BRUJA
Witchcraft in Latin America, known in Spanish as brujería (pronounced [bɾuxeˈɾi.a]) and in Portuguese as bruxaria (pronounced [bɾuʃaˈɾi.ɐ]), can combine Indigenous, European, and African beliefs. Indigenous cultures had spiritual practices centered around nature and healing, while the arrival of Africans brought syncretic religions like Santería and Candomblé. European beliefs about witchcraft merged with local traditions during colonization. Practices vary across countries, with accusations of witchcraft historically intertwined with social dynamics.
A male practitioner of witchcraft is called a brujo in Spanish, a bruxo in Portuguese; a female practitioner is a bruja in Spanish, or a bruxa in Portuguese.
In Colonial Mexico, the Mexican Inquisition showed little concern for witchcraft; the Spanish Inquisitors treated witchcraft accusations as a "religious problem that could be resolved through confession and absolution". Belief in witchcraft is a constant in the history of colonial Brazil: note for example the several denunciations and confessions given to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith of Bahia (1591–1593), Pernambuco and Paraíba (1593–1595).
Anthropologist Ruth Behar writes that Mexican Inquisition cases "hint at a fascinating conjecture of sexuality, witchcraft, and religion, in which Spanish, indigenous, and African cultures converged". Cases occurred where European women and Indigenous women were accused of collaborating to work "love magic" or "sexual witchcraft" against men in colonial Mexico. According to anthropology professor Laura Lewis, "witchcraft" in colonial Mexico represented an "affirmation of hegemony" for women and especially for Indigenous women over their white male counterparts in the casta system.
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