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BRUJA VS. SHAMAN

“WHY ARE CURANDEROS SEEN AS HEALERS, WHILE BRUJAS ARE SEEN AS PORTRAYERS

OF EVIL?”

Brujeria, more commonly known as witchcraft, is practiced in the American Southwest and Latin America.

Practitioners, known as brujas, are females and live with a false identity endowed to their practice, implying

that it is of the devil. There is a morphed idea that brujeria is an evil combination of the Caribbean practice of

Obeah, and the Creole practice of Voodoo, putting into play certain aspects of each by using dolls and

shapeshifting into animals. The negative representation surrounding brujas is a product of the male-dominated

ideology brought in during the Spanish conquest, combined with the continuation of Machismo culture in

Latin America. Before conquest in Peru, there was no idea of Hell, eternal underworld punishment, or the

devil, ideas that were all put into the minds of indigenous with Christianity. After colonization, women were

subjected to violence when trying to continue to practice spirituality, and were met with accusations of evil,

sorcery, and guilt that have not seized since. Brujas regularly use rituals, spells, incantations, potions, and

powders (Steiger, 2003). These are all traditional methods of healing that Shamans put into action daily, but

when the practitioner is female, it is seen as evil. The Shaman is known to use what is called ‘white-magic’

which is healing, and the bruja ‘dark magic’ or sorcery (Steiger, 2003). The male-savior complex is put into

practice by the idea that the only way to fully save yourself from the curse of a Bruja, is by employing the

services of a curandero, or Shaman (Steiger, 2003). The curandero is supposed to be able to contact the bruja

supernaturally and remove the spell, or in extreme cases have a spiritual war against her to remove the evil

(Steiger, 2003). Yes, there are brujas that practice sorcery and invoke dark spirits, but it is comparable to the

multitude of ill-practicing Shamans in Peru. Still, in 2016 in Shiringamazu Alto, an indigenous Amazon

community, a woman named Rosa Villar Jarionca was burned alive on accusations on witchcraft (The

Guardian, 2016). Seen from cellphone video footage, Jarionca was tied to pillars, bathed in gasoline, and set

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