Is Palo related to Santeria?

The short answer is No!

Despite what you have read or seen on the internet, Palo has nothing to do with the Yoruba/Lukumi religion (Ifa, Ocha, Santeria). The Yoruba people are from the western African Coast (modern day Nigeria and Benin) and compose an entirely different ethnic group (culture, language, religion, etc.) than the Bantu people of the Kongo traditions. This is import to understand. To lump them into one “African” tradition is as ignorant as saying that all Asian traditions or all European traditions compose one cultural group simply because they share a continent.

Today the lines between the Congolese Regla-Kongo and the Yoruban Regla-Ocha or Regla-IFA are indeed very blurred in Cuba and elsewhere around the world as many initiates into Palo are also initiated into Santeria or Ocha and some Tatas are also practicing Babalawos (priest of Ifa). In Cuba, many people will simply refer to the whole corpus of IFA, Ocha and Palo traditions alongside Catholicism and Kardecian spiritualism as simply “religion” without any other descriptors.

The practices however don’t mix, and any practitioner worth his/her salt will keep them and their protocols separate. Ocha is Ocha and Palo is Palo. Each beautiful in their own right.