My work is generally based on documentary photography. In some of my series I delve into ethnography and anthropology, as in this case. As we all know, black slaves were brought from Africa in a violent and dehumanized manner. Possibly more than 14 million, not counting those who died during the crossing of the Atlantic Ocean, according to studies. They were completely stripped of their identities, from the religions imposed by their owners, to their own names.

The images I present are not interpretations or stagings, they are images made during real and intimate processes of two cultures, the "Yorubá" also called "Regla de Ochá" (Afro-Cuban Santeria), the most popular in the populations of Havana City and Santiago de Cuba, and the "Kimbiza, Santo Cristo del Buen Viaje", one of the least known, founded in Cuba in the 18th century, including within itself, the knowledge of all the religions practiced at that time (European and African).

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Both are involved in processes for curing illnesses. The sacrifice of animals and the use of the Earth are some of the fundamental elements for neutralizing the different negative energies that cause the ills treated in these ceremonies.

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Afro-Cuban religions have generally functioned in a secret manner to one degree or another since their beginnings when they arrived in America with slaves brought from Africa. Being considered pagan by the dominant religions implanted in the European colonies, they were forced to create new forms of subsistence through secrecy and in other cases through syncretism or adaptation of their religious concepts to those of their colonists.

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