Santero

For Erick Recinos, Santero isn't just a stage name, it's a way of life. The 33-year-old DJ and MC says he's a full-fledged "voodoo artist" who spent his childhood traveling across Central America and the Caribbean before taking up Santeria in his 20s while studying dance with the National Folkloric Ballet of Cuba.

The Salvadoran-Guatamalan Recinos eventually settled in Oakland, California and teamed up with Grammy-nominated producer Greg Landau (Susana Baca, Maldita Vecindad, Bobi Cespedes) to record 2005's Arawaks & Maroons, which features healthy doses of reggae and Latin jazz with pinches of ska and R&B. Santero is now putting the finishing touches on a second album, El Hijo De Obatalá, for early 2008.

Through his music, Recinos hopes to become an ambassador for Santeria: "We are not demons or the devil's agents; I just want to show that my tradition is something beautiful and elegant, it's something very spiritual that is an alternative to the mass consumption of Catholicism or any other religion."

see: myspace.com/santero