Lawrence Zúñiga Batista - Baracoa Cuba, 1940. Living and working in Santiago de Cuba. Self-taught naive painter of Cuba’s natural beauty, the Afro Cuban culture, but primarily Santería's pantheon of Orishas. Member of the UNEAC (Unión Nacional de Escritores y Artistas de Cuba). Through out the last decades he held numerous exhibitions within and outside of Cuba. From the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Venezuela and the former Soviet-Union, to France, Germany and the United States of America. He also illustrated many publications, of which some are very hard to find after all these years. Although he's not as known as some of his fellow colleagues that mainly reside in Havana, he definitely is an authentic grand master of Cuban naive painting, whose influence extends to younger generations, and beyond Cuba.
Santerķa
Santería has its roots in the African Yoruba culture that spread to the Americas and the Caribic with the slave trade. Their faith is based upon the relationship between the Earth and the Spiritual World, of which the latter is formed by a trinity that symbolizes the Supreme Being:
Olodumare - Creator of the Universe.
Olorun - the Sun that ensures continuity on Earth.
Olofin - Creator of Animal and Man.
From within this unity, the Orishas - or Santos as they are also called - are being sent to help people along their path of life. These Orishas have their own characteristics, their own colors, symbols and offerings. They even have their own day of feast, comparable to Catholic Saints. This mixture of Catholicism and Yoruba culture within Santería, is a result of the forced upon assimilation by the Catholic Church, which resulted in that slaves adopted each Saint to one of their Orishas, thus not needing to abandon their own faith entirely. There are no churches in Santería. People celebrate in their houses when a Orisha has his or her day of feast, and have their own altar in a corner of the house, covered with offerings.
Literature Lawrence:
La Santería - Religión Popular Cubana by Gérald Mouial. Ediciones Unión, La Habana 2002. ISBN: 959-209-450-0
La Pintura Ingenua: Reino de este Mundo by Luisa María Ramírez Moreira. Ediciones Catedral, Santiago de Cuba 2003. ISBN: 959-7134-14-4
Arte Mágico en Cuba - 51 Pintores Cubanos by Gérald Mouial 2004. ISBN: 959-7178-03-6
Baracoa de Cuba – La Magia de sus Pintores by Elexis Jesús Fernández Rubio Navarro & Rosendo Romero Suárez.
St. Augustine – Baracoa Friendship Association 2009. ISBN 978-097-1667-52-5
Literature Santería:
Olorun by Teodoro Díaz Fabelo. Ediciones del Departamento de Folklore del Teatro Nacional de Cuba. La Habana 1960
El Monte by Lydia Cabrera. Ediciones de Ciencias Sociales. La Habana 1989
Los Orishas en Cuba by Natalia Bolívar Aróstegui. Ediciones Unión. La Habana 1990
Cultos Afrocubanos - La Regla de Ocha by Miguel Barnet. Ediciones Unión. La Habana 1995
El Ashé está en Cuba by Mirta Fernández Martínez / Valentina Porras Potts. Editorial José Martí 1998
The World of the Orishas by Arisel Arce Burguera / Armando Ferrer Castro. Editorial José Martí 2002