Inciting A Riot

The magical tradition of brujería  is shrouded behind a veil made of assumption, colonization, and entitlement. We assume quite a lot about it. One common assumption is that it’s simply the word for witchcraft in Spanish and therefore anyone practicing any kind of magic is, indeed, practicing brujería.    Learning about this tradition is difficult and confusing for a newcomer. If you don’t already know where to go or who to ask, you do what a lot of people do - you go online and look for books or YouTube videos or podcasts. The issue there is that the novice is suddenly faced with the task of discerning which practitioners are coming from a place of genuine scholarship, cultural ownership, or good faith.    Too often practices such a brujería, hoodoo, yoga, or reiki are mined by white, western practitioners for magic that will be appealing to suburban audiences, stripped of the fullness and context of the culture from which they originate. They might be combined in a slapdash manner with other practices haili