Brujería

Or bru·je·rí·a

[broo-huh-ree-uh, broo-khe-ree-ah]

noun

1. 1. a form of witchcraft practiced in Latin America and parts of the West Indies, rooted in a blend of African and Indigenous traditional religions and later influenced by Catholicism.

      Prior to the Spanish colonization of both the Aztecs and the Taíno people, Brujería was not stigmatized as being dark or evil.

   2. Usually brujería a spell, curse, or other instance of this witchcraft.

      His recent trips have been afflicted with so many challenges that I almost wonder if there’s some form of brujería at work.

Word History and Origins

Origin of Brujería¹

First recorded in 1830–40; from Spanish bruj(a) bruja ( def. ) + -ería -ery ( def. )

Example Sentences

They crystallize as you witness her onstage or in her music videos, conjuring a kind of pop-girl brujeria, with a look that says: I’m a grease-stained postapocalyptic baddie who is making art and dropping it low in the face of life’s paradoxes.

From Los Angeles Times

Bomba Estéreo, “Brujería” Don’t hate me — El Búho is not Latino!

From Los Angeles Times

Other times it leaned into more Latino-specific concerns, such as comparing candidate Joe Biden to Latin American dictators or claiming that Black Lives Matter activists were using brujería — that is, witchcraft.

From Los Angeles Times

When the contest was over, Aja performed two songs from a Halloween-themed EP they’d released the previous year and “Brujería.”

From Slate

Carinés A. Moncada, the host, claimed that a co-founder of Black Lives Matter practiced “brujería” — witchcraft.

From New York Times