Inspiration found in today's Miami Herald front page story's opening paragraph:
The Santero Next Door
Noriel Batista has had little peace since a swarm of Coral Gables police officers burst onto his property, disrupting a Santeria ritual intended to initiate him into a special order of his religion's priesthood.
''It has ruined my life,'' said Batista, a Cuban-born pharmacy owner who bought the home on Casilla Street nine years ago.
Business at his Coral Way pharmacy has suffered, he says. Neighbors expressed outrage that animal sacrifices -- in this case, 11 goats and 44 fowl -- were taking place in the City Beautiful.
Shortly after the June incident made the news, Batista received a handwritten note, scrawled in the margins of a Miami Herald article: America has become a dumping ground for trash like you. Go back to Cuba and take your animal sacrifices with you.
''It has ruined my life,'' said Batista, a Cuban-born pharmacy owner who bought the home on Casilla Street nine years ago.
Business at his Coral Way pharmacy has suffered, he says. Neighbors expressed outrage that animal sacrifices -- in this case, 11 goats and 44 fowl -- were taking place in the City Beautiful.
Shortly after the June incident made the news, Batista received a handwritten note, scrawled in the margins of a Miami Herald article: America has become a dumping ground for trash like you. Go back to Cuba and take your animal sacrifices with you.
We highly recommend reading the story by Tere Figueras Negrete and Elaine DeValle. Only in Miami (and certain parts of Coral Gables).
UpDate (8/13/2011): Noriel Batista the pharmacist is arrested and loses his pharmacy due to Medicaid fraud. I guess even practitioners of Santeria can't escape the Feds when it comes to busting people and companies trying to rip off the public. (http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/08/12/2357330/after-arrest-drug-store-is-no.html)
3 comments:
While I favor the slaughter of animals for entertainment purposes -- who doesn't? -- it troubles me to see religious overtones encroaching on an otherwise innocent pasttime. Perhaps balance would be restored if once in a while the Santarian priests themselves were ritually slaughtered by animals. There's a future for death by rooster pecking, if not on teevee, then certainly youtube.
Hell, I'd tune in.
Sorry, but Noriel waas not arrested...I am sure that he is behind the scheme, but the phasmacist (Parra) is taking the fall for him...) As a Cuban I demand tha these people get double sentence for giving all a bad reputation...
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