Witchcraft has gained popularity in recent years in popular culture, rehashing old narratives about womxn of all races and magic. In this piece I connect the resurgence in these narratives to the case of Latinx and non-white womxn. For example, Alexandria Ocasio Cortéz has been accused of witchcraft by Dave Kubal, president of the Religious Right group Intercessors for America. Kubal stated during a monthly prayer call, “It’s been widely publicized that there is a coven of witches that cast spells on President Trump 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This particular coven is found in the southern portion of New York City.” Kubal's rant harkens back to narratives that have demonized non-White womxn of Latin American origin such as AOC for centuries. Practices demonized as witchcraft have also been a source of power for marginalized identities as much as the idea of witchcraft has been used as a label to diminish their power.

The roots of witchcraft for Latinx women dates back to the colonial period beginning with the arrival of Columbus to the "New World" and ending with the revolutionary wars against Spanish rule in the 19th century. Two types of witchcraft had been identified by the Inquisition: Brujería was an accusation that identified and stigmatized Afro-descendents in the New World. Spanish inquisitors imagined sects of witches gathered to practice "diabolical idolatry". Hechicería on the other hand was an accusation levelled at individuals that pertained to the use of spells and remedies. Widespread amatory magic was included in the term. In colonial Latin America witchcraft and sexual desire manifested Black female and mulatta agency to participate in hybrid cultural practices. Paula de Eguiluz, who appeared before the Inquisition multiple times in the 1620s and 1630s, and continued to enjoy a successful career as an herbal healer throughout her life, is one famous example. The main character of the Netflix series "Always a Witch" is named Carmen de Eguiluz no doubt in reference to the famed Paula.

Image from the Netflix series "Always a Witch" depicting the main character, Carmen de Eguiluz, a fictional Black witch in Cartagena, Colombia who travels through time to save her white lover. Courtesy of: Author.

Mulattas were a subset of Black and African colonial subjects the Inquisition in the New World forbade from intervening with the supernatural, an activity common amongst African fortune tellers and healers as well as other practitioners of African religions such as Paula de Eguiluz. Mulatta women were especially feared because of their racial ambiguity and the sexual desire they provoked. The Mexican myth of the mulata of Córdoba is a legend dating back to the sixteenth century in Veracruz about a mulatta woman who never aged. According to legend the mulatta was a witch who flew over the towns roofs, had pacts with the devil and bewitched her enemies.

The mulatta de Córdoba myth was relatively tame compared to some cases in the legal archive. Even if Colonial courts trivialized women's influence, on the local level these practices were considered a threat to established order. As explained by historian Julio Caro Baroja in The World of the Witches, belief in magic, most often associated with women, blended with beliefs about objective reality until the period of Enlightenment. One example occurred in 1733 when a mulatta slave, Manuela Bocanegra, enacted revenge on her master, a priest, after he had scolded her for having sex with a painter. A wound in the shape of female genitalia appeared on her master's bottom shortly after the scolding. Her master believed Manuela had used magic to cause the wound. Manuela had in effect turned him into a kind of slave and re-gendered him as a woman. Ironically, her master unwittingly went to another mulatta for help, not realising she was probably working with Manuela Bocanegra to bewitch until much later.

Right wing narratives such as Kubal's undoubtedly tie back to colonial examples such as Manuela Bocanegra. Race and gender are intersecting identity categories that still have an exceptionally antagonistic hold on the white male psyche, even if most of us no longer believe magic is real. The idea that these women are witches is not merely a form of oppression but also evidence of their resistance in the past and the present.

Monica D. Styles

Monica Styles is a Visiting Assistant Professor at St. Olaf College. She completed her PhD at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she taught Spanish language classes at all levels. She enjoys teaching Spanish through content and encourages active student learning through the communicative approach to teach both language as well as a deeper understanding of diverse perspectives originating from Hispanic experiences. Language and literature allow us to learn about cultures and human experiences to challenge what bell hooks calls the "politics of domination". She believes in employing diverse strategies, approaches, exploration, experimentation and risks to educate for critical consciousness. Professor Styles specializes in race, identity, Black perspectives, race mixture and the interplay between historical and literary discourses in colonial Latin America. She has published on these topics in the anthology Narradores indígenas y mestizos de la época colonial (siglos XVI-XVII), Hispania and Critical Ethnic Studies Journal blog. Two of her articles are forthcoming in The Afro-Hispanic Review and Caribbean: Journal of Culture and literature.