Meeting the Spirits
Puerto Rican 'Espiritismo' as Source for Identity, Healing and Creativity
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/firn.v3i2.178Keywords:
Espiritismo, healing, identity, migration, Puerto Rico, Spiritism, USAAbstract
Spiritism based on Allan Kardec’s teaching (1804–1869) has influenced Latin America since the nineteenth century. This article presents the development of Puerto Rican spiritism (espiritismo) and its central ideas before illustrating the significance of espiritismo for Puerto Ricans. It will show the involvement of espiritismo in the establishment of Puertorriqueñidad, the sense of belonging to the island. It will explain the therapeutic offers of spiritist healing, and it will illustrate the creative energy of espiritismo that inspires Puerto Rican artists to the present day.
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References
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Brandon, George E. 1993. Santería from Africa to the New World: The Dead Sell Memories. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
Brignoni, Bartolomé. 1970. “Declara 80% Puertorriqueños cree en Ciencia Espiritista,” El Mundo 51 (26 August), 11–C.
Brookman, Philip. 1992. “The Politics of Hope: Sites and Sounds of Memory,” in J. B. Mandle and D. M. Rothschild eds. Sites of Recollection: Four Altars and a Rap Opera. Williamstown, Melbourne: Williams College Museum of Art, 14–42.
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Carrión, Juan Manuel. 1993. “Etnia, Raza y Nacionalidad Puertorriqueña.” In J. M. Carrión, et al. eds. La Nación Puertorriqueña: Ensayos en Torno a Pedro Albizu Campos. San Juan de Puerto Rico: Editorial de la Universidad de Puerto Rico, 3–18.
Comas-Díaz, Lillian, 1981. “Puerto Rican Espiritismo and Psychotherapy,” American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 51.4, 636–45.
Delgado, Marvin. 1988. “Groups in Puerto Rican Spiritism: Implications for Clinicians,” in C. Jacobs and D. D. Bowles eds. Ethnicity and Race: Critical Concepts in Social Work. Silver Spring, MD: National Association of Social Workers, 34–47.
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Díaz-Stevens, Ana María. 1996. “Aspects of Puerto Rican Religious Experience: A Sociohistorical Overview,” in G. Haslip-Viera and S. Baver eds. Latinos in New York: Communities in Transition. Notre Dame and London: University of Notre Dame Press, 147–86.
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Evans-Pritchard, Edward E. 1965. Theories of Primitive Religion. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Fenton, Jerry. 1969. Understanding the Religious Background of the Puerto Rican. Cuernavaca: CIDOC.
Figueroa, José E. 1981. The Cultural Dynamics of Puerto Rican Spiritism: Class, Nationality, and Religion in a Brooklyn Ghetto. Diss. City University of New York.
Garrido, Pedro. 1952. Esoteria y Fervor Populares de Puerto Rico: Contribución al Estudio y Análisis de la Conducta Mística del Pueblo en sus Aspectos Intuitivos, Tradicionales y Vulgares, con una Selección de Testimonias y Experiencias que Comprende más de 500 Fichas o Datos, 16 Ilustraciones, 32 Melodías y una Mapa Esquemático de Puerto Rico. Madrid: Ediciones Cultura Hispanica.
Garrison, Vivian E. 1977a. “Doctor, Espiritista or Psychiatrist? Health-seeking Behavior in a Puerto Rican Neighborhood of New York City,” Medical Anthropology, 1.2, 65–180.
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Giordano, Christian, 1981. “Ethnizität: Soziale Bewegung oder Identitätsmanagement?” Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Soziologie, 7.2, 179–98.
Harwood, Alan. 1977. Rx: Spiritist as Needed: A Study of a Puerto Rican Community Mental Health Resource. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
Hess, David. 1991. Spirits and Scientists: Ideology, Spiritism and Brazilian Culture. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press.
Hohmann, Ann A. et al. 1990. “Spiritism in Puerto Rico: Results of an Island-wide Community Study,” British Journal of Psychiatry, 156, 328–35.
Koss, Joan. 1972. “El Porque de los Cultos Religiosas: El Caso del Espiritismo en Puerto Rico,” Revista de Ciencias Sociales, XVI.1, 61–72.
