Definition of "santería"
santería
noun
uncountable
An Afro-Cuban religion, somewhat similar to voodoo, based upon Yoruba deities and Roman Catholic saints.
Quotations
Santería is the name for an Afro-Cuban religious and belief system with origins in the slave era. The survival of santería over many centuries required adherents to conduct their ceremonies and rituals away from the gaze of European slave owners and the Catholic Church.
2007, Paul Allatson, Key Terms in Latino/a: Cultural and Literary Studies, page 209
Santería is probably the variety of these syncretist religions closest to Catholicism, so that in Cuban Catholicism it is difficult to separate much Catholic practice in the parish churches from Santería, and it is really impossible to put statistics on the number of its practitioners, so all-pervasive is its influence.
2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin, published 2010, page 713