title: Santería

text: Although members of different houses often interact, each casa is largely autonomous, allowing for variation in their practices. In Cuba, it is common for Santería practitioners to meet with each other regularly, and to regard each other as being akin to a family: the "familia de santo". Conversely, in an area like Veracruz in Mexico, many practitioners attend group rituals and then leave, sometimes never seeing their co-practitioners again.


title: Santería

text: Most casas are established by a santero or santera who has attracted a following. An apprentice is known as their "ahijado" (godson) or "ahijada" (goddaughter). They refer to their santero/santera as "padrino" (godfather) or "madrina" (godmother). The relationship between santeros/santeras and their "godchildren" is central to the religion's social organization, and practitioners believe that the more "godchildren" a santera or santero has, the greater their aché. The "godchildren" are expected to contribute both their labor and finances to events held at the casa and in return the santero/santera provides assistance for their needs. Within the religion, offending one's godparent is regarded as also offending the oricha that "rules the head". Practitioners express respect both to their godparent and the oricha via a ritual prostration, the "moforibale", in which they bow their head to the floor. The precise form of the moforibale differs depending on whether the individual's personal oricha is male or female.


title: Santería

text: Altars or shrines to the oricha are typically found both within the igbodu and in practitioners' homes. Central to these altars are sacred objects, termed "fundamentos" ("fundamentals"), which are contained within porcelain vessels, often tureens, called "sopera". The most important of the fundamentos are stones termed "otanes" (sing. "otán"), which are regarded as the literal and symbolic representation of the oricha, and thus living entities. They are deemed to be sources of aché, with older otanes having more aché than younger ones.


title: Santería

text: Practitioners will collect stones from the landscape and then use divination to determine which ones contain an oricha and, if so, which oricha it is. Specific otanes sometimes display traits linking them to particular oricha; for example ocean stones are linked with Yemaya, river pebbles with Ochún, and meteorite fragments with Changó. Each oricha is deemed to prefer a particular color and number of otanes in sopera devoted to them; Changó has six or ten black stones, Obatala has eight white stones, while Ochún favors five yellow stones. New otanes undergo a "bautismo" ("baptism") rite, entailing them being washed in "osain", a mixture of herbs and water, and then "fed" with animal blood. When an initiate receives their stones, they take an oath to protect them and feed them at least annually.


title: Santería

text: Other material placed inside the sopera includes cowrie shells; usually 18 are added although the precise number differs depending on which oricha the sopera is devoted to. The sopera will often be covered by a cloth known as a "pañuelo" that is colored in accordance with the oricha in question. Often laid over the sopera are necklaces known as "collares", again representing a particular oricha. On the altar, the sopera will be arranged in a descending hierarchy depending on which oricha each is dedicated to, with that of Obatala at the top.


title: Santería

text: Many altars contain few or no anthropomorphic depictions of the oricha, although will often include objects associated with them; a wooden axe for Changó or a fan for Ochún, for instance. Creating these altars is deemed expensive and time-consuming. Material may be selected based on the tastes of the creyente; anthropologists have observed practitioners who have included Taoist figurines or statues of wizards, on their altars. Food and flowers are often placed on the altar as offerings. Although rarely included on their altars, practitioners will often have statues of Roman Catholic saints elsewhere in their homes.


title: Santería

text: In addition to their altar to the oricha, many practitioners have altars set aside for the spirits of the dead. These typically consist of a white-covered table known as a "bóveda", something derived from the White Table of Spiritism. Bóveda often feature photographs of deceased relatives, to whom offerings are given; popular offerings for the spirits of the dead include seven glasses of water, a "cafecito" coffee, and the "aguardiente" liquor. Alternatively, many practitioners of Santería—like those who follow Palo—will have a "rinconcito" ("little corner"), a small area in which they collect together assorted objects, often those typically found in a household, as a material manifestation of the dead. Offerings to the dead may be placed here. Many practitioners will also enshrine their family ancestors under the bathroom sink. This location is chosen so that the ancestors can travel between the realms of the living and the dead via the water in the pipes.


title: Santería

text: Offerings are called "ebbó" (or "ebó"), and are given to the oricha, ancestral spirits, to a person's own ori, and sometimes to the earth. These offerings can consist of fruit and other foodstuffs, liquor, flowers, candles, money, or slaughtered animals. Divination is often used to determine the exact nature of the offering; initiates are supposed to provide offerings on a regular basis, and at least once a year. Given to strengthen the supernatural forces, to thank them, or as a supplication, they help form a reciprocal relationship with these entities in the hope of receiving something in return. If this fails to materialise, practitioners may resort to several explanations: that the details of the ritual were incorrect, that the priest or priestess carrying out the rite lacked sufficient aché, or that the wrong ebbó was provided for the situation.


title: Santería

text: Conducted by a "matador", animal sacrifice is called "matanza". It is usually carried out by a man, with menstruating women prohibited from involvement. Birds—including guinea fowl, chickens, and doves—are commonly sacrificed, usually by having their throats slit or their heads twisted and ripped off. For rituals of greater importance, sacrifices are often of four-legged animals. Some practitioners describe the killing of animals as an acceptable substitute to human sacrifice, and in Cuba there have been persistent rumours of children being sacrificed in Santería rites. The oricha and spirits are believed to "eat" the blood of the victim; the latter's lifeforce is deemed to transfer to the oricha, thus strengthening its aché. An animal that struggles to avoid being killed is sometimes understood as having particular strength which will then pass to the oricha.


title: Santería

text: Once killed, the animals' severed heads may be placed on top of the sopera belonging to the oricha to which the sacrifice has been directed. After the carcass has been butchered, some of the organs—known as "acheses"—may be cooked and offered to the oricha; other parts will be eaten by practitioners. Some of the blood may be collected and added to "omiero", an infusion of herbs and water. Believed to contain much aché, this liquid is used for removing malevolent influences and in ceremonies for baptising ritual tools. Santería's animal sacrifice has been a cause of concern for many non-practitioners. It has sometimes brought adherents into confrontation with the law, as with the 1993 case of "Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye v. City of Hialeah", in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that animal cruelty laws targeted specifically at Santería were unconstitutional.


title: Santería

text: Initiation is known as "kariocha", "making "ocha"", or "making "santo"". A charge is levied for initiation; this varies depending on the client, but is often equivalent to a year's wage. Each initiation varies in its details, which are often concealed from non-initiates. The initiate is known as an "iyabó" or "iyawó", a term meaning both "slave of the oricha" and "bride of the oricha". As well as the santero or santera overseeing the initiation ceremony, the event may be attended by an "oyubona" or "oyugbona" ("one who witnesses"), who acts as a secondary godparent to the new initiate.


title: Santería

text: The initiation process takes seven days, plus two days of preparatory rituals. During this preparation, a "misa espiritual" ("spiritual mass") will typically take place to gain the blessings of the ancestral egun, and an "ebó de entrada" ("opening sacrifice") will be made to the oricha or the egun. Next comes the "ceremonia del río" ("ceremony of the initiate"), in which offerings are given to Ochún, and the "rompimiento" ("breaking"), in which the oyubona takes the initiate to purify themselves in a river. The rest of the initiation takes place in the igbodu, where the initiate sleeps upon a mat on the floor for the seven days. No one uninvolved in the initiation is permitted entry. The initiate is given their own otanes, as well as objects representing the warrior oricha. They are also given beaded necklaces, known as "elekes", "ilekes", or "collares". Each necklace is a different color associated with a specific deity. During the "prendición" ("pinning") ritual, a heavy necklace known as the "collar de mazo" is placed on the initiate. During the "lavatorio" ("washing"), the initiate's head is bathed in omiero, designed to rid them of any malevolent spirits attached to them. Often, their hair will be shaved off.


title: Santería

text: On the "día del itá" ("day of history"), usually the third day, the initiate will undergo the "itá", a session with a diviner. The diviner will reveal the initiate's Lucumí ritual name, a praise name of the oricha that rules their head. This name often incorporates elements indicating the initiate's tutelary oricha; devotees of Yemajá for instance usually include "omí" ("water"), while those of Changó often have "obá" ("king"). Next comes the "asiento" ("seating"), or "coronación" ("coronation"), which marks the point when the aché of the tutelary oricha is believed to literally enter the initiate's cranium. The otanes of several oricha are placed to the initiate's head, culminating in those of their tutelary oricha. An animal sacrifice usually follows, involving at least five four-legged animals and 25 birds. The following day is "el Día del Medio" ("the middle day"), when guests—including the initiate's family and friends—pay homage to them. It includes drumming and a feast. On the seventh day of the initiation, the new initiate leaves the casa and visits the marketplace, where they make offerings to Eleguá and steal something small, also as an offering to Eleguá.


title: Santería

text: The initiate can finally take their otanes home. They may then undergo a year-long period, the "iyaworaje" ("journey of the iyawo"), during which they must observe certain restrictions, the nature of which depends on their tutelary oricha. This may for instance include abstaining from sexual intercourse, wearing only white, or not cutting their hair. The iyaworaje ends with the "ebó del año" ceremony. Once this is done, they may lead rituals and help initiate others. Thenceforth, they will celebrate the annual anniversary of their initiation, their "cumpleaños de santo" ("birthday in the saint"). Although a largely orally-transmitted tradition, santeros and santeras often emphasise teaching in a non-verbal manner, encouraging their initiates to learn through taking part in the ritual activities. Since at least the 20th century, some initiates have kept "libretas", notebooks in which they have written down material relevant to the practice of Santería. These may be shared with their own initiates or kept private.


title: Santería

text: Santería's main public ritual is a drumming ceremony called the "toque de santo", or "tambor". Lasting for up to several hours, this is usually seen as an offering to the oricha, performed to gain their favor. The goal of the rhythms and songs is to summon the oricha to earth, at which point they can possess one of the participants. It is believed that the collective energy built up by the group is necessary in achieving this. In turn, the oricha are believed capable of soothing the grieving, healing the sick, blessing the deserving, and rebuking those who have behaved badly.


