The Soul – Spirit is My Altar with Marta Moreno Vega

About this episode

Marta Moreno Vega discusses the roots and resilience of Espiritismo and African Diaspora spiritual practices.

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. Series: "UC Berkeley Graduate Lectures" [Humanities] [Show ID: 40425]

People in this episode

Guest: Marta Moreno Vega

Topics covered

• Espiritismo
• African Diaspora
• spiritual practices
• memory
• cultural expression

Keywords

• sacred knowledge
• enslaved ancestors
• academic challenges
• ritual

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: The Soul – Spirit is My Altar, Espiritismo, Ph.D.

Places: Americas, Cuba, Haiti, Brazil, Puerto Rico, U.S.

More episodes of UC Berkeley (Video)

• Is This Your Only Life? · April 17, 2026 · 1h 20m
• Three Ages and Three Intelligences: Exploit Explore Empower with Alison Gopnik · February 18, 2026 · 1h 17m
• Can a Liberal Polity Survive the Politics of Grievance? · February 11, 2026 · 1h 24m
• The Squiggly Line with Katelyn Jetelina · January 3, 2026 · 41 min
• Public Health: How to Make the Invisible Visible with Katelyn Jetelina · December 15, 2025 · 1h 13m
• Evolution and Animal Minds with Peter Godfrey-Smith · December 6, 2025 · 1h 2m