Odebí, el cazador: Del tabú a la transgresión

Odebí, el cazador (1982), a play by Eugenio Hernández Espinosa, dramatizes a patakin, the Afro-Cuban myth of santería of Ochosí de Mata. Following Wole Soyinka's theories of dramatic creation based on the merging of Yoruba myths and rituals with Western Christian traditions, Hernández Espinosa creates a hybrid play blending African and European linguistic, musical, dance, and other cultural components. This essay takes into consideration a cluster of theories on ritual — Soyinka, Turner, Eliade and Campbell — as it explores the journey of a mythic hero in a metaphorical confrontation between man and cosmos, as symbolic representation of the conflict between the protagonist and the moral order and his destiny.