Hmm, I'm not sure how I feel about this one:
NEW YORK -- Like many who become superheroes, Nestor Rodriguez's transformation is rooted in loss: His father, a civil rights activist and New York City councilman, is murdered in front of him. Yet unlike other superheroes who gain their powers through the bite of a radioactive spider or through birth on an alien planet, Rodriguez is changed through an Afro-Caribbean religious ceremony...
And then there is Eleggua, the character that Rodriguez becomes. Quesada says Eleggua and the team he leads, the Santerians, are the first all-Latino comic book team whose powers are derived from the Afro-Caribbean religion of santeria.
Eleggua is the Orisha of doorways and crossroads. He is one of the warriors, with Chango, Ogun, Ochosi, and Osun, and one of the Seven African powers. In the Yoruban tradition that is parent to the Lukumi and Palo faiths, the Orishas are emissaries of God, ruling the forces of nature and the fortunes of mankind. Their aspects are generally determined by their elemental natures. Eleggua is the mediator between humans and all of the other Orishas. Eleggua is the keeper of the gateway between the divine and material worlds. Eleggua is the trickster, a force of chaos and entropy who serves to shake off stagnacy.
On one hand, i'm glad to see a latino superhero, since there are so few (I guess we aren't superhero material, huh? Why do I feel like the geico caveman all of sudden?) on the other hand, why perpetuate the stereotype that latinos are all involved in Santeria, which is most often miscontrued as voodoo.
There is also an underlining lack of respect or blasphemy in taking a religious from one religion and making him into a cartoon character, imagine if it were a more mainstream religion and or someone like Moses...there would be an uproar.
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