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Daddy Yankee Denies Magazine’s Claim He Believes in Santeria


SAN JUAN – Reggaeton singer Daddy Yankee on Thursday denied that he believes in Santeria, as claimed by the magazine TV y Novelas in this week’s edition, and he said he will file a defamation case against the publication in court.

“This is completely false. I’m telling all my people that I have my Christian beliefs one million percent. I’ve always been a Christian,” the Puerto Rican superstar said at a press conference in a San Juan hotel.

“I believe in Jesus and it’ll be that way until I die. I know very well who I follow, and that’s the Lord,” said the man born Ramon Ayala, who traveled on Thursday to New York to work on his new record “Daddy Yankee mundial.”

According to the magazine, the Santeria name of the artist is Oturukpon Ose and he was initiated into the religion at a Miami ceremony attended by his wife, Mireddys Gonzalez, and presided over by Santeria priest or “babalao” Ile Tuntun, who allegedly told the singer what he must avoid doing if he wanted to continue his spiritual education in the religion.

“We’re going to take reprisals. I’m tempted to take legal action. We haven’t given an interview to that magazine in two years. They know that yours truly sells copies and they’re dedicated to manipulation. I’m going to defend my beliefs,” the singer emphasized.

“I respect religions from all over the world, (but) when they take the Christian-ness out of me, it bothers me. I know I have to be active on the pathways of God,” Yankee said, adding that he attends a church in Carolina, a neighboring city to San Juan.

Santeria is a belief system that merges the Yoruba religion – brought to the New World by slaves imported to the Caribbean – with Roman Catholic and Native American traditions. It includes such elements as sacred drumming, animal sacrifice and a tradition of entering a trance to communicate with ancestors and dieties.

In 2001, there were some 22,000 practitioners of Santeria in the United States. EFE
**latinamericageraldtribune**

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