title: Santería

text: The toque de santo uses double-headed drums called "batá", which are sometimes regarded as the central symbol of Santería. There are multiple types of batá: the "iyá" is the largest, the "itótele" is smaller, and the "okónkolo" is the smallest. For ceremonial purposes, these drums must be wooden; adding metal elements could offend Changó, who is associated with wooden artefacts, because of their links with his enemy, Ogun. They may however have brass bells associated with Ochún, known as "chaworo", affixed to their rim. Before being used in ceremonies, these drums are baptized, after which they are referred to as a "tambor de fundamento". This baptism entails washing the drums in omiero, making sacrifices to Osain, and affixing an "afoubo", a small leather bag containing items including a parrot feather and glass beads, to the interior of the drum.


title: Santería

text: Practitioners believe that the consecrated batá contain a substance called "añá", itself an avatar of Ochún. Many drummers avoid mentioning the añá in public and may not refer to it by name. Drums which have not been baptised are not viewed as containing añá, and are called "tambores judìos" ("Jewish drums"). Particular rhythms played on the drums may be associated with a specific oricha, a group of oricha, or all of the oricha. Those playing the batá are called "batáleros". Santería drumming is male dominated; women are discouraged from playing the batá during ceremonies, although by the 1990s some women practitioners in the U.S. had taken on the role. Practitioners explain the taboo with the view that menstrual blood can weaken the drum's añá, and that women playing these drums during ceremonies become infertile.


title: Santería

text: Praise songs are sung for the oricha, with specific songs associated with particular deities. The lead singer at such ceremonies is known as an "akpwón". During the opening verse of the song, the akpwón may break into a personal prayer. The akpwón can switch from song to song quickly, with the drummers having to adapt their rhythm accordingly. A chorus of singers will respond to the akpwón, often while swaying back and forth. These choral responses may split into a two or three-part harmony. Dancing also takes place, with each oricha associated with a particular dance style. The dances at the toque de santo are believed to generate aché, strengthening the link between the realms of the oricha and humanity. Dancing either alone or first in front of the drums at the toque de santo is considered a privilege and is usually reserved for the most experienced initiate present. There are specific rules of engagement that are laid out for taking part in the toque de santo; dancing poorly at the ritual is considered an insult to the oricha.


title: Santería

text: Possession is important in Santería, and the purpose of the toque de santo is to call down an oricha to possess one of the participants. The possessed individual is referred to as the "horse", with the oricha having "mounted" them. According to practitioners, becoming possessed by an oricha requires an individual giving up their consciousness to the deity, and accordingly they often claim no memory of the events that occurred during the possession. Some have stated that reaching the mental state whereby an individual can become possessed takes much practice. The onset of the trance is marked by body spasms, termed "arullarse".


title: Santería

text: Once an individual is possessed, they may be taken into an adjacent room where they are dressed in the ritual clothing pertaining to the possessing oricha, after which they are returned to the main room. As well as speaking in the Lucumí language, those possessed may then display gestures associated with a particular oricha; for instance, those believing themselves possessed by Ochún may wipe their skirt over other people, representing the waves of the ocean, while those regarding themselves as being possessed by Eleguá may steal from assembled participants. The possessed individual will then provide healing or dispense advice; sometimes a possessed person will reprimand others present, for instance for failing to carry out their ritual obligations, or issue them a warning. Some practitioners have also reported becoming possessed by an oricha in non-ritual contexts, such as while sleeping or walking through the streets, or during drumming performances carried out for non-religious purposes.


title: Santería

text: Healing is important in Santería, and health problems are the most common reason why people approach a santero or santera for help. When operating as healers, practitioners are sometimes termed "curanderos", or "osainistas". Particular focuses of Santería healing include skin complaints, gastrointestinal and respiratory problems, sexually transmitted infections, and issues of female reproduction; some practitioners provide concoctions to induce abortion. Santería healers will typically use divination to determine the cause of an ailment before prescribing treatment.


title: Santería

text: Santería teaches that supernatural factors cause or exacerbate ailments. It claims that oricha may make someone sick, either as punishment or to encourage them to make a change in their life, often to become an initiate. The oricha must then be propitiated to stop, sometimes with the sick individual receiving initiation. Santería also holds that a spirit of the dead may attach itself to an individual and thus harm them. Adherents also often believe that humans can harm one another through supernatural means, either involuntarily, by giving them the "mal de ojo" (evil eye), or deliberately, through "brujería" (witchcraft). The latter are often perceived as acting out of envy, utilising cursing techniques from Palo, for which they have employed material, such as hair or nail clippings, taken from their victim.


title: Santería

text: Herbalism is a major component of Santería healing practices, with healing plants, termed "egwe", having an important role in the religion. Practitioners believe that each species of plant has its own aché which holds healing power; medicinal plants are deemed more powerful if harvested from the wild rather than being cultivated, for the latter can lack aché. Adherents often believe that different types of plant have different temperaments and personalities; some are shy or easily frightened and thus need to be approached with the appropriate etiquette.


title: Santería

text: To heal a patient, the santero/santera may also prescribe omiero, give them a cleansing bath, or provide them with a collares necklace. They may perform a ritual to transfer the sickness to an animal, sacrifice an animal to a specific oricha to request healing, or encourage an oricha to possess the sick individual and thus heal them. Different oricha are linked to the healing of specific ailments; Ochún is for instance usually requested when dealing with genital problems. People who are sick may undergo the "rogación de la cabeza" ("blessing of the head"), in which coconut water and cotton are applied to the head to feed the orí. Many practitioners will also encourage their clients to seek mainstream medical assistance, either from doctors or psychotherapists, with Santería healing seen as complementary to medical science.


title: Santería

text: Santería features protective talismans known as "resguardos". These are created using herbs and blood and produced while in contact with the otanes. Resguardos are often given to small children, who are deemed particularly vulnerable to sorcery. Charms and amulets are also used as a general prophylaxis against illness; one example are ears of corn that are wrapped in purple ribbon and placed behind a doorway. Other rituals are designed to protect against sorcery, as for instance with the scattering of petals of the "gálan de día" in the house or the placement of okra by the door. In Cuba, protective rituals from Santería have often been invoked in hospitals to prevent the "cambio de vida" ("life switch"), a practice by which the ailments of a sick person are believed to be transferred to another individual, often without the latter's knowledge.


title: Santería

text: Divination is a central aspect of Santería, taking place before all major rites and being utilized by adherents at critical moments of their life. Three main divinatory techniques are employed: obi, dilogún, and Ifá. Highly skilled diviners are known as an "oríate" or "italero"/"italera" (male and female), and sometimes work in this role fulltime.


title: Santería

text: Clients approach these diviners for a divinatory "consulta" (consultation), usually to ask for advice about their health, family problems, or legal issues, and in doing so will pay the diviner a fee, the "derecho". Attending a divination ritual in this way is commonly the first time that an individual encounters Santería so directly. During the session, offerings will be given to an overseeing oricha; the diviner will then cast small objects onto a board or table and interpret the way in which they fall. The diviner asks the client questions and seeks to answer them by making multiple throws. The diviner will ultimately determine which oricha will assist the client in dealing with their problems and outline what sacrifices will be appropriate to secure the aid of said oricha.


title: Santería

text: Obi, also known as biagué, involves the casting of four pieces of a dried coconut shell, with the manner in which they fall being used to answer a question. Any practitioner can utilise this technique, which is also used in Palo. Dilogún entails the casting of cowrie shells, and is considered more complex in that it requires a knowledge of the patakie stories. Dilogún typically involves a set of 21 cowrie shells, filed flat on their round side; these are fed with both omiero and blood. Like obi, dilogún is generally seen as being open to all practitioners of Santería, although some groups reserve it for postmenopausal women.


title: Santería

text: Ifá is the most complex and prestigious divinatory system used in the religion. It typically involves the casting of consecrated palm nuts to answer a question, with the nuts offering 256 possible configurations. Although Ifá also has a separate existence from Santería, the two are closely linked, sharing the same mythology and conception of the universe; the oricha of Ifá, Orula or Ọ̀rúnmila, has a prominent place within Santería. High priests of Ifá are known as "babalawos" and although their presence is not essential to Santería ceremonies, they often attend in their capacity as diviners. Many santeros are also babalawos, although it is not uncommon for babalawos to perceive themselves as being superior to most santeros. Unlike the more open policy for Santería initiates, only heterosexual men are traditionally allowed to become babalawos, although some babalawos are gay men, and since the 21st century a small number of women have also been initiated.


title: Santería

text: Funeral rites, called "itulu", are designed to appease the soul of the deceased. As part of this, a funeral mass is held in a Roman Catholic church nine days after the individual has died to ensure that their soul successfully travels to the realm of the spirits. A year of additional rites for the dead individual follow, a period ended with the "levantamiento de platos", the breaking of a dish, to symbolise the deceased's final departure from the realm of the living.


title: Santería

text: As well as having been influenced by Spiritism, Santería is often intertwined with Espiritismo, a Puerto Rican tradition focused on contacting the dead; this is particularly the case in areas such as New York and New Jersey. Sometimes the word "Santerismo" is used to refer to a blend between the two traditions. Various santeros or santeras are believed capable of communicating with spirits; seances conducted for this purpose are called "misas espirituales" ("spiritual masses") and are led by "mortevas" ("deaders") who are usually women. During these rituals, the medium may be possessed by a spirit of the dead, who then engages in healing practices or offers advice and warnings to those assembled. Adopted from Espiritismo, they are often included in initiation and funerary rites. An additional ritual found in Santería is the "tambor para egún", a drum ceremony for the spirits of the dead.


title: Santería

text: Some practitioners whose approach to Santería is influenced by Espiritismo also create cloth dolls for deceased family members and spirit guides. The spirit is believed to enter and inhabit the doll, with some practitioners stating that they can see the inhabiting spirit. Sometimes the doll's clothing is changed to please the spirit, while offerings, such as glasses of water or fruit, are placed before them. These spirit dolls may also be passed down through the generations within a family.


