Documentary showing the ritual and ceremony associated with the initiation of a Shango priest, the Thundergod of the traditional Yoruba religion. Takes place in a contemporary Puerto Rican community among New World practitioners of the ancient religion, Santeria.

This innovative ethnographic documentary demonstrates the survival and strength of the Yoruba cultural and religious heritage in the contemporary life of Caribbean African-Hispanics. Filmed in Havana among Afro- Cubans who practice Santeria (African spiritism), the video documents an important Guemilere, a ritual ceremony that features dancing, singing, praying, and drum beating, and in which the pantheon of 22 deities, or Orishas, of the Yoruba religion are invoked. The ceremony re-creates a se

"Thirteen-year-old Maya Beatriz Montenegro Calderon has vivid recurring dreams where she hears the ocean calling her. Mami's side of the family is known as "Los Locos," so maybe she actually is going crazy. But no time for that; the family business is where it's at. Whenever Maya, her sister Salma, and her three cousins, Ini, Mini, and Mo, aren't at school, you can usually find three generations of Calderones at Café Taza, serving up sandwiches de pernil, mofongo, and the best cafés con leche in