My friend, Robert, and his wife, Maria, are practitioners of Santeria. Roberto is aspiring to become a babalao and Maria teaches Afro-Cuban Folkloric dancing. The dance class is drawn from their neighborhood. One afternoon the group had a recital for us. All ages of kids, mainly young girls, danced. Ellington, their son, and one of his buddies banged on conga and bongo drums. Roberto played the suitcase, it had a nice bass sound. This little girl danced her heart out and her legs off in the role of Ellagua, a spirited orisha in the legends of Santeria. So many people came to the small community center we went out to the street and blocked it off. A policeman came and went down to the corner to deflect any traffic rather than close us down. Among the people there is little oppression, if you deal with the government, that's a totally different story.