Asociación Cultural Yoruba de Cuba
Government-donated Prado mansion turned shrine and museum to the Yoruba orishas, funded partly by tourist admission.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to the Asociacion Cultural Yoruba de Cuba in Havana starts on January 6, 1992, when a private ceremony led by a santeria priest ran until dawn as Communist officials watched, and the religion gained legal status after decades underground. It traces the bargain behind that night: a restored Prado mansion handed over free, and a government suddenly eager for tourist currency. Inside stand life-size statues of the orishas, once disguised as Catholic saints.
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