—1977a. “Religion and Science Divinely Related: A Case History el Spiritism in Puerto Rico,” Caribbean Studies, 16.1, 22–43.
—1977b. “Spirits as Socializing Agents: A Case Study of a Puerto Rican Girl Reared in a Matricentric Family,” in V. Crapanzano and V. Garrison eds. Case Studies in Spirit Possession. New York: Wiley & Sons, 365–82.
Kuntz, Alan. 1985. “Systematic Theory in the Context of Puerto Rican Culture,” Ed.Diss. Massachusetts University.
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Lewis, Oscar. 1968. A Study of Slum Culture: Backgrounds for La Vida. New York: Random House.
Mandle, Julia Barnes. 1992. “Artists in the Exhibition/Interviews,” in J. B. Mandle and D. M. Rothschild eds. Sites of Recollection: Four Altars and a Rap Opera. Williamstown, Melbourne: Williams College Museum of Art, 44–103.
Morales-Dorta, José. 1976. Puerto Rican Espiritismo: Religion and Psychotherapy. New York: Vantage Press.
Núñez Molina, Mario A. 1987. “ ‘Desarrollo del medium’: The Process of Becoming a Healer in Puerto Rican Espiritismo,” Ed.Diss. Harvard University.
—1990. “Therapeutic and Preventive Functions of Puerto Rican Espiritismo,” Homines, Revista de Ciencias Sociales, 13.2–14.1, 267–76.
—1994. “Toward an Experiential Approach for Researching Religious Experiences,” Revista/ Review Interamericana, 14.1–4, 52–67.
Pérez García, Mavette, 1988. “Spiritism, Historical Development in France and Puerto Rico,” Revista/Review Interamericana, 16, 67–76.
Rodrigues Brandão, Carlos. 1993. “El alma del otro: La ética de las relaciones de reciprocidad entre vivos y muertos en las religiones de Brasil,” in G. H. Gossen, et al. eds. De palabra y obra en el Nuevo Mundo, Vol. 3: La formación del otro. Madrid: Siglo de XXI de España Editores, 251–316.
Rodríguez Escudero, Nestor. 1978. Historia del Espiritismo en Puerto Rico. Aguadilla, PR: [Imprenta San Rafael].
Rogler, Lloyd H., and August B. Hollingshead. 1960. “Algunas observaciones sobre el Espiritismo y las enfermedades mentales entre puertorriqueños de clase baja,” Revista de Ciencias Sociales, 4.1, 141–50.
Sánchez, Franklyn D. 1984. “Puerto Rican Spiritualism: Survival of the Spirit,” in C. E. Rodríguez, et al. eds. The Puerto Rican Struggle: Essays on Survival in the U.S. Maplewood, NJ: Waterfront Press, 140–51.
Schmidt, Bettina E. 1995. Von Geistern, Orishas und den Puertoricanern: zur Verbindung von Religion und Ethnizität. Marburg: Curupira.
—2008. Caribbean Diaspora in USA: Diversity of Caribbean Religions in New York City. Aldershot, Hampshire: Ashgate.
Seda Bonilla, Eduardo, 1969. “Spiritualism, Psychoanalysis, and Psychodrama,” American Anthropologist, 71.3, 493–97. doi:10.1525/aa.1969.71.3.02a00100
Serbin, Andrés, 1990. “La Dinámica Etnia-Nación en el caribe y sus Efectos Regionales,” Montalban, 22, 181–86.
Stewart, Charles, and Rosalind Shaw, eds. 1994. Syncretism/Anti-Syncretism: The Politics of Religious Synthesis. London: Routledge.
Bram, Joseph. 1972. “Spirits, Mediums, and Believers in Contemporary Puerto Rico,” in E. F. Méndez ed. Portrait of a Society: Readings on Puerto Rican Sociology. Río Piedras: University of Puerto Rico, 371–77.
Brandon, George E. 1993. Santería from Africa to the New World: The Dead Sell Memories. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
Brignoni, Bartolomé. 1970. “Declara 80% Puertorriqueños cree en Ciencia Espiritista,” El Mundo 51 (26 August), 11–C.
