Affirmations from the Dead: the Intersection of Trans, Indigenous, and Black Identity in the Afro-Cuban Spirit World

Since the early days of anthropological studies on the Afro-Cuban religion of Santería, gender, and sexuality within the religious space have been central research themes. Yet, little research has engaged transgender people in exploring how their bodies and souls fit within Afro-Diasporic spiritual frameworks. This presentation recounts the stories told by a group of Trans Afro-Cubans engaged in Lukumí and Kongo religious networks in Havana, Cuba. Rather than simply understanding their positionality vis-a-vis their cis-gender counterparts, Kaína’s experimental ethnography disseminates the nature of the relationships between Trans People and their guardian spirits through an Afro-Indigenous cosmological lens, examining how Blackness, Indigeneity, Gender, and Spirituality intertwine in the process.

About the presenter

Kaína Mendoza Price is a student of Religion and Latin American Studies at the University of Toronto. She has previously worked as a research assistant in the Faculty of Information and is currently a research assistant and archivist in the Department of Criminology and Sociolegal Studies "Pedagogies of the Emergent: Rethinking Absence and Presence in the Black Atlantic World" archival project. Her research is grounded in her upbringing in a Lukumí community, articulating how diverse identities are understood, related to, and organized according to Afro-Indigenous theologies.