Deterritorialization in Havana: Is There an Alternative Based on Santeria?

Abstract

The global processes of urban homogenization and loss of identities have been the topic of several studies that are increasingly interested on its multiple dimensions (economic, environmental, social, cultural, aesthetic and others). The concept “deterritorialization of metropolis,” developed by Italian architect Alberto Magnaghi (2011), is remarkable because of its multidisciplinary focus. He defines the phenomenon as a “metropolis form” against the autochthonous territorial values and traditional cultures. Urban theorists have begun to accept the processes of deterritorialization are a consequence of the westernization which is why the ongoing discussion about “territorial coloniality” is the second starting point for this essay. This approach explains that the deterritorialized praxis obeys the hegemony of the epistemic model displayed by Western thought in the modern/colonial world system. This holistic perspective permits a better understanding of the hierarchies existing in the production of human spaces as cultural phenomena. Thus, it is necessary to produce a “decolonial turn” in the urban praxis; it means to valorize the nonwestern epistemologies. We explore the relationship of the current deterritorialization in architecture, urbanism and spatial planning with the “disenchantment of the world” and analyze the possibility for alternatives based on the spiritualities of resistance. We focus on the role of “Santeria” or “Regla de Osha-Ifa” for the cultural identity in the municipality of Regla in Havana, Cuba. We describe a relationship between some “use-perception-transformation processes” related to certain rituals and some components of the human environment. It contains a brief introduction to the Cuban transculturation process and Afro-Cuban religions. We conclude that the spatial necessities of the santeros and santeras may become starting points for architectural, urban and territorial projects.