For hundreds of years, Cuban descendants of the Yoruba people of Nigeria have maintained interconnected African religious arts including songs, dance, drumming, rituals, and medicinal herbs. Such traditional arts help maintain the health of the body, spirit, and community. "Bobi" Cespedes learned these arts in Havana from her mother, Godmother, and Godfather. As a child she attended the local children's spiritual temple, "Angelita's House." Bobi was the youngest of 14 children in a family home where everyone was a musician. By the age of ten she sange and danced with her family in public and was able to create and recite "decimas," the extemporaneous ten-line poem. Bobi left Cuba in 1959 and settled in New York. She associated with many of the most significant Cuban music, dance, folklore, and cultural troupes. In December of 1967, she was initiated as a priestess in the Lucumi religion. She is respected as a priestess, performer, and leader of folk ensembles in Cuban communities in New York, Florida, Los Angeles, and the Bay area where she has resided since 1979.
Bobi Cespedes is the aunt of apprentice Guillermo Cespedes. She was five when he was born. They grew up together in Angelita's House. In the United States, Bobi became Guillermo'' spiritual mentor in 1981 and initiated him as a priest in 1996. Guillermo is an accomplished musician, but there is still much more that he can learn from his aunt. During the apprenticeship, they will concentrate on songs involved in extracting the healing property of herbs, ritual music to pay homage to ancestors, and chanting related to divination.
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