Brujos of Catemaco
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Catemaco is a small town situated in the volcanic heartland of Los Tuxtlas, Veracruz, Mexico and aside from its disappearing flora and fauna, is receiving international fame for its enterprising brujos (wizards, witches, witchdoctors) delivering spells, cures and limpias (cleansing of evil spirits) to visiting believers.
The area, lately, seems to be schizophrenic about their presence. A few years ago a defunct local glitzy magazine, Los Tuxtlas en el Siglo XXI was printed without a single mention of brujos.
The Catemaco and Los Tuxtlas tropical flora is home to 100´s of medicinal plants. Local inhabitants and especially indigenous people today still rely on these plants for the treatment of multiple ailments.
Geographically the Tuxtlas's mountainous terrain essentially isolated it from the rest of Mexico until the 20th century. The first railroad arrived in 1912. The first modern highway did not reach here till the mid 1950´s. Reliance on curanderos (healers) knowledge of medicinal plants was a necessity. And it is only a small step from curandero to brujo (witch or wizard).
Historically brujos, shamans, witch doctors or whatever you choose to call them, occupy a revered place in Mexican indigenous culture. The Aztecs classified almost 40 different types of healers.
On the spiritual side, after the Spanish conquest, Catholicism's attempt to slaughter indigenous culture was ingeniously transformed by native peoples into metamorphed saint worship and, especially in Veracruz, abetted by a large influx of African slaves and their jungle heritage. Cuba's santeria, Haiti's voodoo, and Catemaco's brujeria are closely related and promise their aficionados blissful enlightenment, and, to cover all bases, even throw in a little devil worship.
Catemaco brujos went a step further and commercialized the industry. So for a few thousand pesos or a lot more, you get a spell to wipe out your competitor and cure cancer, or for 100 pesos or so you'll get a limpia (cleansing) of evil spirits. The limpia price usually includes a raw egg, a few sprinkles of rose or other flavored water and a gentle beating with fresh herbs, but no dessert. Charms or amulets are extra.
And then there are the local white witches. They usually are deeply spiritual and mystic believers who earned their accolades with hard work and knowledge of their physical environment and human psychology, and are almost impossible to find by the brujo tourist, except for the dozens of herbalists and amulet seller around the central Catemaco market.
In the 1990´s the local brujos were identified with numerous murders and drug related mayhem and probably caused the local populace to ignore them.
If you arrive in Catemaco expecting anything official regarding brujos, forget it. Instead, throngs of bike and bicycle riding shills accost you to steer you to their most well paying brujo. The town has tried to put a stop to these shills, but the system seems so be ingrained.
The first Friday in March is the annual Congreso Internacional de Brujos when healers, soothsayers, assorted medicine men and a garden-variety of witch doctors descend on the town to sell their spells and exploit tourist pesos.
