Jualynne Dodson, Professor
University of Colorado, Boulder

I knew the relationship with Eleggua Project had great potential, but I just didn't know how helpful it would be. In addition to successfully doing all of the in°country logistics for our annual conferences and study tour, Eleggua also enabled me to complete another aspect of my field research in Cuba.

Each January, I organize a professional research exchange between Cubans and scholars of color from the United States. The purpose of this travel is to improve and increase contact between the two
groups of investigators: more than ninety percent of the travellers to Cuba are of European heritage. Eleggua facilitated all of our objectives, and I actually found myself completing aspects of my ongoing research project, as opposed to merely introducing fellow delegates to the Cuban experience.

It was in the eastern region of the country -- Cobre and Las Tunas, to be exact. We had gone to visit the Shrine of Cobre. From the Shrine, we proceeded to a pre°arranged conversation with scholars and activists associated with Casa del Caribe, a research institute based in Santiago that collaborates regularly with Eleggua. The site of our exchange was a Temple House in Cobre. From the interview exchange, it was made very clear that there is emerging a new, classically Cuban tradition of African°derived religion. The revelation was exciting because I wasn't reading about it in a book or publication; I was sitting in the Temple in conversational exchange with a scholar, the religious leader of the Temple, other practitioners from the community, as well as the U.S. scholars travelling in our group. Wow! Needless to say, I took frantic notes and taped the interviews where permitted.

The Las Tunas experience required more knowledge and familiarity on my part, but was equally significant because it clarified how Haitian content enters Cuban African°derived religions. There is clearly a continuation of the Voodun as associated with Haiti, but there are also behavioral practices derived from Haiti which do not appear to be directed by religious practices.

I am excited by such successful field research; I am also excited about the Eleggua Project, because it facilitates, with integrity, the variety of potentials Cuba has to offer.