La Bruja: Latina Folk Heroine
In this continued conversation with Jennifer Givhan, author of RIVER
WOMAN, RIVER DEMON, FolkHeart Press explores the world of a magical bruja
writer whose work embodies rich cultural expressions of divinity, power,
strength, wisdom available to people of all sexual orientations. (Click here to
read Part I).
Q: How long have you
known you were a such a woman?
A: Since I was a little girl making potions of my mama’s lotions and perfumes, most memorably, her rosewater. When did I learn to claim it? After years of abusive, toxic relationships when I was reclaiming my own power and strength.
In college, I became passionate about reclaiming the
strength and empowerment of La Bruja as my Chicana and Mexicana heroines like
Gloria Anzaldúa, Ana Castillo, Sandra Cisneros, and
Laura Esquivel were doing with many of our cultural feminine figures: La
Malinche, La Llorona, La Loca are integral figures to my novels Trinity
Sight, Jubilee, and River Woman, River Demon as well as all my
poetry collections.
Q: Can you share a challenge in your own life in which you were able to transform your own fears and sense of powerlessness?
A: As I connected with my indigenous and Mexican Ancestors, becoming more
invested in brujería and curanderismo, I began to cultivate
spaces of honoring the sacred and divine within my home, creating portable
altars that I could move throughout the house in a process organic to my
creative rhythms and needs as a mama-writer, meaning, my mind/heart/flow has to
be fluid and in-flux to allow for the rhythms of my day as they unfold
(sometimes homeschooling the kids, tending sick kids, summer days, days my kids
need or crave more attention from me, as well as days I’m more chronically ill
and navigating self-care needs). So, for instance, I might set up an altar on
the side of the bath I’m taking to help alleviate some chronic pain or unwind
after a tough day. Honoring the sacred in this way is a reminder that we carry
the sacred within us, accessible anytime, anywhere. It also invites openness and receptivity. If we build it, the Spirits,
already around us, will come when we quiet ourselves enough to listen.
And brujería has been the key to my success as a writer; keeps me writing even when every bone in my body and every fiber of my mind protests. A connection to the Spirit world, the intangible otherworldly and Ancestral voices have allowed me to listen and to write what I hear, despite my sometimes debilitating chronic physical and mental illnesses; brujería helps me to quiet the trauma and the pain long enough to build entire worlds from thin air and prevent me from beating myself up when elements of the publishing world may not understand, accept, desire, or applaud.
Q: Your writing, workshops, oracle cards, and lectures are
geared to support women (and writers of
all sexual orientations) reclaim their rights to autonomy and personal power. How does one begin to do that?
Claim it first and foremost. Claim it for yourself. Believing that it’s already yours is the very first step. Say it aloud. Scream or sing it aloud. And repeat it often. All the damn time. I have to remind myself that I’m a badass boss bruja all the damn time.
This world will continually try to take it from us. Don’t let it. It’s yours. It already belongs to you. All you have to do is claim it.
You might be surprised the magick that begins to flow
when you do.
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