Entre las aguas/Between the Waters: Interorality in Afro-Cuban Religious Storytelling

This essay investigates different kinds of storytelling found in Afro-Cuban religions. The term “interorality” describes how narrators and audiences interact, collaborate, and help construct the meaning of narratives. The piece uses fieldwork and ethnographic writing to illustrate how Afro-Cuban religious storytelling allows for the fluid interpretation of gender, race, and sexuality by different members of the religious community. Storytelling here also affords opportunities where Cuba’s cultural and historical frictions are negotiated through moments of religious affect.