title: Santería

text: After the Spanish Empire conquered Cuba, the island's Arawak and Ciboney populations dramatically declined. To provide a new labor source for the sugar, tobacco, and coffee plantations they had established on Cuba, the Spanish then turned to buying slaves sold at West African ports. Slavery was widespread in West Africa; most slaves were prisoners of war captured in conflicts with neighbouring groups, although some were convicted criminals. The first enslaved Africans arrived in Cuba in 1511, although the largest numbers came in the 19th century. Cuba continued to receive new slaves until at least 1860, with full emancipation occurring in 1886. In total, between 702,000 and 1 million enslaved Africans were brought to Cuba. Most came from a stretch of Western Africa between the modern nation-states of Guinea and Angola. The great plurality were Yoruba, from the area encompassed by modern Nigeria and Benin; the Yoruba had a shared language and culture but were divided among different states. They largely adhered to Yoruba traditional religion, which incorporated many local orisha cults although with certain orisha worshipped widely due to the extent of the Yoruba-led Oyo Empire.


title: Santería

text: In Cuba, slaves were divided into groups termed "naciones" (nations), often based on their port of embarkation rather than their own ethno-cultural background; those who were Yoruba speakers, as well as Arara and Ibo people, were identified as the "Lucumí nation".


title: Santería

text: Enslaved West Africans brought their traditional religions with them to Cuba; some were from the priestly class and possessed knowledge of traditions such as Ifá. While hundreds of orisha were worshipped across West Africa, fewer than twenty became prominent in Santería, perhaps because many kin-based orisha cults were lost when traditional kinship networks were destroyed through enslavement. Orisha associated with agriculture were abandoned, probably because slaves had little reason to protect the harvests of slave-owners. Many myths associated with the oricha were transformed, creating kinship relationships between different oricha which were not present in West African mythologies. As Santería formed, separate West African orisha cults were reconstituted into a single religious system, one which had a newly standardized pantheon of oricha.


title: Santería

text: In Spanish Cuba, Roman Catholicism was the only religion that could be practiced legally. Cuba's Roman Catholic Church made efforts to convert the enslaved Africans, but the instruction in Roman Catholicism provided to the latter was typically perfunctory and sporadic. In Cuba, traditional African deities perhaps continued to be venerated within clubs and fraternal organizations made up of African migrants and their descendants. The most important of these were the "cabildos de nación", associations that the establishment regarded as a means of controlling the Afro-Cuban population. These operated as mutual aid societies and organized communal feasts, dances, and carnivals. The Catholic Church saw these groups as a method for gradual evangelisation, through which they tolerated the practice of some African customs while stamping out those they most fiercely objected to. It is probable that in these groups, priests of different West African orisha interacted and began to develop a new system. In the late 18th and early 19th century new laws restricted the cabildos' activities, although their membership expanded in the 19th century.


title: Santería

text: The final decades of the 19th century also saw a growing interest in Spiritism, a religion based on the ideas of the French writer Allan Kardec, which in Cuba proved particularly popular among the white peasantry, the Creole class, and the small urban middle class. Ideas from Spiritism increasingly filtered into and influenced Santería.


title: Santería

text: The earliest casas teaching Santería emerged in urban parts of western Cuba during the late 19th century. As a trained priesthood emerged, they ensured a level of standardisation among new initiates. Although it drew on older West African cults, Santeria was, as described by Clark, "a new religious system". Urban-to-rural migration then spread Santería elsewhere in Cuba, and in the 1930s it probably arrived in Cuba's second largest city, Santiago de Cuba, which lies at the eastern end of the island.


title: Santería

text: Following the Cuban War of Independence, the island became an independent republic in 1898. In the republic, Afro-Cubans remained largely excluded from economic and political power, and negative stereotypes about them remained pervasive throughout the Euro-Cuban population. Afro-Cuban religious practices were often referred to as "brujería" (witchcraft) and thought to be connected to criminality. Although the republic's new constitution enshrined freedom of religion and Santería was never legislated against, throughout the first half of the 20th century various campaigns were launched against it. These were often encouraged by the press, who promoted allegations that white children were being abducted and murdered in Santería rituals; this reached a fever pitch in 1904 after two white children were murdered in Havana in cases that investigators speculated were linked to brujería.


title: Santería

text: One of the first intellectuals to examine Santería was the lawyer and ethnographer Fernando Ortiz, who discussed it in his 1906 book "Los negros brujos" ("The Black Witchdoctors"). He saw it as a barrier to the social integration of Afro-Cubans into broader Cuban society and recommended its suppression. In the 1920s, there were efforts to incorporate elements of Afro-Cuban culture into a wider understanding of Cuban culture, such as through the "Afrocubanismo" literary and artistic movement. These often drew upon Afro-Cuban music, dance, and mythology, but typically rejected Santería rituals themselves. In 1942, Rómula Lachatañeré's "Manuel de santería" was published, representing the first scholarly attempt to understand Santería as a religion; in contrast to Ortiz, he maintained that the tradition should be seen as a religious system as opposed to a form of witchcraft. Lachatañeré was instrumental in promoting the term "Santería" in reference to the phenomenon, deeming it a more neutral description than the pejorative-laden terms such as "brujería" then in common use.


title: Santería

text: The Cuban Revolution of 1959 resulted in the island becoming a Marxist–Leninist state governed by Fidel Castro's Communist Party of Cuba. Committed to state atheism, Castro's government took a negative view of Santería. Practitioners experienced police harassment, were denied membership of the Communist Party, and faced limited employment opportunities. Creyentes required police permission to perform rituals, which was sometimes denied. The state nevertheless promoted art forms associated with Santería in the hope of using them to promote a unified Cuban identity. While espousing anti-racism, Castro's government viewed the promotion of a separate Afro-Cuban identity as counter-revolutionary.


title: Santería

text: Following the Soviet Union's collapse in the 1990s, Castro's government declared that Cuba was entering a "Special Period" in which new economic measures would be necessary. As part of this, it selectively supported Afro-Cuban and Santería traditions, partly out of a desire to boost tourism; this Santería-focused tourism was called "santurismo". Priests of Santería, Ifá, and Palo all took part in government-sponsored tours for foreigners desiring initiation into such traditions, while Afro-Cuban floor shows became common in Cuban hotels. In 1991, the Communist Party approved the admission of religious members, and in 1992 the constitution was amended to declare Cuba a secular rather than an atheist state. This liberalisation allowed Santería to leave behind its marginalisation, and during the 1990s it began to be practiced more openly.


title: Santería

text: The second half of the 20th century saw a growing awareness of Santería's links with other orisha-worshipping religions in West Africa and the Americas. These transnational links were reinforced when the Ooni of Ife Olubuse II, a prominent Yoruba political and religious leader, visited Cuba in 1987. Cuba's government permitted the formation of the Yoruba Cultural Association, a non-governmental organization, in the early 1990s, while various practitioners of Santería visited Nigeria to study traditional Yoruba religion. A "yorubización" (Yorubization) process emerged, with attempts made to remove Roman Catholic elements from Santería; this process was criticised by those who saw Santería's syncretism as a positive trait.


title: Santería

text: The Cuban Revolution fuelled Cuban emigration, especially to the United States, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Colombia, and Venezuela. With an increased Cuban presence in the U.S., Santería grew in many U.S. cities, being embraced by Latino Americans as well as European Americans and African Americans. Some African Americans regarded it as an authentically African religion, especially when purged of Roman Catholic elements, sometimes perceiving it as a religious wing of the Black Power movement. A prominent exponent of this approach was the black nationalist activist Walter King. After being initiated in Cuba, he established a temple in Harlem before relocating with his followers in 1970 to a community in Sheldon, South Carolina, that they called the Yoruba Village of Oyotunji. Having a strained relationship with many other santeros and santeras, who accused him of racism, King gradually came to call his tradition "Orisha-Voodoo" rather than Santería. In the U.S., Santería, along with Haitian Vodou, also proved an influence on the revival of Louisiana Voodoo in the late 20th century. One of the most prominent figures in this revival, Ava Kay Jones, had previously been involved in King's Orisha-Voodoo.


title: Santería

text: The scholars of religion Anibal Argüelles Mederos and Ileana Hodge Limonta estimated that in the early 21st century around 8% of Cubans were initiates of Santería, which would amount to between 800,000 and 900,000 people. There are a greater number of people who are not initiates but turn to santeros and santeras for assistance on practical matters. In 1991, the Cuban anthropologist López Valdés suggested that about 90 percent of Cuba's population practiced some form of religion and that of that 90 percent, a greater number practiced one of the Afro-Cuban religions than "pure Catholicism". In 2004, Wedel suggested that practitioners of Santería "greatly outnumber" those who practiced Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, or Judaism in Cuba.


title: Santería

text: Although also found in rural areas, in Cuba Santería has always been a primarily urban phenomenon, predominating in the north-west provinces of La Habana and Matanzas. While it has both Afro-Cuban and Euro-Cuban followers, Wedel noted that in the 1990s Santería was "more common in working-class, low-income neighborhoods dominated by Afro-Cubans." Wedel believed that men and women practice in roughly equal numbers. Some practitioners grow up in Santería as the children of initiates, although others only approach the religion as adults. While it accepts new followers, Santería is a non-proselytizing religion.


title: Santería

text: Emigration has spread Santería across most of Latin America and also to the United States and Europe. In Mexico, it established a particular presence in Veracruz and Mexico City, in Canada it centred in Toronto, while in Europe casas have been formed in Spain and Germany. Santería was present in the U.S. by the 1940s, increasing its presence following the Cuban Revolution. Clustering in Florida, California, New Jersey, and New York, it attracted converts from varied ethnic backgrounds. U.S. casas vary in their ethnic makeup, often reflecting broader racial divisions in U.S. society. Based on his ethnographic work in New York City during the 1980s, Samuel Gregory noted that there Santería was not a "religion of the poor", but contained a disproportionately high percentage of middle-class people such as teachers, social workers, and artists. The American Religious Identification Survey of 2001 estimated that there were then approximately 22,000 practitioners in the U.S., although in the mid-1990s the scholar Joseph Murphy suggested that hundreds of thousands of people in the country had engaged with Santería in some form, often as clients.


