"Are you a witch or a bruja?"
Believe me there's a big difference between the two. They're almost like two different languages but from countries that are right next to each other(I'll try a better example next time). My dad is Mexican and Ecuadorian with a complicated ancestry he had majority Spanish and Indigenous American with some African and Asian in there. His family descends from the powerful brujas of Latin America.
When I was younger my dad's mom Lucía would always ask me what I was and said that I had to choose and that I couldn't be both. I never payed it any attention to be honest, as far as I knew at the time I was a witch and bruja just meant witch in Spanish but, at my cousin Marcela's Death Day that I found out that there was a difference not only in the culture but in the ways of practicing magick. Witches cast spells and brujas cast cantos.
When I went home I told my mom about what my abuela had said and she told me that I didn't have to choose and that I am both and to embrace both.
+++++
Bruja - a Latin American witch who specializes in necromancy and is connected to the dead
Death Day - a quinceañera for brujas where ancestral spirits are summoned
Canto - a cross between a spell and a prayer
+++++++
"Gay or straight. Black or white. American or not. Christian or Muslim. Mixed or not. Be all of who you are and embrace it." - Unknown
YOU ARE READING
Black Magick
ContoBree Hernandez is a witch, bruja, rootworker, etc. and here she recounts her life and experiences growing up Short stories comprised with African and Latin Heritage, black womanhood, and magik
