Bruja

Bruja; Brujo

(religion, spiritualism, and occult)

The name given to a Witch in Mexico and Meso-America; Bruja—female; Brujo— male. The female is considered more powerful than the male. The names are also used in Hispanic communities throughout the United States. The Witchcraft is of the Hedge Witch variety, with little or no connection to worship and other aspects of religion. Charms and spells are sold as are cures for physical ailments.

Bruja

(pop culture)

Bruja is the Spanish name for a witch. A bruja was very much like the strega of Italy and bruxa of neighboring Portugal. The term was found throughout Latin America where it was used simultaneously with local names for witches and for witch/vampires, such as the tlahuelpuchi, the blood-sucking witch of Mexico. In both Spain and the Americas, the bruja was a living person, usually a woman, who was able to transform herself into various kinds of animals and attack infants.

Sources:

Nutini, Hugo G., and John M. Roberts. Bloodsucking Witchcraft: An Epistomological Study of Anthropomorphic Supernaturalism in Rural Thaxcala. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1993. 476 pp.