Brookman, Philip. 1992. “The Politics of Hope: Sites and Sounds of Memory,” in J. B. Mandle and D. M. Rothschild eds. Sites of Recollection: Four Altars and a Rap Opera. Williamstown, Melbourne: Williams College Museum of Art, 14–42.
Canizares, Raul. 1993. Walking with the Night: The Afro-Cuban World of Santería. Rochester, NY: Destiny Books.
Carrión, Juan Manuel. 1993. “Etnia, Raza y Nacionalidad Puertorriqueña.” In J. M. Carrión, et al. eds. La Nación Puertorriqueña: Ensayos en Torno a Pedro Albizu Campos. San Juan de Puerto Rico: Editorial de la Universidad de Puerto Rico, 3–18.
Comas-Díaz, Lillian, 1981. “Puerto Rican Espiritismo and Psychotherapy,” American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 51.4, 636–45.
Delgado, Marvin. 1988. “Groups in Puerto Rican Spiritism: Implications for Clinicians,” in C. Jacobs and D. D. Bowles eds. Ethnicity and Race: Critical Concepts in Social Work. Silver Spring, MD: National Association of Social Workers, 34–47.
Díaz-Soler, Luis M. 1960. Rosendo Matienzo Cintrón. Tomo I + II. Río Piedras: Ediciones del Instituto de Literatura Puertorriqueña.
Díaz-Stevens, Ana María. 1996. “Aspects of Puerto Rican Religious Experience: A Sociohistorical Overview,” in G. Haslip-Viera and S. Baver eds. Latinos in New York: Communities in Transition. Notre Dame and London: University of Notre Dame Press, 147–86.
Duany, Jorge, 1985. “Ethnicity in the Spanish Caribbean: Notes on the Consolidation of Creole Identity in Cuba and Puerto Rico, 1762–1868,” Ethnic Groups: An International Periodical of Ethnic Studies, 6.2–3, 15–39.
Evans-Pritchard, Edward E. 1965. Theories of Primitive Religion. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Fenton, Jerry. 1969. Understanding the Religious Background of the Puerto Rican. Cuernavaca: CIDOC.
Figueroa, José E. 1981. The Cultural Dynamics of Puerto Rican Spiritism: Class, Nationality, and Religion in a Brooklyn Ghetto. Diss. City University of New York.
Garrido, Pedro. 1952. Esoteria y Fervor Populares de Puerto Rico: Contribución al Estudio y Análisis de la Conducta Mística del Pueblo en sus Aspectos Intuitivos, Tradicionales y Vulgares, con una Selección de Testimonias y Experiencias que Comprende más de 500 Fichas o Datos, 16 Ilustraciones, 32 Melodías y una Mapa Esquemático de Puerto Rico. Madrid: Ediciones Cultura Hispanica.
Garrison, Vivian E. 1977a. “Doctor, Espiritista or Psychiatrist? Health-seeking Behavior in a Puerto Rican Neighborhood of New York City,” Medical Anthropology, 1.2, 65–180.
—1977b. “The ‘Puerto Rican Syndrome’ in Psychiatry and Espiritismo,” in V. Crapanzano and V. Garrison eds. Case Studies in Spirit Possession. New York: Wiley & Sons, 383–449.
Giordano, Christian, 1981. “Ethnizität: Soziale Bewegung oder Identitätsmanagement?” Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Soziologie, 7.2, 179–98.
Harwood, Alan. 1977. Rx: Spiritist as Needed: A Study of a Puerto Rican Community Mental Health Resource. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
Hess, David. 1991. Spirits and Scientists: Ideology, Spiritism and Brazilian Culture. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press.
Hohmann, Ann A. et al. 1990. “Spiritism in Puerto Rico: Results of an Island-wide Community Study,” British Journal of Psychiatry, 156, 328–35.
Koss, Joan. 1972. “El Porque de los Cultos Religiosas: El Caso del Espiritismo en Puerto Rico,” Revista de Ciencias Sociales, XVI.1, 61–72.