title: Santería

text: By the late 1980s, Santería had received considerable interest from established Christian churches, health professionals, and social scientists. Some initiates mistrusted academics and were thus either vague or deliberately misleading in their answers to the latter's questions, although the 1990s saw non-Cuban ethnographers seeking initiation into the religion, thus blurring the distinction between practitioner and anthropological observer. The religion was also explored in other media; the Cuban filmmaker Gloria Rolando released the film "Oggún" in 1992. Various songs have referenced Santería and its oricha; the Cuban American singer Celia Cruz for example recorded a version of "Que viva Chango" ("Long Live Chango"), while a Cuban band called themselves Los Orichas. Santería's influence can also be seen in the names of the Cuban liquor Santero and the state-owned machete factory Ogún.


title: Santería

text: Christian views of Santería have been largely negative, and in Cuba, it has faced much opposition from the Roman Catholic clerical establishment over the centuries. Many Cuban intellectuals and academics also take a dim view of Santería. Opposition to the religion is also evident outside Cuba. When the International Afro-Caribbean Festival in Veracruz was launched in 1994, it showcased art and ritual by Mexican santeros/santeras, although this brought public protests from Roman Catholic organizations, who regarded such rites as Satanic, and animal welfare groups, who deemed the sacrifices to be inhumane. The festival's organizers yielded to the pressure, cutting the Santería elements of the festival by 1998. Pervasive stereotypes link Santería to criminal activity, and its rituals for self-protection have been adopted by various groups involved in narcotics trafficking within the U.S. Santeros and santeras are often accused of financially exploiting their initiates and clients—an accusation sometimes made by other practitioners of Santería itself. Various practitioners have also found that their involvement in Santería has strained their relationship with spouses or other family members who are not involved, and in some cases adherents have abandoned Santería to join other religious movements such as Pentecostalism.


title: Rosemarie DeWitt

text: Rosemarie Braddock DeWitt (born October 26, 1971) is an American actress. DeWitt played Emily Lehman in the Fox television series "Standoff" (2006–07), co-starring with her future husband Ron Livingston, as well as Charmaine Craine on "United States of Tara". She also was the title character in 2008's "Rachel Getting Married", garnering several awards and nominations for best supporting actress. She starred in the horror/thriller "Poltergeist" (2015), a remake of the 1982 film of the same name.


title: Rosemarie DeWitt

text: DeWitt was born in Flushing, Queens, New York, the daughter of Rosemarie (Braddock) and Kenny DeWitt. She is a granddaughter of former World Heavyweight Champion James J. Braddock, and played the role of neighbor Sara Wilson in the film "Cinderella Man", which depicted James J. Braddock's life.


title: Rosemarie DeWitt

text: DeWitt lived in Hanover Township, New Jersey, and is a graduate of Whippany Park High School. She performed in several high school productions. She attended the New College at Hofstra University where she received a Bachelor of Arts in creative studies. While at Hofstra University, she also joined Alpha Phi. She had additional training at The Actors Center in New York.


title: Rosemarie DeWitt

text: In 2016, DeWitt appeared in Damien Chazelle's musical romance "La La Land" opposite Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone. Other film credits include Jason Reitman's "Men, Women, & Children", Michael Cuesta's "Kill the Messenger" opposite Jeremy Renner, Gus Van Sant's "Promised Land" opposite Matt Damon, Lynn Shelton's "Your Sister's Sister" opposite Emily Blunt and Mark Duplass, and Jonathan Demme's "Rachel Getting Married". DeWitt appeared in the indie-thriller "Sweet Virginia", directed by Jamie Dagg, which premiered at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival. In 2018, DeWitt starred opposite Danny McBride in "Arizona" as well as in the second episode in the fourth season of the British series "Black Mirror" for director Jodie Foster.


title: Rosemarie DeWitt

text: On television, DeWitt was seen in three seasons of the Showtime comedy series "United States of Tara" alongside Toni Collette. In addition to her role on "United States of Tara", DeWitt also recurred on the AMC series "Mad Men", playing Midge Daniels, Don Draper's (Jon Hamm) bohemian mistress, in the show's first season.


title: Jonathan Knight

text: Jonathan Rashleigh Knight-Rodriguez (born November 29, 1968) is an American singer. He is part of the boy band New Kids on the Block. It also includes Donnie Wahlberg, Joey McIntyre, Danny Wood and his younger brother Jordan. He is the oldest member of the band and the first to leave it in 1994 prior to their official split.


title: Jonathan Knight

text: Jonathan Knight was born in Boston, Massachusetts. His parents are Canadian, his father from Meaford, Ontario and his mother from Dunnville, Ontario. He is one of six children: Allison, Sharon, David, Christopher and Jordan. His father is an Episcopal priest.


title: Jonathan Knight

text: From 1986 until 1994, Knight was a member of the American boy band New Kids on the Block. They went on to sell over 80 million records worldwide before splitting in 1994 after he left during the tour for their 1994 album "Face the Music". The group attempted to continue the tour claiming Jonathan had been badly hurt by a horse, but in a press conference a few weeks later, they revealed that they were actually splitting.


title: Jonathan Knight

text: In the spring of 2008, Knight returned to show business, reuniting with the other four members of New Kids on the Block. They released their seventh album (and first in 14 years), "The Block", on September 2, 2008. To confirm their reunion and announce the new album, they performed live together on May 16, 2008 for the first time in fifteen years on the "Today" show.


title: Jonathan Knight

text: A world tour was scheduled to follow the new release and began in Toronto on September 18, 2008. The first single from it, "Summertime", performed well worldwide peaking as #9 in Canada and breaking the top 30 in the U.S. charts (#24 as a digital download). They released "Single", their second single from "The Block" in August 2008.


title: Jonathan Knight

text: In the years after the group first disbanded, Knight worked as a real estate investor living in Essex, Massachusetts; no longer in the spotlight, he rarely made public appearances or gave interviews. In 2000, he revealed that he suffered from generalized anxiety disorder since his early career with New Kids on the Block. He has since sought medical help and his health has improved. In 2011, he appeared on MTV reality series "True Life" to help a fan suffering from panic disorder.


title: Jonathan Knight

text: In 2009, the "National Enquirer" published an article from his ex-boyfriend Kyle Wilker, who outed him as gay without his consent. Jonathan Knight said, "I have lived my life very openly and have never hidden the fact that I am gay." In a statement on the New Kids on the Block blog, he added "Apparently the prerequisite to being a gay public figure is to appear on the cover of a magazine with the caption 'I am gay'. I apologize for not doing so if this is what was expected!"


title: Jonathan Knight

text: Knight has been in a relationship with Harley Rodriguez since 2008. The two participated in the 26th season of the reality competition series "The Amazing Race", which aired on CBS in early 2015, where they placed 9th. The two became engaged when Knight proposed on November 15, 2016 while they vacationed in Africa.


title: Jonathan Knight

text: In March 2021, Knight began hosting the HGTV television show "Farmhouse Fixer", in which he restores centuries-old New England farmhouses for clients.


title: The Blacklist

text: The Blacklist is an American crime thriller television series that premiered on NBC on September 23, 2013. The show follows Raymond "Red" Reddington (James Spader), a former U.S. Navy officer turned high-profile criminal who voluntarily surrenders to the FBI after eluding capture for decades. He tells the FBI that he has a list of the most dangerous criminals in the world that he has compiled over the years and that he is willing to inform on their operations in exchange for immunity from prosecution on condition he works exclusively with rookie FBI criminal profiler Elizabeth Keen (Megan Boone), to whom he seemingly has no connection.


title: The Blacklist

text: Diego Klattenhoff, Ryan Eggold, Amir Arison, Hisham Tawfiq, and Harry Lennix also star in the series. Executive producers for the series include Jon Bokenkamp (for the first eight seasons), John Eisendrath, and John Davis for Sony Pictures Television, Universal Television, and Davis Entertainment; Joe Carnahan serves as director.


title: The Blacklist

text: Each season has received positive reviews, with many critics praising Spader's performance in particular. On February 22, 2022, the series was renewed for a tenth season, which is scheduled to premiere on February 26, 2023.


title: The Blacklist

text: With a few exceptions, each episode features one of the global criminals, and Reddington assists the task force in hunting down and capturing them. In every such episode, the rank and name or alias of the featured criminal on Red's blacklist are displayed at the close of the opening sequence. Otherwise, only the episode name is shown.


title: The Blacklist

text: Raymond "Red" Reddington, an ex-U.S. Naval Intelligence officer who had disappeared twenty years earlier to become one of the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives, surrenders himself to FBI Assistant Director Harold Cooper at the J. Edgar Hoover Building in Washington, D.C. Taken to an FBI "black site," Reddington declares he wishes to help the FBI track down and apprehend the criminals and terrorists he has spent the last twenty years associating with. They are the individuals who are so dangerous and devious that the United States government is unaware of their very existence.


title: The Blacklist

text: He offers Cooper his knowledge and assistance on two conditions: immunity from prosecution and cooperation with Elizabeth Keen, a rookie recently assigned to Cooper. Keen and Cooper are suspicious of Reddington's interest in her, but he will only say that she is "very special". After Cooper tests Reddington's offer in locating and neutralizing a Serbian terrorist in the first episode, Reddington reveals that this man was only the first on the "blacklist" of global criminals that he has compiled over his criminal career and states that he and the FBI have a mutual interest in eliminating them. The mysteries of Reddington's and Liz's lives, and his interest in her, are gradually revealed as the series progresses. She starts digging into her family past, the question of his real identity and their interconnection, while he desperately tries to hide them. However, the more secrets Reddington keeps from Liz, the more people close to her are killed as a result. With every minute spent with Red, Liz becomes more like him, and as she reveals his secrets, she begins to confront him, which leads to inevitable consequences.


title: The Blacklist

text: Following Liz's death at the end of the eighth season, Cooper's task force has disbanded and Reddington has fled the country. For the next two years, the deal with Red and the FBI sits inactive. However, the world's criminals remain active, evolving in their methods and going out for blood. When a crime lord explodes and nearly kills Dembe Zuma, Red's former associate who has become an FBI agent with the assistance of Cooper, Red is forced to return and help him. At first, Red promises to retire and move to Cuba once the crime lord is neutralized. However, when Red begins to take over management of the remains of his empire, he breaks his promise and decides to stay in charge of what he can still control.


