How are American Brujeria and traditional Brujeria different?

Real traditional Brujeria is a very secretive tradition that very few people are allowed access to. You must be mentored by a real Brujo/a and it is not a type of magic that you handle lightly. If you speak to your Mexican or Latinx friends most of us have family stories about Brujas. In researching this book I heard all kinds of astounding tales of people flying, or transforming into creatures like owls and jaguars. This magic is very real and very powerful. Furthermore, traditional Brujeria has very little to do with novena candles and saints; that is more of what we call Hechiceria (eh-chee-suh-REE-uh) or “sorcery”. However the latter term is much less known, especially in the US, and therefore seldom used.

When you ask Mexican-American folks what this mixed bag of Mexican folk magix is called, they will often refer to it as “Brujeria”, again, sometimes as a joke, but it’s what we continue to call it nonetheless. While this is traditionally inaccurate there is a large tendency for folks to diverge from tradition after immigration. Much like how you have Voodoo, Haitian Voodoo, Puerto Rican Voodoo (Sanse), and New Orleans Voodoo. Still, it would be damaging to my culture to write a book on “Brujeria” that is not actually about real Brujeria. I wanted to help preserve the meaning of “Brujeria” and I wanted to differentiate between the traditional kind and what we call “Brujeria” here in America. Thus, American Brujeria was born.

The Word Brujo/a/x

In the United States there is a tendency for Latinx folks who practice American Brujeria style of magic to refer to themselves as Brujas (female witches) or Brujos (male witches) or Brujx (American gender-neutral term for witch). This creates a bit of a separation that can be hard to traverse when it comes to Mexico-style or American-style that really needs to be discussed and understood if we are going to call ourselves by these titles.

The first thing we have to understand is that the words mean different things depending on where you are geographically. In Mexico there is a lot of fear surrounding Brujas and Brujos and if you say you are one of those, folks will immediately try to distance themselves from you (if not literally run away). You have to be careful how you use this word because in the US our understanding of the word “witch” is very dewy-eyed and we often understand witches as “spiritual healers who love the earth”.

Meanwhile, if you tell someone you are a Bruja/o, you are telling them that you like to fly through the night and steal babies and eat them. Our understandings of these words differ. In the United States however, if someone calls themselves a Bruja/o/x they are simply saying that they practice a Mexican/Latinx style of magic. It’s also considered incorrect in traditional Mexican culture to refer to yourself as Bruja/o if you are not practicing real Mexican Brujeria. Those who practice American Brujeria would more correctly call themselves Hechicero/a/x, however most folks favor Brujo/a/x as a personal title.

Language is complicated and the meaning of words changes across geographical landscape, periods of time, and regional dialects. Due to this, I don’t think it’s inherently wrong to use the term Brujo/a/x to describe a person who works in American Brujeria as long as you understand the nuances and roots of the term, and understand that there is a time and place where it is best to not use the word.

I hope this crash course in American Brujeria cleared up some misconceptions or concerns you may have had about the term and where it came from. For more information on this style of work, please pre-order my new book American Brujeria on Amazon or Bookshop; it will be released May 1, 2021.

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/agora/2020/10/cross-and-crossroads-un...