About This Episode
What is this episode about?
The episode "The Babalawo - Secrets of Santeria Revisited" from PRETEND follows Javier Leiva back to his hometown of Miami to confront childhood fears rooted in stories about Santeria — tales of dead chickens on doorsteps, curses, and spirits taking over bodies that circulated even among people who said they didn't believe but still respected the religion.
Leiva's mother, a lifelong Catholic who has quietly started visiting a babalawo, takes him to meet Fernando, a Santeria priest who has told her things she swears he had no way of knowing. Santeria, also called Lucumí or Regla de Ocha, is an Afro-Cuban religion rooted in the Yoruba culture of West Africa. Fernando explains how enslaved people in Cuba preserved their orishas by hiding them behind the faces of Catholic saints, then brings Leiva to a botanica tucked into a residential neighborhood, where animals await sacrifice in cages.
Leiva also speaks with Cynthia Duncan, Ph.D., a scholar of Cuban culture and an initiated priestess of Ochún who is part of a religious community in Palmira, Cuba. Duncan explains what the orishas represent, why the rituals are deliberately kept secret, what actually happens during an animal sacrifice, and whether Santeria can be used to cause harm. Duncan is Professor Emeritus of Hispanic Studies at the University of Washington Tacoma and author of Unraveling the Unreal: Fantastic Fictions in Latin America; Cienfuegos named her a Distinguished Daughter in 2005.
Hosts and release
Javier Leiva hosts PRETEND, an investigative true crime podcast exploring the psychology and real stories behind con artists, fraudsters, and their victims, releasing new episodes weekly on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube, and Overcast. This installment, cataloged as Santeria Revisited and also listed under The Babalawo, first aired when the show was known as Pretend Radio and is reportedly still used by college professors in classrooms.
