Uploaded December 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Espiritismo traces its roots to the sacred knowledge of West and Central African peoples carried into the Americas by enslaved ancestors between the 15th and 19th centuries. Marta Moreno Vega, Ph.D., scholar and co-founder of Corredor Afro, explores how these traditions—sustained in Cuba, Haiti, Brazil, Puerto Rico, other Caribbean islands, and U.S. urban centers—function as systems of memory, survival, and continuity. Drawing on personal and family experiences, Moreno Vega reflects on the challenges of centering African Diaspora spiritual practices in academia, which often privileges “objective” distance over embodied knowledge. She emphasizes the resilience of these ancestral practices and the ways they continue to manifest in contemporary life through remembrance, ritual, and cultural expression. Recorded on 10/29/2025. [1/2026] [Show ID: 40425]
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Espiritismo traces its roots to the sacred knowledge of West and Central African peoples carried into the Americas by enslaved ancestors between the 15th and 19th centuries. Marta Moreno Vega, Ph.D., scholar and co-founder of Corredor Afro, explores how these traditions—sustained in Cuba, Haiti, Brazil, Puerto Rico, other Caribbean islands, and U.S. urban centers—function as systems of memory, survival, and continuity. Drawing on personal and family experiences, Moreno Vega reflects on the challenges of centering African Diaspora spiritual practices in academia, which often privileges “objective” distance over embodied knowledge. She emphasizes the resilience of these ancestral practices and the ways they continue to manifest in contemporary life through remembrance, ritual, and cultural expression. Recorded on 10/29/2025. [1/2026] [Show ID: 40425]
Donate to UCTV to support informative & inspiring programming:
uctv.tv/donate
More videos from: UC Berkeley Graduate Lectures
(uctv.tv/grad-council)
Explore More Humanities on UCTV
(uctv.tv/humanities)
The humanities encourage us to think creatively and explore questions about our world. UCTV explores human culture through literature, history, ethics, philosophy, cinema and religion so we can better understand the human experience.
UCTV is the broadcast and online media platform of the University of California, featuring programming from its ten campuses, three national labs and affiliated research institutions. UCTV explores a broad spectrum of subjects for a general audience, including science, health and medicine, public affairs, humanities, arts and music, business, education, and agriculture. Launched in January 2000, UCTV embraces the core missions of the University of California -- teaching, research, and public service – by providing quality, in-depth television far beyond the campus borders to inquisitive viewers around the world.
(https://www.uctv.tv)