title: The Blacklist

text: Red and Cooper come to an agreement to resume his deal with the FBI and continue hunting down global criminals on his "blacklist" in honor of Liz's undertaking. Cooper manages to find the old task force members and re-create their division. The secrets Red kept from Liz become irrelevant, and the story now centers on not only Red but also Cooper and the field agents Liz used to work with. Now, the task force must confront new criminals as well as familiar ones who have returned in order to take revenge on Red for his betrayal.


title: The Blacklist

text: The first mention of "The Blacklist" appeared on August 13, 2012, when Jon Bokenkamp came up with the idea of an international crime series with a character based on Keyser Söze, originally introduced to him by his fellow producer, Davis Entertainment's John Fox. The same day it was revealed that NBC had bought rights for the series from Sony. John Eisendrath from Universal Television, John Davis and Fox have already signed a contract as executive producers. NBC ordered a pilot for the series on January 22, 2013, along with three other dramas. It was written by Bokenkamp and directed by Joe Carnahan, as was revealed on March 13, 2013. On May 10, the series was picked up by NBC for the 2013-14 television season. During an NBC upfront presentation in May 2013, it was announced that "The Blacklist" was NBC's highest-testing drama for the last 10 years. The official trailer for the series was released on May 12, 2013. Originally, a 13-episode first season was planned, but, after the premiere reached 12.3 million viewers, NBC decided to bring episode count to 22 by ordering nine additional episodes on October 4, 2013.


title: The Blacklist

text: On December 3, 2013, NBC renewed the series for the second season. On February 5, 2015, the series was renewed for the third season, along with four other dramas. On December 5, 2015, the series was renewed for the fourth season. On May 11, 2017, the series was renewed for the fifth season, premiering a week earlier than planned. The sixth season renewal was announced on May 12, 2018, and premiered with a double episode on January 3, 2019, which was the first time for the series to be held for midseason.


title: The Blacklist

text: The series was renewed for the seventh season on March 11, 2019, and then received a renewal for the eighth season on February 2, 2020. However, the production suffered from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic while filming the final episodes; in March 2020, the production for the show was shut down, with three full episodes left unproduced. Then, it was announced that instead of ending the season with the last live-action episode produced a nineteenth partly animated episode would be made using the filmed live-action material and an animation department of "Proof" visual effects company. It aired on May 15, 2020.


title: The Blacklist

text: Filming for the eighth season resumed in live-action with taking extra Covid-19 precautions. The eighth season premiered November 13, 2020. On January 26, 2021, the series was renewed for the ninth season. The series was renewed for the tenth season on February 22, 2022, which, unlike the previous renewals, was first announced by Spader himself during his appearance on "The Tonight Show", not by a press release.


title: The Blacklist

text: "The Blacklist" received a panel twice on San Diego Comic-Con. The panel appeared before the show's debut on July 18, 2013, and during a remote special convention on July 23, 2020. On May 11, 2014, NBC applied the series for a 2015 post–Super Bowl timeslot.


title: The Blacklist

text: All four showrunners have signed a deal with Sony before the premiere; first, Eisendrath on June 7, 2013, then, Bokenkamp on July 16, and both Davis and Fox on July 29. On June 24, 2021, a day after the finale of season 8 was aired, Bokenkamp revealed that he will not return for future seasons. That way Eisendrath took over the lead. On March 14, 2022, Eisendrath prolonged his deal with Universal Television for three additional years.


title: The Blacklist

text: Michael Watkins, who served as co-executive producer of the series since season 1, was fired in February 2018 over alleged harassment involving a camera assistant. He claimed that there was no reason for firing him and blamed his colleague, Laura A. Benson, for using him as a way to rise in her career. Then, he sued Sony, Laura Benson, and another of his colleagues, Bill Roe, a year later.


title: The Blacklist

text: John Eisendrath told "Collider" that the casting process was difficult. In February 2013, he and Bokenkamp invited Kiefer Sutherland, Bryan Cranston, Pierce Brosnan and Richard Gere to apply for the role of Raymond Reddington. In an interview to Variety, Bokenkamp told about his intentions to cast Sutherland for the role, though he also expressed doubt about the significance of the role to all these actors. At last, three days before filming began, they contacted James Spader to see if he would be interested in playing Reddington. After a lengthy remote conversation, Bokenkamp and Eisendrath cast Spader, as they felt confident in his understanding of the character. Spader's vision was for the international criminal to be a bald or short-haired person wearing a hat. The producers rejected his idea, however, Spader insisted on trying on a fedora while screening the pilot; later, the crew felt the hat enhanced Reddington's image and agreed to keep it. In an interview on "Late Night with Seth Meyers", Spader admitted that he had gotten into the role of Reddington over the nine seasons; he also noted that to play his role plausibly at the beginning of season nine, he spent a considerable amount of time alone and not appearing on set.


title: The Blacklist

text: Megan Boone took a week to prepare for her audition as FBI profiler Elizabeth Keen, and she was called back multiple times. In March 2013, it was reported that she has accepted the role as the female lead in the series. In June 2021, it was revealed that Megan Boone would not be returning for the ninth season of the series.


title: The Blacklist

text: On March 11, 2013, Ryan Eggold accepted the role of Tom Keen, Elizabeth's enigmatic husband, who has previously worked for Reddington as a spy. In the middle of season 4, Eggold left the series to star in "", a new spin-off centered on his character, but returned later this season following the cancellation of "Redemption". He ultimately gave up his role the next season. In a 2021 interview, he spoke about an option to return to the series, perhaps as a guest star, and assumed it being "not totally out of the realm of possibility".


title: The Blacklist

text: On March 13, 2013, Diego Klattenhoff joined the series as Donald Ressler, a law-abiding field agent working with Cooper's task force.


title: The Blacklist

text: The next day, on March 14, 2013, Harry Lennix was cast as Harold Cooper, the leader of a newly formed task force, which cooperates with Reddington. Lennix has been starring in each season of the series, and he is willing to continue; in an interview with "Collider", he told that he may go on until a suggested twentieth season, like his most favorite TV show, Gunsmoke.


title: The Blacklist

text: On July 25, 2013, Parminder Nagra joined the cast as Meera Malik, a professional field agent who decides to help Elizabeth settle into her new job. However, she was written out of the series after the first season. Eight years after her departure, Anya Banerjee joined the series for the tenth season in a role of Meera's daughter, Mi-6 intelligence officer Siya Malik.


title: The Blacklist

text: On October 8, 2014, Amir Arison was promoted to a recurring role as Aram Mojtabai, a quirky technician and a professional computer master after he showed some extraordinary on-the-move improvisation skills in his debut episode. He was promoted to series regular on May 20, 2014. After the finale of season 9, Arison departed the series, but return appearances were left possible.


title: The Blacklist

text: Hisham Tawfiq's appearance as Dembe Zuma was also presumed as a one-shot deal, but he managed to prolong his contract first as recurring for the first two seasons, and, on March 31, 2015, earned a place in the main cast. He has never left then, appearing in every single episode.


title: The Blacklist

text: Mozhan Marnò joined the cast on July 29, 2014, as Samar Navabi, a field professional agent recruited by the task force Director, originally working for Mossad who develops relationships with Aram. She officially confirmed her departure on March 29, 2019, in the middle of the sixth season. She returned once, in 2022's ninth season.


title: The Blacklist

text: On May 7, 2020, Laura Sohn was promoted to series regular as Alina Park, another new field agent taken into Cooper's task force, also previously recurring in the seventh season. She departed after the series' ninth season.


title: The Blacklist

text: The first season introduced several well-known actors in recurring roles. For the pilot, Ilfenesh Hadera was cast alongside Harry Lennix, playing Jennifer Palmer, a federal agent and a friend of Elizabeth. Alan Alda was cast in a major supporting role in September, as Alan Fitch, the Deputy Director of National Intelligence and one of Red's former allies. To bring the series closer to reality, a former CIA agent, Bazzel Baz, was hired by the producers to supervise the shooting of some scenes. However, instead of consulting the crew, he played himself in the series. Chin Han and Margarita Levieva were among the blacklisters besides Peter Stormare as Berlin. Susan Blommaert and Teddy Coluca also began starring as Reddington's valuable team members.


title: The Blacklist

text: For the second season, Mary-Louise Parker was cast as Carla Reddington, one of Red's ex-wives. The episode "Luther Braxton" introduced David Strathairn in a guest role of Peter Kotsiopulos, The Director of National Clandestine Service. Reed Birney played final blacklister Tom Connoly, and his death scene in season finale was met with standing ovation from the crew. Stormare continued to recur through the season and later departed in the middle of it.


title: The Blacklist

text: The third season featured numerous new celebrities in major recurring roles as well as provided various comebacks of familiar characters. Deidre Lovejoy was cast as U.S. Marshall Cynthia Panabaker, set to replace Adriane Lenox, who left earlier this season. Fisher Stevens debuted as Marvin Gerard, an imprisoned criminal attorney joining Reddington's criminal empire and getting gradually obsessed with it, in the eponymous episode. Two former blacklisters, Lance Henriksen and Margarita Levieva, returned in the season, where one of the episodes showed Levieva killing Henricksen's character. Strathairn also returned as one of the lead villains of the season, receiving a double episode under his Blacklist number. The season also featured most of the lead cast from its spin-off, . In July 2015, Edi Gathegi was revealed to have joined as a high-class operative and assassin set up to kill Elizabeth. Famke Janssen was cast as Susan Hargrave, an authoritative criminal magnate and Tom's mother. Ulrich Thomsen served as the blacklister in the finale.


title: The Blacklist

text: The fourth season opened with the misleading departure of series veteran Susan Blommaert after her character is headshot by Reddington. However, she remained till the end of the season and turned out to be a villain. In August 2016, Leon Rippy joined as a ranger and her savior, Hunter, while Enrique Murciano landed a role as Julian Gale, an FBI investigator who previously worked with Ressler on capturing Reddington, in February 2017. Thomsen continued his role as Alexander Kirk, Liz's presumed father, who has been holding her hostage. He quit in the first half of the season. In the finale, Bazzel Baz, Murciano and Blommaert departed from the series.


