)) Why do I Relate to This? ((

I walked down to Adams-Morgan to get some food ... instead I found a religion. Santeria to be ambigous, because this is only one known name for this mixture of Catholicism and African tribal beliefs. I saw this giant statue of the Virgin in a dark complexion and a caucasian Christ and had to investigate. The Botanica, which is the general term for a store that sells Santeria religious articles, was a cultural treasure chest. The website Religious Tolerance notes that Santeria practitioners from South America and Mexico may focus more on the religion's Catholic background, whereas Cuban and other Carribean Islands focus more on the beliefs of the Yoruba and Bantu people in Southern Nigeria, Senegal and Guinea Coast.

[This semester I took a class that introduced me to the majority of my understanding of the African and Buddhist cultures. It seems like most groups believe that the true form of eternal life is keeping your ideas alive, or at least being part of a greater chain of productive ideas that hopfully grow every generation. And there is the physical form of eternal life, that a part of your fathers are with you and a part of you goes with your children.]