—1977a. “Religion and Science Divinely Related: A Case History el Spiritism in Puerto Rico,” Caribbean Studies, 16.1, 22–43.
—1977b. “Spirits as Socializing Agents: A Case Study of a Puerto Rican Girl Reared in a Matricentric Family,” in V. Crapanzano and V. Garrison eds. Case Studies in Spirit Possession. New York: Wiley & Sons, 365–82.
Kuntz, Alan. 1985. “Systematic Theory in the Context of Puerto Rican Culture,” Ed.Diss. Massachusetts University.
Levitt, Peggy. 2002. “Two Nations under God? Latino Religious Life in the United States,” in M. M. Suárez-Orozco and M. M. Páez eds. Latinos, Remaking America. Berkeley: University of California Press, 150–64.
Lewis, Oscar. 1968. A Study of Slum Culture: Backgrounds for La Vida. New York: Random House.
Mandle, Julia Barnes. 1992. “Artists in the Exhibition/Interviews,” in J. B. Mandle and D. M. Rothschild eds. Sites of Recollection: Four Altars and a Rap Opera. Williamstown, Melbourne: Williams College Museum of Art, 44–103.
Morales-Dorta, José. 1976. Puerto Rican Espiritismo: Religion and Psychotherapy. New York: Vantage Press.
Núñez Molina, Mario A. 1987. “ ‘Desarrollo del medium’: The Process of Becoming a Healer in Puerto Rican Espiritismo,” Ed.Diss. Harvard University.
—1990. “Therapeutic and Preventive Functions of Puerto Rican Espiritismo,” Homines, Revista de Ciencias Sociales, 13.2–14.1, 267–76.
—1994. “Toward an Experiential Approach for Researching Religious Experiences,” Revista/ Review Interamericana, 14.1–4, 52–67.
Pérez García, Mavette, 1988. “Spiritism, Historical Development in France and Puerto Rico,” Revista/Review Interamericana, 16, 67–76.
Rodrigues Brandão, Carlos. 1993. “El alma del otro: La ética de las relaciones de reciprocidad entre vivos y muertos en las religiones de Brasil,” in G. H. Gossen, et al. eds. De palabra y obra en el Nuevo Mundo, Vol. 3: La formación del otro. Madrid: Siglo de XXI de España Editores, 251–316.
Rodríguez Escudero, Nestor. 1978. Historia del Espiritismo en Puerto Rico. Aguadilla, PR: [Imprenta San Rafael].
Rogler, Lloyd H., and August B. Hollingshead. 1960. “Algunas observaciones sobre el Espiritismo y las enfermedades mentales entre puertorriqueños de clase baja,” Revista de Ciencias Sociales, 4.1, 141–50.
Sánchez, Franklyn D. 1984. “Puerto Rican Spiritualism: Survival of the Spirit,” in C. E. Rodríguez, et al. eds. The Puerto Rican Struggle: Essays on Survival in the U.S. Maplewood, NJ: Waterfront Press, 140–51.
Schmidt, Bettina E. 1995. Von Geistern, Orishas und den Puertoricanern: zur Verbindung von Religion und Ethnizität. Marburg: Curupira.
—2008. Caribbean Diaspora in USA: Diversity of Caribbean Religions in New York City. Aldershot, Hampshire: Ashgate.
Seda Bonilla, Eduardo, 1969. “Spiritualism, Psychoanalysis, and Psychodrama,” American Anthropologist, 71.3, 493–97. doi:10.1525/aa.1969.71.3.02a00100
Serbin, Andrés, 1990. “La Dinámica Etnia-Nación en el caribe y sus Efectos Regionales,” Montalban, 22, 181–86.
Stewart, Charles, and Rosalind Shaw, eds. 1994. Syncretism/Anti-Syncretism: The Politics of Religious Synthesis. London: Routledge.
Published
2010-01-15
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Schmidt, B. (2010). Meeting the Spirits: Puerto Rican ’Espiritismo’ as Source for Identity, Healing and Creativity. Fieldwork in Religion, 3(2), 178-194. https://doi.org/10.1558/firn.v3i2.178