title: The Blacklist

text: The fifth season brought more new recurring characters. In August 2017, it was revealed that Jonathan Holtzman, Genson Blimline, Michael Aronov, and Aida Turturro will take the recurring roles of two of Reddington's operatives, Smokey Putnum, the logistician and an embezzler, and Heddie Hawkins, his accountant, respectively. In October, Jonny Coyne was cast as Red's nemesis and Tom's murderer, Ian Garvey; his adopted daughter, Lilian Roth, actually Liz's stepsister, Jennifer Reddington, was portrayed by Fiona Dourif. Aside from Coyle and Aronov, notable blacklister was Nathan Lane who joined for the series' 100th episode. John Waters and Julian Sands appeared in season conclusion with Sands, playing the blacklister. Janssen also returned for one episode.


title: The Blacklist

text: In the sixth season, Dourif continued to recur in the season while Aronov departed. In November 2018, it was revealed that Coy Stewart would play Vontae Jones, an imprisoned junior whom Reddington teaches to survive behind bars. The season introduced the first true criminal, financist Robert Vesco, who once escaped without payment of $200 billion. The actual Vesco died in 2007 of lung cancer, however, the theories about his pseudocide were arisen by his friends. The series expanded one of such theories by adding a reason to orchestrate his own death which is an attempt to salvage a sunken ship full of treasure. He appeared on the list and was played by Stacy Keach. Laila Robins also appeared in the season's final minutes as Liz's mother, Katarina Rostova, a subject of the show's major story line.


title: The Blacklist

text: For the seventh season, Robins was given a recurring role. Showrunners told Deadline and Variety that they were trying to change the format of the series to a family drama, rather than a crime drama as it was intended to be. It was the reason for the introduction of Rostova, her character, and that she also served as the lead villain of the season. Another actor appearing in the season as a part of the "family drama" is Brett Cullen, who starred as Ilya Koslov, a person who allegedly posed as the real Reddington. In December 2019, Joely Richardson was cast as an international thief and the ex-girlfriend of Reddington Cassandra Biancchi for a special episode partly based on Agatha Christie novels. "Today" host and meteorologist Al Roker appeared in the series' 150th episode as himself.


title: The Blacklist

text: In the eighth season, due to being the last season of the original storyline, various familiar actors returned in guest roles. It continued casting new characters as well. Reg Rogers was cast in the role of the main antagonist, the mentally disordered crime lord Neville Townsend, who sought revenge on Red after he murdered his family, also serving as the launcher of a bounty hunt on Katarina Rostova. One of his most loyal bodyguards, who also assisted in the murder of Elizabeth, Elias Vandyke, was played by Lukas Hassel. Dourif returned for her final guest appearance in the series. Blommaert also returned in the season, as a hallucination of Mr. Kaplan coming for Liz. The penultimate episode brought back Robins (who departed after the second episode of the season), Thomsen and Cullen, also revealing that Robins portrayed not Rostova, but Tatiana Petrova, her body double.


title: The Blacklist

text: In the ninth season, fewer significant guests joined compared to the eighth, however, most of the recurring characters of the previous seasons, such as Lovejoy, Turturro, Holtzman, Blimline and Coluca, maintained their roles. Nevertheless, Blimline departed at the end of the season, where his character died offscreen. In October 2022, Diany Rodriguez and Karina Arroyave revealed that they would be starring in the upcoming season as Cuban sisters Weecha and Mierce Xiu, respectively. Keach and Richardson both returned for one episode. Stevens got his big time after being promoted to the lead enemy of the season, where he departed. However, he was still nominated for the 47th Saturn Awards for best guest starring role. Han also returned in the finale, where his character, after being incarcerated for 10 years, escapes the prison and starts gathering blacklisters from all over the world to avenge Reddington.


title: The Blacklist

text: Two major recurring stars died while starring. The first is Clark Middleton, who played Glen Carter, Reddington's tracker and one of his best friends. He starred in the series from the second to the seventh season and was scheduled to advance to the eighth, until he died of West Nile virus in 2020, prior to the filming. He was honored by the series in one of the episodes of season 8, as his character also died of the same virus; Huey Lewis also appeared as himself. Brian Dennehy, who played Elizabeth's grandfather and Rostova's father, Dominic Wilkinson, also passed away in 2020. He appeared in guest roles from the third to the seventh season, when he died during the filming of the final episodes. However, his character was included in the animated special which was set in commemoration of him. The writers couldn't remove Dominic from season 8, so the character was recast with Ron Raines. He appeared in the first two episodes of the season.


title: The Blacklist

text: Despite being set in Washington, D.C., the series is mainly filmed in New York. The series' Task Force headquarters are located at Chelsea Piers which was mostly used while filming "Law & Order". The series is also partly filmed in the Canadian regions of Montreal and Quebec. Producer Richard Heus said they chose to film specific Washington, D.C. locations for the series, including the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument, and the National Mall, because they were "iconic American locations." Filming also took place in the New York City outskirts.


title: The Blacklist

text: The series is filmed in 4K using Sony PMW-F55 cameras that are adapted to use Panavision lenses. It is edited using Avid Media Composer, and editor Christopher Brookshire says the show has "a very distinctive look and pace." An average of three cameras are used at one time, but as many as six cameras are sometimes recording.


title: The Blacklist

text: On August 28, 2014, Netflix signed a deal with Sony to access "The Blacklist" through their subscription, with an estimated price of $2,000,000 per episode, the biggest overall deal at that time.


title: The Blacklist

text: New episode releases vary widely due to shortening Netflix rights in front of local TV networks; it is majorly based on location and local language. In the United States and Canada, the ninth and latest season debuted on October 6, 2022, and September 21, 2022, respectively, prior to the premiere of season 10. In DACH countries and Luxembourg, the ninth season was released on June 26, 2022. In the Netherlands, the eighth season was released on March 13, 2022. In Scandinavian countries, the ninth season was released on October 23, 2022, along with Spain. In Latin America, the premiere date of season 8 was scheduled on July 18, 2021, but was initially changed to June 1, 2022. In France and the majority of French-speaking countries in Africa, the latest season premiered is season 7, which arrived at Netflix on October 4, 2021.


title: The Blacklist

text: Some countries with domestic language voiceover do not violate any broadcaster rights and therefore are allowed to release new episodes simultaneously with NBC. For season 9, these countries included India, Israel, South Korea, Hungary, Poland, Russia, Portugal, Slovakia and Romania. Netflix also has streaming rights for all 9 seasons in Greece and Australia.


title: The Blacklist

text: The series performs well on Netflix. In almost every country new seasons score a place in the local Top 10 and usually remain there for more than a week. The eighth and ninth seasons have most notable performance in Romania, Greece, and DACH countries.


title: The Blacklist

text: Since the series is owned by Sony Pictures Television, it is majorly broadcast by the channels and networks which belong to Sony - AXN and formerly Sony Channel and Viasat 3.


title: The Blacklist

text: In Asia and Oceania, the series is broadcast by AXN Asia, with the eighth season premiered on January 9, 2021, except Japan, where only two seasons have been broadcast by AXN Japan with the new episodes to air starting July 18, 2022. In Latin America and Brazil, it is broadcast by AXN Latin America and AXN Brazil, respectively, with the ninth season is awaiting for release. In Spain and Portugal, the broadcaster is AXN Portugal, with the ninth season premiered on November 2, 2021. In Germany, Austria and Switzerland, the ninth season is due to premiere on August 2, 2022, on Sony AXN.


title: The Blacklist

text: Russian channel Sony Turbo, one of three Sony channels in Russia, also broadcast the first four seasons of the series before shutting down on June 24, 2021. Sony Channel Turkey also broadcast the show before closing.


title: The Blacklist

text: In Hungary, Sony-owned channel Viasat 3 broadcast the first two series of "The Blacklist", with the second season premiered on April 16, 2015. However, after a transfer from Modern Times Group to Sony, the broadcast was ceased.


title: The Blacklist

text: In the United States, all episodes are available for purchase on Prime Video. The new episodes are released on Peacock the day after the debut on NBC. The series is broadcast simultaneously on Global in Canada. In France, the first eight seasons are broadcast by TF1, with all seasons available on pay TV service Serieclub. In Germany, the first five seasons were broadcast on RTL Crime. In Italy, the first seven seasons and the first seventeen episodes of season 8 were broadcast on Fox Crime before a transfer to Sky Group-owned Sky Investigation. It broadcast the final five episodes of season 8 and season 9, which was split into two parts, premiering on December 19, 2021, and July 3, 2021, respectively. Sky Group also has rights to broadcast "The Blacklist" in the United Kingdom and Ireland, where season 9 premiered on May 11, 2022, on Sky Max, and formerly broadcast the series on Sky One. Spanish channel Energy has rights to broadcast the first 7 seasons, with the latest premiered on January 22, 2022. In Australia, Seven+ has rights for broadcast for all 9 seasons.


title: The Blacklist

text: The first season of "The Blacklist" received strong reviews from television critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the first season is rated 82%, based on 52 reviews, which makes it the only season of the series to be granted "Certified Fresh" status. The consensus reads, "James Spader is riveting as a criminal-turned-informant, and his presence goes a long way toward making this twisty but occasionally implausible crime procedural compelling." The pilot was lauded by the critics, praising the original plot and cast performance, especially by Spader. At the time, it was usually compared with "Hostages", which premiered alongside the series, and "Homeland" due to the mutual connection between the characters of Reddington and Nicholas Brody and the transfer of Diego Klattenhoff, comparing him to "Homeland"'s Mike Faber. David Wiegand of the "San Francisco Chronicle" said about the pilot, "You think you know this situation and how it will turn out, but there are surprising, yet entirely credible, twists throughout Monday's episode."


title: The Blacklist

text: The second season received fewer reviews, with the ones left remaining positive. On Rotten Tomatoes, it received a rating of 80%, based on 15 reviews. The consensus reads, "Though "The Blacklist" flirts with narrative overload, it's held together by James Spader's scenery-eating performance and wildly entertaining action."


title: The Blacklist

text: The third season faced an incline in positive reviews compared to the second season, approaching a rating of 93%, based on 14 reviews. The consensus reads, ""The Blacklist" is back in top form with fresh dangers that put Red on the ropes while giving James Spader room to shine." Canadian television critic John Doyle from "The Globe and Mail" wrote a glowing review on the season, praising Spader's performance, the soundtrack, and the storyline, highlighting "Cape May". He called the series "outstanding and inventing", believing that until as proper example as "The Blacklist" exists, television broadcasting remains effective for its owners. The fourth season stayed consistent with the third, receiving a rating of 90%, based on ten reviews. The consensus is, "Propelled by the sheer force of James Spader's performance (and a pretty killer soundtrack), The Blacklist's fourth season ups the ante and then some."


