ABOUT PETER DE JESÚS

Oba Oriate of the Lucumi Orisha Tradition

Peter De Jesús is a high priest, Oba Oriate (religious officiator) of the Orisha Lucumi tradition most commonly referred to as Santeria. Born in San Francisco, California of Puerto Rican descent he is an established priest and head of his House-Temple, IIé De Jesús.  Healing and spirituality are traditions passed on to him by his grandmother Doña Niti Reyes.  She was a spiritual healer (curandera tradicional) from Puerto Rico who used herbs and spiritual prayers. Doña Niti arrived in San Francisco’s Mission District in the 1950s and was one of the first spiritual healers who attended to the Latino Community. Peter’s spirituality connection with his grandmother has guided him as a healer in Lucumi Santeria practices.

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            In 1980 Peter was initiated as a priest of Oshun (goddess of the river, love, treasures and passion) and studied under his godfather the well-known Cuban priest from Matanzas, Elpidio Alfonso, Oba Ofun (ibae). Alfonso was one of the first Santeria priests to bring the practices from Cuba to California and made his home in the Bay Area until his passing in 2000. Alfonso’s legacy as a foundational member of the Orisha community in the United States can be seen in the over 260 initiates that he crowned throughout his lifetime.  Peter met Alfonso while drumming as a teenager and began to work closely with him, earning his rite to priesthood and then continuing his tutelage as a religious officiator studying rituals, prayers and the divination systems of la regla de Ocha (as the traditions are also called in Cuba).  In 1981, Peter and Alfonso together initiated the first Ogun priest in California, one of the more difficult initiation ceremonies of the religion.

            Peter has continued his grandmother and Alfonso’s roles as pioneer healers in the community and has initiated priests across the United States and Matanzas, Cuba. He has earned the position of Oriate, a title that is traditionally bestowed as a term of recognition and merit by other priests who “lift” or hire an officiator for their ceremonies. As a full-time working Oriate, Peter is responsible for sanctifying all of the initiation rites of new priests as well as the complex ritual cleansings, healing ceremonies and divination systems that include extensive knowledge on ancestral and Orisha worship in the Cuban Lucumi system.

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            Over the past 40 years, Peter has crowned more than 226 priests and is a master of batå drummer and percussionist. In 1994 Peter traveled to Matanzas, Cuba to receive the sacred drums from Alfredo Calvo, Oba Tola, Ala Aganyu and brought the sacred batå back to California, making him an Olubata Omo Alaña. Peter was the first Puerto Rican American to have received aña, of which only six sets had existed outside of Cuba at that time. Central to Lucumi practices, the aña drums are a crucial aspect of all the forms of religious ceremonies, including priestly presentation, weddings and mourning rituals. His Bay Area located batå ensemble that includes master Afro-Cuban drummer and singer, Carlos Aldama Pérez, Oñi Sango, retired member of the National Folkloric Dance Ensemble of Cuba, provides sacred drumming as well as non-religious drumming and song classes.

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            Currently, Peter works with various communities as a priest, officiator, healer, drummer, teacher and mentor. He performs cowry shell consultations, initiation rituals, cleansings and drummings from Matanzas, Cuba to many areas of the United States.  As a spiritualist from birth, he maintains the traditions of his grandmother and performs ancestral masses and herbal cleansings as well.  Along with his family who are all initiated priests and his many godchildren that form part of his House Temple-IIé De Jesús, Peter has dedicated his life to teaching Lucumi traditions as he learned them from his elders. He is particularly concerned with correcting the many misunderstandings of these religious beliefs that have formed through Western stereotypes and ignorance.

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            The Orisha Lucumi religious belief system has its roots in West Africa and Cuba. Although it is based on the system of Yoruba Ifå, the Cuban Orisha system has developed its own complex forms of worship, prayer, divination and healing.  The Orishas are deified energies of nature that teach us the different paths of life, and as a priest, Peter is a guide who reads, interprets, and realizes that road.  Highly esteemed by his peers, Peter has been a practitioner since his teens and his Lucumi House-Temple has members that live all over this United States, the Caribbean, Mexico, and Latin America.  Peter’s own experience growing up as a youth in San Francisco’s Mission District as a Puerto Rican American spiritualist, healer and Lucumi priest attests to the complex realities and diasporas of modern-urban traditions in the 21st century.  Peter wishes to bring healing, guidance, well-being and peace to all peoples and welcomes inter-spiritual exchanges and dialogues.