Summary Of The Altar Of My Soul By Santía Vega

The history and reconnecting with her family were both appealing to Marta, but it was the meaning that Santeria gave her current life and set her on a path for the future is what seemed to stand out the most to her. Marta enjoyed learning about Santeria because each time she learned and talked about an Orisha she was able to apply it to her own life. For instance, as Marta was preparing for her initiation wrote down what she was learning in a journal as she narrates “My journal became my bible, helping me to understand Orula’s advice, and the guidance of the orishas that were now essential principles in my life….We must internalize the teachings of the orishas and use them in our lives” (233). Marta having guidelines to follow in a way helped keep her life more structured and give her a purpose. For instance, Marta says the “The process

Completely different religions and following cannot go hand in hand. However, if people thought of personal and internal reasons as why they follow a specific religion, the idea of religion may be more unifying than people assume. Although The Altar of My Soul by Marta Moreno Vega does not bring too much attention to other religions, but by reading the book and not just look at the details of the book, Marta’s motivation to entering the Santeria or Lucumí does not seem any different than most religions. For a religion like Santeria that is so looked down upon by the outside and called “devil worship,” a reader obviously does not see that. What Santeria does to Marta like most relgions do to people is it provides her with her ancestor’s history and the sturggles they overcame, the relgions helped her reconnect with her family and address the troubles, and lastly it gave her a guide on how she can better live her future without worry and feeling the safety of the