title: The Blacklist

text: Both the fifth and sixth seasons received a rating of 100%, based on five reviews, and no consensus on any of them on Rotten Tomatoes. However, critic reviews by all newspapers and magazines were fully replaced with television summaries. It also marked the end for the series to have cumulative ratings on Rotten Tomatoes.


title: The Blacklist

text: Seasons 7 and 8 both resulted in a lack of critics' reviews, therefore, not reaching enough of them to earn a rating. The eighth season was slated by Brian Lowry, previously responding positively to the series. He criticized the mystery of Red's identity, claiming it has been running for too long without a revelation and ended up not being provided. He wrote, "Like any network drama steeped in mythology, the procedural case-of-the-week format lost its luster as the clues and red herrings piled up, until "The Blacklist" went from a hit to (mostly) an afterthought, certainly in terms of its declining ratings".


title: The Blacklist

text: Titan Books released an official comic book series based on the series, written by Nicole Phillips and drawn by Beni Lobel. The series' crew is working in the project as well. Comic book editor David Leach shared his experience on reading it, saying that the comic is "a true extension of the television series", introducing different views on the fan-favourite characters.


title: The Blacklist

text: Issue #1 was launched July 22, 2015, in both comic book and digital stores. The comic series ran across two major storylines and introduced new criminals that were never featured in the series before. The first one, "The Gambler", was introduced under the number 148 and ran across the first five volumes in 2015, with the final collection appearing in stores on April 5, 2016. The second one, entitled "The Arsonist (No. 123)", also continued for five volumes, all of them being published through 2016. The final compilation was released in September 2016 for sale.


title: The Blacklist

text: Comic books made a huge impact on the fate of the series. While producing the animated scenes for season 7 finale, the style of the characters was loosely based on the ones from the comics, as well as the used locations and special effects. The comics received generally favorable reviews.


title: The Blacklist

text: There are also two novels based on the series, also introducing new criminals, focusing entirely on capturing them. The first one was written by Steven Piziks under the title "The Beekeper" and was published worldwide by Titan Books on November 29, 2016. The second one, "The Dead Ring", written by Jon McGoran, was published on March 28, 2017, also by Titan Books.


title: The Blacklist

text: The mobile game "The Blacklist: Conspiracy" was released on June 23, 2016, by Gameloft for Android, iOS, and Windows devices. As a member of the task force, the player can interact with Reddington, Cooper, and other members and interrogate potential suspects and witnesses. The game mainly consists of searching for missing items in different environments, as well as mini games to further the investigations. Players can also make decisions that alter the route of the story.


title: The Blacklist

text: After NBC announced that "The Blacklist" would change its slot from Mondays to Thursdays after the release of Luther Braxton during Super Bowl XLIX, they launched a city hunt event called "Red Is on the Run to Thursdays" (originally "Red Across America"). The participants had to search across the city to find Red's doppelgänger, left by Reddington in order to get lost from the FBI. The first person to find him in his city is awarded $500, the second one gets a prise of $300, and the third receives $200, as well as exclusive merchandise. "The Blacklist" official accounts on "Twitter" and "Facebook", in addition to NBC and CBS news affiliates and regional stations published hints on their location through the hunt.


title: The Blacklist

text: The competition was held from February 2 to February 5, 2015, in 25 cities across the United States, including New York, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Sacramento and Seattle. In the conclusion, on February 9, 2015, a national $25000 lottery was held, where the participants had to answer the questions about the recently released "Luther Braxton Conclusion". The winner is a resident of Washington, D.C., which was announced in "The Blacklist" social media accounts.


title: The Blacklist

text: In March 2016, NBC began developing a spin-off series, created and produced by the crew of "The Blacklist", with the official announcement regarding the cast and crew was given on March 29, 2016. Ryan Eggold was set for the lead role, playing Tom Keen, with a family relations buildup similar to what seasons 7 and 8 of the original series introduced. It follows Tom leaving Washington, D.C. for New York City, where he discovers the secrets of his past and learns the truth about his mother, Susan Hargrave (née "Halsted"), and his father, Howard Hargrave, who was presumably dead. As Tom works at Susan's security firm, he leads her to the truth about Howard being alive, which develops into a rivalry between Susan and Howard, forcing Tom to choose his allies.


title: The Blacklist

text: Famke Janssen and Terry O'Quinn were cast as Susan and Howard Hargrave, respectively. Janssen joined the cast since the beginning of developing, reprising her role from the original series, while O'Quinn was cast on December 12, 2016. Edi Gathegi, Tawny Cypress and Adrian Martinez also reprised their roles from "The Blacklist" as Mathias Solomon, Nez Rowan and Dumont, respectively. With all supporting cast appearing through the third season of "The Blacklist", episodes "Susan Hargrave" and "Alexander Kirk" served as a backdoor pilot for the series, to that date unnamed.


title: The Blacklist

text: On May 14, 2016, an eight-episode pickup for the series, which was entitled "The Blacklist: Redemption", was announced by NBC. David Amann joined as a fifth executive producer alongside Bokenkamp, Eisendrath, Davis and Fox. It aired in the same Thursday slot as "The Blacklist", with the latter taking a break and departing Eggold for the spin-off. It premiered on February 23, ended on April 13 and the next month it was canceled after one season due to low ratings. Eggold continued his role on the fifth season of "The Blacklist", his final one before his initial departure. Despite low ratings among audiences aged 19-49, it received generally favorable or mixed reviews from critics, with no score on either Rotten Tomatoes or Metacritic.


title: Fabaceae

text: The Fabaceae or Leguminosae, commonly known as the legume, pea, or bean family, are a large and agriculturally important family of flowering plants. It includes trees, shrubs, and perennial or annual herbaceous plants, which are easily recognized by their fruit (legume) and their compound, stipulate leaves. The family is widely distributed, and is the third-largest land plant family in number of species, behind only the Orchidaceae and Asteraceae, with about 765 genera and nearly 20,000 known species.


title: Fabaceae

text: The five largest genera of the family are "Astragalus" (over 3,000 species), "Acacia" (over 1,000 species), "Indigofera" (around 700 species), "Crotalaria" (around 700 species), and "Mimosa" (around 400 species), which constitute about a quarter of all legume species. The ca. 19,000 known legume species amount to about 7% of flowering plant species. Fabaceae is the most common family found in tropical rainforests and dry forests of the Americas and Africa.


title: Fabaceae

text: Recent molecular and morphological evidence supports the fact that the Fabaceae is a single monophyletic family. This conclusion has been supported not only by the degree of interrelation shown by different groups within the family compared with that found among the Leguminosae and their closest relations, but also by all the recent phylogenetic studies based on DNA sequences. These studies confirm that the Fabaceae are a monophyletic group that is closely related to the families Polygalaceae, Surianaceae and Quillajaceae and that they belong to the order Fabales.


title: Fabaceae

text: Along with the cereals, some fruits and tropical roots, a number of Leguminosae have been a staple human food for millennia and their use is closely related to human evolution.


title: Fabaceae

text: The family Fabaceae includes a number of plants that are common in agriculture, including "Glycine max" (soybean), "Phaseolus" (beans), "Pisum sativum" (pea), "Cicer arietinum" (chickpeas), "Vicia faba" (broad bean), "Medicago sativa" (alfalfa), "Arachis hypogaea" (peanut), "Ceratonia siliqua" (carob), and "Glycyrrhiza glabra" (liquorice). A number of species are also weedy pests in different parts of the world, including: "Cytisus scoparius" (broom), "Robinia pseudoacacia" (black locust)", Ulex europaeus" (gorse), "Pueraria montana" (kudzu), and a number of "Lupinus" species.


title: Fabaceae

text: The name 'Fabaceae' comes from the defunct genus "Faba", now included in "Vicia". The term "faba" comes from Latin, and appears to simply mean "bean". Leguminosae is an older name still considered valid, and refers to the fruit of these plants, which are called legumes.


title: Fabaceae

text: Fabaceae range in habit from giant trees (like "Koompassia excelsa") to small annual herbs, with the majority being herbaceous perennials. Plants have indeterminate inflorescences, which are sometimes reduced to a single flower. The flowers have a short hypanthium and a single carpel with a short gynophore, and after fertilization produce fruits that are legumes.


title: Fabaceae

text: The Fabaceae have a wide variety of growth forms, including trees, shrubs, herbaceous plants, and even vines or lianas. The herbaceous plants can be annuals, biennials, or perennials, without basal or terminal leaf aggregations. Many Legumes have tendrils. They are upright plants, epiphytes, or vines. The latter support themselves by means of shoots that twist around a support or through cauline or foliar tendrils. Plants can be heliophytes, mesophytes, or xerophytes.


title: Fabaceae

text: The leaves are usually alternate and compound. Most often they are even- or odd-pinnately compound (e.g. "Caragana" and "Robinia" respectively), often trifoliate (e.g. "Trifolium", "Medicago") and rarely palmately compound (e.g. "Lupinus"), in the Mimosoideae and the Caesalpinioideae commonly bipinnate (e.g. "Acacia", "Mimosa"). They always have stipules, which can be leaf-like (e.g. "Pisum"), thorn-like (e.g. "Robinia") or be rather inconspicuous. Leaf margins are entire or, occasionally, serrate. Both the leaves and the leaflets often have wrinkled pulvini to permit nastic movements. In some species, leaflets have evolved into tendrils (e.g. "Vicia").


title: Fabaceae

text: Many species have leaves with structures that attract ants which protect the plant from herbivore insects (a form of mutualism). Extrafloral nectaries are common among the Mimosoideae and the Caesalpinioideae, and are also found in some Faboideae (e.g. "Vicia sativa"). In some "Acacia", the modified hollow stipules are inhabited by ants and are known as domatia.


