Odofemi

Almost all the ramas or branches of the religion were founded by women. Is your Santería lineage La Pimienta? Then look no further than Aurora Lamar (Obá Tolá) who lived in a huge house in the Barrio Ataré (ataré is pepper in Lucumí) which doubled as a brothel. She is credited with having hundreds, if not thousands, of godchildren and her fame for allowing her godchildren to pay in installments for their initiations gained her the nickname “La China del Ten Cent” Or the Chinese (appearing person) of the Ten Cent Plan. Her Godfather Jose “Pata de Palo” Urquiola (Echu Bí) brought this branch of the religion from Matanzas. The ultimate root of this rama was thought to have been the priestess Ña Belén Gonzales (Apoto), but new evidence suggests that Apoto may have been initiated by one Ña Caridad (Aigoró)*. Several colorfully named branches come from this line susch as the “Trapito” branch, as well as the ramas called “Culo Verde” or Green Ass (a nickname for people coming from the sticks, implying a country bumpkin). The Las Pirañas branch descend from this line as well.

Cabildo Mens’ Speaker Bonifacio Valdés, a white creole of Spanish descent, was a priest of Obatalá and a babalawo, whose sacred sign was Obe Weñe and whose African title was Oluo Salakó.

While Oshun’s children can be the sweetest people on Earth, they can also behave in a very ugly fashion. They are known to hold grudges and avenge themselves in often vicious ways. You will find many a priest who will proclaim the children of Oshun as the masters of gossip, witchcraft and deceit. This behaviour, no matter how horrible it may seem, is also the mark of Oshun. Her children often have had to fight hard to get where they are, overcoming many obstacles, but also pushing a great deal of negativity below the surface. It is sometimes easier in the short term to deny pain or hold tight to prejudice in order to get by. Oshun’s children cannot understand why others do not think the way they do. They assume that everyone should like what they like or abominate that which they find distasteful (or that which may hit too close to home). Often their stubbornness and narrow mindedness is the only thing that has kept them going. To paraphrase Vera Donovan in Stephen King’s Delores Claiborne: “Sometimes you have to be a high riding bitch to survive.

I don’t have any problem with that. If the person is initiated and is a priest or priestess, whatever change he or she decides to make with his body, that’s their thing…. One of the first people to be initiated in this country was transsexual. She was initiated as a woman. She was a child of Oshún.