In Mexico, brujeria is not a religion and not a hobby. It is a body of work, passed down in families, for acting on the world through spiritual means: protecting, attracting, cutting, healing, and yes, harming. The word says nothing about whether the work is good or bad. That depends on who does it and why.
For someone who grew up in the United States, "witchcraft" means Salem, Halloween, or a Wicca shop with crystals. That is why so many Hispanic people in California search the word in English and land on pages that have nothing to do with what they are living. I am Don Jacinto Nahual, from the curandero tradition of Catemaco, Veracruz, and this is the version that applies here.
Brujo, curandero, hechicero: not the same job
- Curandero. Heals and removes. Susto, mal de ojo, empacho, heaviness. Herbs, prayer, cleansings, massage. Does not work with intention aimed at another person.
- Brujo. The wider term. Everything the curandero does, plus work directed at someone else: protecting a person, drawing someone, cutting a piece of harm, and also placing one. A serious brujo tells you which of those he does and which he refuses.
- Hechicero. Centered on the hechizo, the spell, a piece of work for one specific end. More a type of work than a whole tradition.
In Veracruz the word brujo is not an insult. It is closer to a title, said with respect and sometimes with fear, which in this trade travel together. Catemaco is known across Mexico for it, and every March the town fills with people who came for exactly that.
What "work against you" looks like
This is what most English-speaking callers actually want to know, so here it is without decoration. In this tradition, these are the signs people describe when someone has placed work on them:
- Everything failing at once, work, money, health, family, with no ordinary cause.
- The trouble started right after a conflict with a specific person.
- Strange objects found at your door, in the yard, under a mattress.
- A sudden change of character in you or someone close, with nothing to explain it.
- Disturbing dreams that began in a specific week and did not stop.
- The feeling of being watched, especially at home.
None of these is proof. Part of a first session is telling a piece of work apart from a bad year, and when it is a bad year I say so. Not everything that goes wrong has a person behind it, and a brujo who finds a curse in every client is running a business, not a practice.
Black magic and white magic: a division simpler than it looks
People arrive asking whether the work will be white or black, as if they were two drawers. In practice the same herbs and the same prayers protect a house and return harm to the one who sent it. What changes is the target and the intention. That is where I draw the line, and I draw it early: work meant to harm someone comes back on whoever asked for it. I have spent years cleaning up after people who paid for that.
What brujeria has to do with the saints
Everything, in Catemaco. The tradition prays to San Judas Tadeo, San Cipriano, Santa Marta, San Miguel Arcángel. It lights candles and makes promises. It uses holy water. The Church condemns it and millions of people in Mexico live both without conflict, and that is not mine to resolve for anyone. What I will say is that it shares that trait with santeria, which also works through saints; I am not a santero and will tell you if what you need is one.
How to tell a serious one
- He asks before he offers. A price in the first two minutes is your answer.
- He tells you what he will not do.
- He gives a closed price for the first session, and it does not climb because "the energy is heavy".
- He does not frighten you. The curse only he can lift is the oldest script in the trade.
- He has a door you can walk through, not only a number.
- He never tells you to stop a medication.
Where to start
Not with a piece of work. With a cleansing, which is how you find out what is actually there. $97, about an hour, closed price. Los Angeles, 1208 Venice Blvd, walk-in; Santa Ana, 830 S Main St Ste 109, by appointment. (213) 598-1928, first call free. If you want the full picture of protection, read spiritual protection first.