Reimagining Old Narratives
with Lorraine Monteagut author of 'Brujas: The Magic and Power of Witches of Color'
#NuevasPaginasconLupita is a space that is both an archive and resource aimed to "spotlight" Hispanic/Latinx/e authors with newly published books. The goal is to connect readers to new and/or old favorite Hispanic/Latinx/e authors and their books! So give this & every post a share to help us reach more readers!
How does it work?!
Here’s the deal, I came up with a set of casual/random/funny questions to ask each Hispanic/Latinx/e author, I interview. For now, the questions will all be the same but maybe in the future I’ll launch this into more specific questions to the author or maybe I’ll turn this series into a mini-podcast, or maybe……well, you get it! The possibilities are endless.
If you are new here don’t forget to check out all the other amazing interviews! We also have a great line-up of guest authors coming up so make sure you don’t miss an issue by subscribing now!
A friendly reminder that I am an affiliate with Bookshop.org and I may earn a commission if you click through any book links and make a purchase.
🎃 BOO 🎃 Book Franz!
Happy Halloween to those that celebrate and to those that don’t - November is in a few hours lol. I have a few things before we jump into today’s interview which is very in theme with the day!
A reminder that TOMORROW (Tuesday, November 1st) at 7:30 PM ET, I’ll be going live on Instagram with the President/Founder of Futuro Media - Maria Hinojosa! We’ll be discussing her memoir ‘Once I Was You’ which has been adapted for Young Readers. I’d love to have you join us and bring any questions you might have!
Friends that are NYC based or those that are close by and can travel there - This week Thursday, November 3rd I’ll be in NYC to finally hang out w/ one of my favorite bookish people @ariannagab 🥺 and we are going to view @quiaraalegria play adaptation from her memoir MY BROKEN LANGUAGE published by @oneworldbooks (I got to interview Quiara right here not that long ago). We wanted to extend an open invitation to anyone that wants to join us— it’s a bookish viewing party y’all! We have limited discounted tickets so if you want to meet up with fellow bookish lovers to watch this amazing play - click here to purchase a ticket.
For the #LupitasBookClub Besties:
ICYMI - We wrapped up our creepy book club read with a discussion thread last week but it remains open for anyone that wants to still discuss it. I also announced our next book. We’ll be reading How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water by Angie Cruz! We’ll start the read along November 1st and end with a discussion the week of November 28th!
I picked this novel because honestly, I feel like I owe it to the people of TikTok LOL. I made a video recommending people read it who are “struggling to understand their immigrant mothers” and it’s been the most viral video I’ve made to date (IT ALMOST HIT 1 MILLION VIEWS YALL!!!).
So I think I owe it to folks to lead a book discussion about it! Plus I really loved this book so much and I think it’s the perfect book to be reading with the holiday season approaching for those struggling to see and/or still have relationships with toxic family members.
Without further ado, our special guest author for today’s issue is……Lorraine Monteagut author of Brujas: The Magic and Power of Witches of Color!
Could you tell me a bit about where this photo was taken? Is it special to your book in some way?
At home in a happy space among my plants and decked out for fall, my favorite season.
Tell me about your book without telling me about your book - share any literary inspirations behind your book! If there are none, the gap you wanted to fill in the literary canon with your book.
Gloria Anzaldúa is one of my biggest literary inspirations. She was a queer feminist scholar who walked on the margins of many worlds to bridge the gap between research and pop culture. She was a part of, not apart from, the communities she wrote about, so her work was radically personal and raw by academia's standards. I'm also constantly inspired by folklore, especially scary stories that were passed down orally, like the story of La Llorona, which is central to Chapter 3, The Ancestral Curse. Taking a page from Anzaldúa, I like to present archetypal stories in as many angles and voices as possible, reimagining old narratives to make room for concepts I'm researching, personal experiences, and the ways we're collectively evolving as a culture.
Brujas evolved from my PhD work, when I began exploring the ways descendants of the Latinx diaspora are reclaiming their ancestral traditions and destigmatizing the word "bruja." The dissertation was only the start; when it was done, I still felt called to showcase as many stories and traditions as possible and add diversity to the popular witchcraft canon, which has been largely centered on European histories and traditions. Now we're seeing more and more people claim the word "bruja," or "brujx," the gender neutral term that reminds us we're creating something queer and different even as we're circling back to the past. I hope that we'll continue to see more stories about brujxs that challenge mainstream understandings of the witch.
