| METRO | BLOOD IN THE WATER A s wilderness guides at the Vir- ginia Key Outdoor Center were wrapping up a summer- camp kayaking tour on Mon- day, June 27, they noticed stacks of cardboard boxes that appeared to be moving on their own. Inside the boxes: eight chickens and 22 pi- geons, apparently destined for ritualistic sac- rifice carried out by two men who were hiding in the nearby mangroves. “These two guys came out and my volun- teers got spooked. As soon as I heard about it, I knew what was happening: It was Santería,” recounts Esther Alonso, who owns the out- door center, located off the Rickenbacker Causeway at the northern tip of Virginia Key. Alonso tells New Times that she approached the men as they were cutting the necks of two adult hens and gathering the blood. She screamed at the men in an effort to scare them away from the animals and out of the park. “I went full ‘Karen’ on them. I figured if I said something crazy enough, they’d get scared,” she says. “I told them, ‘These chick- ens are under my protection. You can’t come and kill animals here. Ask your god who it is you’re dealing with.’” The pair eventually departed empty- handed — Alonso refused to allow them to take the birds — leaving the staff at the out- door center to clean up the mess: blood spilled on rocks and on branches of nearby mangroves, and a henhouse’s worth of fowl. Later that evening, the outdoor center posted about the incident on its Instagram, including video of the six rescued hens and several pigeons hiding in a cardboard box. “If we can arrest someone for throwing balloons in the bay why can’t we arrest these two guys for killing two chickens spreading their blood in our shoreline, leaving their be- headed corpses wrapped in plastic bags on our beaches,” read the post, referring to the arrest of two people earlier this year for dumping popped balloons at the Bayshore Landing Marina in Coconut Grove. Alonso says volunteers released the pi- geons at the request of their owner, a Miami resident who contacted the outdoor center after seeing the Instagram post. The caller told the center that 11 of the 22 racing pigeons flew home but he’s still missing the others, in- cluding one bird he says is worth $2,000. The surviving hens are safe at Alonso’s home. She says she’ll post photos of them on a local forum to find their owners, as their clipped wings lead her to believe they too were stolen. Santería, an Afro-Cuban religion that’s 6 6 practiced in and around Miami, sometimes calls for the ritualistic sacrifice of animals, in- cluding chickens and goats. In 1993, after the City of Hialeah passed a law prohibiting ani- Photo courtesy of the Virginia Key Outdoor Center Staff at Virginia Key Outdoor Center found cardboard boxes containing eight live chickens and 22 pigeons, apparently destined to be sacrificed. mal sacrifice, the U.S. Supreme Court af- firmed the right of Santería practitioners to sacrifice animals. Santería, also known as Lucumí, is one of “I WENT FULL ‘KAREN’ ON THEM. I TOLD THEM, ‘YOU CAN’T COME AND KILL ANIMALS HERE.’” many Afro-Cuban religions that’s practiced in and around Miami and within the Cuban dias- pora. Like other Afro-Cuban religions, Santería sometimes calls for the ritualistic sacrifice of animals. In 1993, after the City of Hialeah passed a law prohibit- ing animal sacrifice, the U.S. Supreme Court af- firmed the right of Santería practitioners to sacrifice animals. That said, while Miamians often invoke Santería when animal remains are found in public spaces, that ste- reotype can be mis- leading, says anthropologist Martin Tsang, a Lucumí priest and librarian of the University of Miami’s Cuban Heritage Collection. “From the majority of practices, it is very difficult to ascribe a specific religion to a par- ticular instance and say ‘this is 1,000 percent Santería,’” Tsang tells New Times. Because the majority of Santería practitio- ners do not publicly identify themselves as such or discuss sacred and private ritual prac- tices, Tsang notes, it’s difficult to say for cer- tain which ceremonies are done in the name of Santería versus other religions, including those that lie completely outside the Afro-At- lantic realm. With regard to the chicken slaughter at Virginia Key, Tsang says, “I do not know any bona fide practitioners who would do this — going out to sacrifice in a public space. Sacri- fice within the Orisha context is very delicate, very respected, and conducted in a sacred context. It is not entered into lightly. “It is impossible to say from the descrip- tion given what exactly this instance has to do with Santería — if anything,” he adds. At any rate, Esther Alonso contends that sacrificing animals near the outdoor center constitutes environmental pollution and can be scarring for children who visit. “If you want to practice your religion, do it in the privacy of your facilities,” says Alonso, who is Cuban. “This is a public park for pub- lic enjoyment, and these sacrifices are unsan- itary and pollute the environment.” Alonso adds that this wasn’t the first time she encountered evidence of ritualistic prac- tices at Virginia Key. “There used to be someone who would hang dead birds from the mangroves with the blood dripping out. Can you imagine your kid walking down the trail and seeing that?” Alonso says the center informed the Mi- ami-Dade Police Department about the find and that the incident is under investigation for illegal dumping and, potentially, theft. “The Miami-Dade Police Department ini- tiated an investigation into the matter. Inves- tigators were able to identify and locate [one of] the individuals involved in the incident,” an MDPD spokesperson confirms to New Times. Dany Machado Gomez of Hialeah was issued $7,500 in civil citation fines for seven counts of animal cruelty and two counts of il- legal dumping. [email protected] Outdoor center staff interrupts apparent bird sacrifice on Virginia Key. BY JOSHUA CEBALLOS JULY 7-13, 2022 MONTH XX–MONTH XX, 2008 NEW TIMES | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | NEWS | LETTERS | CONTENTS | miaminewtimes.com | browardpalmbeach.com miaminewtimes.com MIAMI NEW TIMES | MUSIC | CAFE | FILM | ART | STAGE | NIGHT+DAY | METRO | RIPTIDE | LETTERS | CONTENTS |