title: Fabaceae

text: Many Fabaceae host bacteria in their roots within structures called root nodules. These bacteria, known as rhizobia, have the ability to take nitrogen gas (N) out of the air and convert it to a form of nitrogen that is usable to the host plant ( NO or NH ). This process is called nitrogen fixation. The legume, acting as a host, and rhizobia, acting as a provider of usable nitrate, form a symbiotic relationship. Members of the Phaseoleae genus "Apios" form tubers, which can be edible.


title: Fabaceae

text: The flowers often have five generally fused sepals and five free petals. They are generally hermaphroditic and have a short hypanthium, usually cup-shaped. There are normally ten stamens and one elongated superior ovary, with a curved style. They are usually arranged in indeterminate inflorescences. Fabaceae are typically entomophilous plants (i.e. they are pollinated by insects), and the flowers are usually showy to attract pollinators.


title: Fabaceae

text: In the Caesalpinioideae, the flowers are often zygomorphic, as in "Cercis", or nearly symmetrical with five equal petals, as in "Bauhinia". The upper petal is the innermost one, unlike in the Faboideae. Some species, like some in the genus "Senna", have asymmetric flowers, with one of the lower petals larger than the opposing one, and the style bent to one side. The calyx, corolla, or stamens can be showy in this group.


title: Fabaceae

text: In the Mimosoideae, the flowers are actinomorphic and arranged in globose inflorescences. The petals are small and the stamens, which can be more than just 10, have long, coloured filaments, which are the showiest part of the flower. All of the flowers in an inflorescence open at once.


title: Fabaceae

text: In the Faboideae, the flowers are zygomorphic, and have a specialized structure. The upper petal, called the banner or standard, is large and envelops the rest of the petals in bud, often reflexing when the flower blooms. The two adjacent petals, the wings, surround the two bottom petals. The two bottom petals are fused together at the apex (remaining free at the base), forming a boat-like structure called the keel. The stamens are always ten in number, and their filaments can be fused in various configurations, often in a group of nine stamens plus one separate stamen. Various genes in the "CYCLOIDEA (CYC)/DICHOTOMA (DICH)" family are expressed in the upper (also called dorsal or adaxial) petal; in some species, such as "Cadia", these genes are expressed throughout the flower, producing a radially symmetrical flower.


title: Fabaceae

text: The ovary most typically develops into a legume. A legume is a simple dry fruit that usually dehisces (opens along a seam) on two sides. A common name for this type of fruit is a "pod", although that can also be applied to a few other fruit types. A few species have evolved samarae, loments, follicles, indehiscent legumes, achenes, drupes, and berries from the basic legume fruit.


title: Fabaceae

text: The Fabaceae are rarely cyanogenic. Where they are, the cyanogenic compounds are derived from tyrosine, phenylalanine or leucine. They frequently contain alkaloids. Proanthocyanidins can be present either as cyanidin or delphinidine or both at the same time. Flavonoids such as kaempferol, quercitin and myricetin are often present. Ellagic acid has never been found in any of the genera or species analysed. Sugars are transported within the plants in the form of sucrose. C3 photosynthesis has been found in a wide variety of genera. The family has also evolved a unique chemistry. Many legumes contain toxic and indigestible substances, antinutrients, which may be removed through various processing methods. Pterocarpans are a class of molecules (derivatives of isoflavonoids) found only in the Fabaceae. Forisome proteins are found in the sieve tubes of Fabaceae; uniquely they are not dependent on ADT.


title: Fabaceae

text: The order Fabales contains around 7.3% of eudicot species and the greatest part of this diversity is contained in just one of the four families that the order contains: Fabaceae. This clade also includes the families Polygalaceae, Surianaceae and Quillajaceae and its origins date back 94 to 89 million years, although it started its diversification 79 to 74 million years ago. In fact, the Fabaceae have diversified during the early tertiary to become a ubiquitous part of the modern earth's biota, along with many other families belonging to the flowering plants.


title: Fabaceae

text: The Fabaceae have an abundant and diverse fossil record, especially for the Tertiary period. Fossils of flowers, fruit, leaves, wood and pollen from this period have been found in numerous locations.


title: Fabaceae

text: The earliest fossils that can be definitively assigned to the Fabaceae appeared in the early Palaeocene (approximately 65 million years ago). Representatives of the 3 sub-families traditionally recognised as being members of the Fabaceae – Cesalpinioideae, Papilionoideae and Mimosoideaeas well as members of the large clades within these sub-familiessuch as the genistoideshave been found in periods later, starting between 55 and 50 million years ago. In fact, a wide variety of taxa representing the main lineages in the Fabaceae have been found in the fossil record dating from the middle to the late Eocene, suggesting that the majority of the modern Fabaceae groups were already present and that a broad diversification occurred during this period.


title: Fabaceae

text: Therefore, the Fabaceae started their diversification approximately 60 million years ago and the most important clades separated 50 million years ago.


title: Fabaceae

text: The age of the main Cesalpinioideae clades have been estimated as between 56 and 34 million years and the basal group of the Mimosoideae as 44 ± 2.6 million years.


title: Fabaceae

text: The division between Mimosoideae and Faboideae is dated as occurring between 59 and 34 million years ago and the basal group of the Faboideae as 58.6 ± 0.2 million years ago. It has been possible to date the divergence of some of the groups within the Faboideae, even though diversification within each genus was relatively recent. For instance, "Astragalus" separated from the "Oxytropis" 16 to 12 million years ago. In addition, the separation of the aneuploid species of "Neoastragalus" started 4 million years ago. "Inga," another genus of the Papilionoideae with approximately 350 species, seems to have diverged in the last 2 million years.


title: Fabaceae

text: It has been suggested, based on fossil and phylogenetic evidence, that legumes originally evolved in arid and/or semi-arid regions along the Tethys seaway during the Palaeogene Period. However, others contend that Africa (or even the Americas) cannot yet be ruled out as the origin of the family.


title: Fabaceae

text: The current hypothesis about the evolution of the genes needed for nodulation is that they were recruited from other pathways after a polyploidy event. Several different pathways have been implicated as donating duplicated genes to the pathways need for nodulation. The main donors to the pathway were the genes associated with the arbuscular mycorrhiza symbiosis genes, the pollen tube formation genes and the haemoglobin genes. One of the main genes shown to be shared between the arbuscular mycorrhiza pathway and the nodulation pathway is SYMRK and it is involved in the plant-bacterial recognition. The pollen tube growth is similar to the infection thread development in that infection threads grow in a polar manner that is similar to a pollen tubes polar growth towards the ovules. Both pathways include the same type of enzymes, pectin-degrading cell wall enzymes. The enzymes needed to reduce nitrogen, nitrogenases, require a substantial input of ATP but at the same time are sensitive to free oxygen. To meet the requirements of this paradoxical situation, the plants express a type of haemoglobin called leghaemoglobin that is believed to be recruited after a duplication event. These three genetic pathways are believed to be part of a gene duplication event then recruited to work in nodulation.


title: Fabaceae

text: The phylogeny of the legumes has been the object of many studies by research groups from around the world. These studies have used morphology, DNA data (the chloroplast intron "trnL", the chloroplast genes "rbcL" and "matK", or the ribosomal spacers "ITS") and cladistic analysis in order to investigate the relationships between the family's different lineages. Fabaceae is consistently recovered as monophyletic. The studies further confirmed that the traditional subfamilies Mimosoideae and Papilionoideae were each monophyletic but both were nested within the paraphyletic subfamily Caesalpinioideae. All the different approaches yielded similar results regarding the relationships between the family's main clades. Following extensive discussion in the legume phylogenetics community, the Legume Phylogeny Working Group reclassified Fabaceae into six subfamilies, which necessitated the segregation of four new subfamilies from Caesalpinioideae and merging Caesapinioideae "sensu stricto" with the former subfamily Mimosoideae. The exact branching order of the different subfamilies is still unresolved.


title: Fabaceae

text: The Fabaceae are placed in the order Fabales according to most taxonomic systems, including the APG III system. The family now includes six subfamilies:


title: Fabaceae

text: The Fabaceae have an essentially worldwide distribution, being found everywhere except Antarctica and the high Arctic. The trees are often found in tropical regions, while the herbaceous plants and shrubs are predominant outside the tropics.


title: Fabaceae

text: Biological nitrogen fixation (BNF, performed by the organisms called diazotrophs) is a very old process that probably originated in the Archean eon when the primitive atmosphere lacked oxygen. It is only carried out by Euryarchaeota and just 6 of the more than 50 phyla of bacteria. Some of these lineages co-evolved together with the flowering plants establishing the molecular basis of a mutually beneficial symbiotic relationship. BNF is carried out in nodules that are mainly located in the root cortex, although they are occasionally located in the stem as in "Sesbania rostrata". The spermatophytes that co-evolved with actinorhizal diazotrophs ("Frankia") or with rhizobia to establish their symbiotic relationship belong to 11 families contained within the Rosidae clade (as established by the gene molecular phylogeny of "rbcL", a gene coding for part of the RuBisCO enzyme in the chloroplast). This grouping indicates that the predisposition for forming nodules probably only arose once in flowering plants and that it can be considered as an ancestral characteristic that has been conserved or lost in certain lineages. However, such a wide distribution of families and genera within this lineage indicates that nodulation had multiple origins. Of the 10 families within the Rosidae, 8 have nodules formed by actinomyces (Betulaceae, Casuarinaceae, Coriariaceae, Datiscaceae, Elaeagnaceae, Myricaceae, Rhamnaceae and Rosaceae), and the two remaining families, Ulmaceae and Fabaceae have nodules formed by rhizobia.


title: Fabaceae

text: The rhizobia and their hosts must be able to recognize each other for nodule formation to commence. Rhizobia are specific to particular host species although a rhizobia species may often infect more than one host species. This means that one plant species may be infected by more than one species of bacteria. For example, nodules in "Acacia senegal" can contain seven species of rhizobia belonging to three different genera. The most distinctive characteristics that allow rhizobia to be distinguished apart are the rapidity of their growth and the type of root nodule that they form with their host. Root nodules can be classified as being either indeterminate, cylindrical and often branched, and determinate, spherical with prominent lenticels. Indeterminate nodules are characteristic of legumes from temperate climates, while determinate nodules are commonly found in species from tropical or subtropical climates.