Bruja positionalities: toward a chicana/latina spiritual activism
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Abstract
This essay elaborates on constructions of “la Bruja” — a female practitioner of spiritual, sexual, and healing knowledges — in our contemporary cultural imaginary grounded in a legacy of the otherization of women healers in Europe and las Américas. Specifically, I analyze Ricky Martin’s song “‘Livin’ la Vida Loca” about the ambivalent witchy power of a racialized woman over a man. The essay explores the ways that “brujas” are feared for their knowledge and power and hence subjected to oppressive treatment. I argue a bruja positionality within Chicana/Latina studies that includes developing our own bruja-like epistemologies. As a practice of what Gloria Anzaldúa might call “spiritual activism,” a bruja positionality is built on healing the internalized beliefs that demonize la Bruja and the transgressive spirituality and sexuality that she represents.