What are two central themes in your book that you connect with the most and why?
Healing intergenerational trauma is a central theme in my work. Just about everyone I spoke to had a story to tell about the ways enslavement, colonization, or immigration interrupted their family stories and caused abuse or illness. Brujxs are bringing historically stigmatized topics out into the open, advocating for individual access to therapy, and creating networks of collective healing.
Spiritual activism is another current that runs through the book. As indigenous wisdom and spiritualities are destigmatized through popular acceptance, they also become subject to the whims of trends. Many brujxs challenge the spiritual appropriation and consumerism that extracts from rather than enriches indigenous ways of knowing. They connect to various forms of activism to remind their communities that spirituality is not a commodity, but a personal and collective process of "shadow work" focused on raising awareness and working toward positive change.
If a book was home, where would your home be?
Home is where my altar is. I've never lived in a home without one. An altar is a reminder of care for the self, and wherever it is, there I am. The cover of the book, illustrated by Kimberly Rodriguez, aka Poeta Goddess, includes an altar, which I believe is the portal for ancestral connection. Whenever anybody asks me how to begin to tap into their spirituality and ancestors, I suggest building a home altar. This could look like anything. It could be as simple as a favorite book in a favorite corner of your home.
If your book was a famous musician who would it be?
Natalia Lafourcade, hands down. A line from her song, Hasta la Raíz, serves as the epigraph of the book. To me, the song is about carrying your ancestors with you, even when you're separated from them and your homelands. Natalia is a brilliant artist, and her album, Musas, reimagines folk stories from across Latin America, including, of course, La Llorona.
What comfort food could a reader pair with your book?
This is so hard. I don't think I can pick just one thing. Please pair the book with whatever food makes you feel like you've returned home after a long journey. It's the food your abuelita made, the food that was used to heal you when you were sick. For me, that's an arepa or a sopita, or the greens I've grown all season in my little garden.
In what ways has access (or little to no access) to Hispanic/Latinx/e literature defined you as a writer?
My love of writing and my vision of myself as a writer bloomed with Gabriel García Márquez, especially reading and rereading 100 Years of Solitude. Again, I was drawn to the way the same old stories repeat, how the same mistakes and passions resonate throughout generations of a family. Magical realism burst open the possibilities of getting to the truth through folklore. It's a genre that touches the heart of my experience as a Latinx child of immigrants. Through it, I can channel a past I never fully knew and imagine a magical future that is yet to be.
Where can readers keep up with your work?
@witchyheights (watch out for impersonator accounts!)
witchyheights.com
A huge thank you to Lorraine Monteagut for taking the time to chat with me about her book! Please please make sure you purchase a copy (or request your local library carry a copy) of her book #SupportLatinxLit!
Lorraine Monteagut is a Cuban-Colombian writer born in Miami, Florida. She holds a PhD in communication from the University of South Florida, where she began her research on bruja feminism and the reclamation of ancestral healing traditions. Inspired to the spiritual life by her great grandmother, who was an espiritista in Cuba, she facilitates astrology workshops and moon circles in her local community in Tampa, Florida. She loves hiking, gardening, and backyard beekeeping.
Synopsis for Brujas: The Magic and Power of Witches of Color from Bookshop website:
There is a new kind of witch emerging in our cultural consciousness: the bruja.
Witchcraft has made a comeback in popular culture, especially among feminists. A growing subculture of BIPOC witches, led by Afro-Caribbean immigrants, Indigenous Americans, and other witches of color, is reclaiming their ancestral traditions and contributing their voices to the feminist witchcraft of today. Brujas chronicles the magical lives of these practitioners as they develop their healing arts, express their progressive politics, and extend their personal rituals into community activism.
They are destigmatizing the "witch" of their ancestries and bringing persecuted traditions to the open to challenge cultural appropriation and spiritual consumerism. Part memoir, part ritual guide, Brujas empowers readers to decolonize their spiritual practices and connect with their own ancestors.
Brujas reminds us that witchcraft is more than a trend--it's a movement.