what the heck is SANTERIA!?

all i could find is that their some kind of religious people

It's like Voodoo, using the Catholic religion to represent their own versions of deities.

SANTO is saint in Spanish. Santeria is all the supernatural stuff attributed to saints, invoking them, using weird candles, etc. Mostly Mexican/caribbean superstition.

kind of a catholic-Caribbean hybrid with lots of candles and witchcraft

nobody has heard of it so go ogle....

ha ha it is a form of religion. It is a mix of like voodoo and witchcraft i think. Generates from either Mexico or a Spanish country. I only know because i watched a documentary and Sublime has it in their song "I don't practice Santeria, i ain't got no crystal ball" <-- hope that helps

I got DAT once when I ates a bad ham hock...

You don't want to know.

Santeria is a religion found mainly in the Caribbean. It originally came from Yoruba slaves who merged their beliefs with those of Catholics and Native Americans. Animal sacrifice is a part of this religion. Believers of Santeria believe that there are many deities and spirits.

Santer?a (SAHN-TEH-REAH)

It is what some here have described. A mixture of Afrocaribbean invocation of beings from the spirit world along with Catholic "Saints" of past.

Santeria, or ?the way of the Saints,? is the term the slave owners applied to what they perceived as their slaves? primitive worship of the Catholic Saints in preference to the more traditional Catholic focus on Jesus Christ. The slaves themselves referred to their beliefs as Lucumi, ?La Regla DE Ocha? (the Rule of Ocha), or simply, ?la religion.?

Today, what was once a pejorative term is in such common usage that most Cuban practitioners refer to themselves as Santeros, and to the Orishas (the deities of the religion) as Saints.

Santeria is a dynamic example of the perseverance and inventiveness of the West African slaves who were brought to Cuba to work on the sugar plantations. These slaves brought their spiritual traditions with them and, when forced by the slave owners to convert to Catholicism, cunningly hid their religious secrets inside the imagery of their masters? Saints.

I am Caribbean and have met a few Santeros. A couple of my wife's relatives claim to be Santeros while being devote Catholics.