Shekere pa’ Santa Bárbara transforms a 17th century cannonball from Puerto Rico’s Spanish colonial era into a shekere - a West African percussion instrument beaded in the colors of Santa Bárbara / Changó. 

Santa Bárbara was the patron saiccnt of artillerymen and those who worked with cannons and explosives. The largest cannon platform in San Juan’s El Morro castle is named for her, as is the chapel in Castillo San Cristobál. In syncretic Caribbean belief systems, Santa Bárbara is also a representation of Changó, the Yoruba Orisha associated with thunder and lightning, war and justice, percussion and dance.