say, with the African slaves. Because the Africans took the Catholic virgins and Catholic saints, the statues, and put them in their homes. And the priests, the Spanish priests, the conquistadores, thought that slaves were adoring the Catholic virgins or saints, but they weren’t. Each one has its representation. Each one represents an African god. The associations the slaves make was by utensils they might have in their hands, by colors of the clothes, by different things. For instance, I’ll give you a couple of examples. For instance in the Catholic religion, you have Saint Barbara. She’s there. Everyone knows who Saint Barbara is. But in the African religion, the Afro-Cuban religion, Saint Barbara is Shango. So where’s the association? The association is very simple. What are the colors of Shango? Red and white. Well, who was Shango? We’ll Shango was a warrior. A lover you might say, who had a very open life. He used to drink a lot. Saint Barbara has a cup in her hand. He was a warrior; Saint Barbara has a sword in her hand. So, the slaves, they took that figure and that is the representation of Shango. They don’t see Saint Barbara, they see Shango. The same with Yemaya. Yemaya is another saint, which is the Virgin of Regla. Which is the one of the Cabildo. The association, where’s it come? The color of her skin, the colors of her clothes. The colors of Yemaya are blue and white. And those are the colors of the virgin of Regla. The association with the sea.
The cabildo is an association. It’s a grouping of people, a society you might say. All of the practitioners who follow that certain virgin, in this case the virgin of Yemaya, all these are what you call up to a certain point, Santeros and Santeras, male and female. Santeria is all those that follow this religion, which is a descendent of the Yoruba nations. Which are, you might say, from a numerical point of view, 75-80% of the Afro-Cuban religions that are practiced in Cuba, are in the Santería, you might say, column. There are others. And the Santeros and the Santeras are the ones, fervent practitioners of this. Because you can be, you can follow the religion. That is, you can be in the religion, more or less respect the religion, practice it, without being a Santero or Santera. Because being a Santero or Santera means that you have arrived at a certain level. In other words, you’re already initiated in certain saints and certain ceremonies and things like that. That gives you the title of Santero. And from there on there are a number of titles all the way up. One’s called Obá, the other’s called Babalow, etc, etc, etc. But they all come under the umbrella of Santería. Which is, Santería is the transculturation of the Catholic religion with the African Gods. Which is called the, santos and Orishas. That’s the general idea of what it is.
The Cabildo stops, that’s the last one that happens. As I said before, it has to do a lot with the political changes in the country. People were little by little being anything that was, people were becoming atheist you might say. From a hypothetical point of view, because I say, Santería never disappeared. Santería was always there. Instead of being in the front room it was in the back room. But it was always there. That’s one thing. Now, there was no official law or rule, regulation that said you cannot practice Santería. In other words, all these kinds of public ceremonies, just like any other country in the world, you have to ask the authorities for permission, you have to have a permit to do something. And because of all these political changes that were occurring, 1961, 1962, maybe they didn’t want to ask for it anymore, that could be one reason. Another very important reason was that the orthodox followers of these traditions were little by little passing away. I don’t know for a fact, but I think Susana Cantero passed away in 1962 or 1963. She was an old woman at that time. And the younger generations continued the traditions but not in such an orthodox way. Maybe. This is a speculation. Maybe they asked for permission to take her out the next year. I don’t know. There could be some people who might know them. Historians in Regla. I doubt it. I do know that the minister of culture tried, in the 1970s to simulate, to make a simulation of the Cabildo. Folkloric dancers through the streets and stuff like that. Which was a complete fiasco. Nobody cared about it. The real santeros, the real people who cared about these things said this is like a carnival. They’re not interested in that. It just happened once.
[Scene shifts to Salas’s office as he’s going through his photos on his computer]
This is more or less; I wouldn’t say all the photographs but there are some of them here. This is Pepa, one of the persons in charge of the procession. I’m going to go through it, more or less fast. This is the procession on the streets of Regla. That’s the Virgin, the Virgin of Regla, that one, that one. This is a curious image. Children used to sell these branches. This is called Paradiso. Its used to cleanse yourself in front of the AfroCuban Gods. In other words, its used constantly. What they used to do is, there were children who used to sell these things, give them out to different people, and they used them to clean themselves. As the processions went by, they used to throw it at the steps of the people who were carrying the Virgin. That was sort of a gesture to get away the bad spirits and the bad feelies. In any case, there are a couple of shots of this. That one. These pictures are not in any particular order, they’re all mixed up.
This is the ceremony right at the bay when they give offerings to the bay. People singing. Here’s a curious shot. See this image of this individual here. You can see, he’s a militia man. He’s dressed in a militia uniform. And he was one of the main drummers of that procession. So in other words, you can see there’s a bit of hypothetically, contradiction of the militia man, who belongs to the Cuban militia but at the same time he’s practicing Santería because he’s one of the drummers. So that’s curious in certain things. This is when the Virgin is taken into the church and then they bring her out. She goes in and she comes out, at the rhythm of the batá drums. That’s another one of that series, another one of that series, [he is flipping through photos]. This is the Virgin of Mercedes, which is another one. The procession is composed of four different African Gods. Yemaya, Changó, Obatala, and Ochun. The Virgin of Cobre is Ochun. Obatala which is la Merced, which is a church in La Habana, which is a very beautiful church by the way. Changó, which is Santa Barbara, and Yemaya, which is the Virgin of Regla. Here you have different shots, I have of that. See, here she has a piece of paradiso but she uses it as a decoration. Here’s another one of those shots. Another one.
