More research for Havana Bay

When Renko arrives in Havana, a body is fished out of the body that is presumed to be his frenemy Pribluda. He is found in an inner-tube. Apparently, there are locals called neumaticos who fish with a net drawn over an inner-tube. They sometimes get attacked by sharks. I tried Googling different variations but couldn't find anything about it. Maybe they don't do that anymore. If you just Google "neumatico", you get a bunch of pictures of tires. Aha-now I get it. Neumatico=pneumatic.

Where does that weird silent "p" come from anyways? Evidently it starts with the Greek root "pneuma" which means wind. This now rings a bell from my history of science class. I do wonder though how the Greeks would have pronounced it.

Oh well. Anyways, Santeria and Abakua are two African religions that are popular in Cuba. All I know about Santeria literally comes from a Martin Sheen horror flick from the 80's. The locals get annoyed when Renko mixes them up because Abakua comes from the Congo and Santeria from Nigeria. Santeria is loosely a mix of Lukumi, a West-African spiritual tradition and Catholicism that percolated into its present form in Cuba. If you have heard of Babalu Aye (and what a great name), that is a Santeria deity.

Ah, I see Chango is too. Chango being the name of the life-size creepy mannequin in Pribluda's (illegal) apartment on the Malecon that keeps freaking poor Renko out. Until someone steals him. It's not clear yet why Pribluda had him, however I see he is "dominant over male sexuality." Since he was stolen and turns up later in an odd place, I'm wondering if there is something valuable stashed in him. Other than mojo.

Abakua, on the other hand, I had never heard of. Not even in a Sublime song, as far as I know. Wikipedia says it is a secret fraternity. And, wait- it also originated in Nigeria, not the Congo. Good grief, they aren't even contiguous. They are some sort of mutual aid group and conduct ceremonies called plantes with the drumming and the dancing.

I guess it's hard to maintain the secret part in those secret fraterrnities in the digital age since I got ~28,000 Google hits for it.