This is the opening ceremony, when they take her out of the home and bring her out into the streets, before she goes to the street. This is a very private ceremony. In other words, this is the ceremony that they don’t allow you to take pictures of, they don’t allow you to see, etc, ect. For the reason I explained before, this was one of the things they let me do. This is the Batá drum. But this is the drum of fundamental. The fundamental drum. There are two types of Bata, the ones that are used publicly, and the ones that are used for just religious ceremonies. The ones that are used ritually for religious ceremonies are the ones that have bells on them. The ones that are used publicly don’t. A little detail you might say.
These are the singers there; this is the beginning. This is how you call the Virgin. Each Saint in the African religion has a different instrument for which you call them. For instance, Shango has the maracas. You know to speak to him you speak through the maracas. Other saints have a different type of bell you might say. But Yemaya has this kind of bell. Very small and made of silver. That’s that bell. This one I consider should be in the exhibition. This should be the opening picture of the whole thing. This is the opening of the ceremony. But this is one of the singers, this is the uh, different ceremonies there, you might say.
Here’s one, another one, these are the people on the streets. As you can see, there’s a mixture of everything. The people are Black, the people are white, the people are everything. Remember when we were talking about how if the Afro-Cuban religion was just for Black people, it’s for everybody. Why are there more Black people in these photographs than others? Well, because Regla as a town, which is basically 75-80% Black at that time. I don’t know today. But then it was almost 70-80% Black.
Pablo, another part of the ceremony. This is cleansing the road. They throw water on it to cleanse the way she leads. Asking her permission, ets. Another shot of the paradiso. This is a street shot. Here you can see the four of them [the Saints]. One in the front one in the back, and she [The Virgin of Regla] is the one who closes at the back. She’s the largest one of the four of them. That’s why she’s [makes pouring gesture in reference to image of giving items to the sea under the port]. It could be honey, it could be molasses, or it could be aguardiente, which is a sort of a rum, a very strong rum. But it’s used in Santería. Another one. Another street scene, street scenes. Leaving the church. That’s when they’re going back to the home.
This is the place, where the ceremony of the bay is taking place. At the emboque of Regla. This doesnt exist anymore, it disappeared. This is one of the major pictures, [referring to a backlit shot of Yemaya in the emboque.] This is another one of the important ones, for me. Because it’s her in front of the bay. Because she is the mother of the bay of Havana, the Virgin of Regla.
Here’s one where these men, they’re not walking her. You can see they are in a dancing position. That they’re dancing the virgin. That’s the difference between this procession and the different processions you can see in the Catholic religion say like in Spain, like I said before. In Spain the procession is very solemn, very much in line. But not the Virgin, the virgin they dance her one two three four one side, to the other, from one side to the other. At the rhythm of the drums, which are at the back.
That’s Pablo [referring to an image of the bata drummers]. That’s Saint Barbara, another one of the ceremonies at the church. That’s when she’s giving the offerings to the bay. More or less, you see what we have. There’s one that I’m looking for, but I can’t see here. Which is what I wanted to show some of you, let me see if I can find it.
Man 1 off camera in Spanish: The emboque continues to exist.
Salas: Eh?
Man 1 off camera in Spanish: The emboque, the building, it still exists.
Salas in Spanish: But the lettering…
Man 1 off camera in Spanish: The lettering, no.
[Still flipping through photos] Ahh let me see if I can find it. There it is, she’s cleaning herself. Cleansing herself and waiting for the Virgin, and then she’s gonna drop it off in front of the procession. That was the one I was telling Orlando, I wanted to show because people used to clean themselves on the street and then throw it to the steps. She’s cleaning herself with Paradiso, the trees that were being carried by the kids.
[Man 2 off camera:] She looks as if she’s in a trance.
Salas: no, no that’s not true. There’s no trances there. Nothing at all. It could be happiness, diversion. Because it was a festivity. Dance, everybody dances, everybody sings. There’s no trancing there. The trances you find in Santeria inside in particular ceremonies, that’s where those things happen. But they don’t happen on the street or in public affairs. You got to remember, this is a public event that through dozens of years it happened. Unfortunately, this is the last one. Fortunately for me, this was the last one. As I said, there’s no contradiction, between the militia men who was one of the official drummers, and the act of the procession of the Santería. So, there’s no contradiction, no political contradiction between the belief and the political aspect. And this is one of the examples. The militia man is one of the main drummers of the event. I think that’s important.
[Question from Man 2 off camera]: Would Fidel have been happy with him being there?
Salas: I don’t know, I think, what can I tell you.
Transcribed by Alexandra P. Gelbard