This page I have created as a biography about me as a person and as a Brujo. It is intended to dispell any misconceptions and misunderstandings regarding my practices and who I am.
I am of Mexican descent first generation born in the United States, my father is from Nochistlan Zacatecas Mexico and my mother is from Ciudad Juarez Chihuahua Mexico. I was born and raised in Norwalk South East Los Angeles California, growing up in the City of Angels with those that grew up with me and know me personally. Know that I was raised with a deeply rooted heritage, one that was brought with my family from our ancestral home, one that has guided my path from early on in life to present time. Although I grew up in the Barrio I was raised from childhood in a world that included Curanderos, Curanderas, Sobadores "massagers", Snake Doctors (people that make medicine with the rattlesnake), Yerberos "herb doctors", Brujas, Brujos, Santos and many other traditions carried on by my family. Our heritage is Mestizo which means we are of a mixed race partially European and a greater part being Mexican Indigenous blood particularly a strong bloodline of the Chichimec , because of this we have inherited a syncretic way of life (as many Mexicans have), that is rooted in ancient Mesoamerican culture blended with Castillian admixtures.
My involvement with the occult started at a very early age, at the age of 1 year old I was haunted by many spiritual forces or ghosts if you will. Because my parents noticed that their baby was being spooked by invisible forces my mother called on my tia "aunt" a Navajo lady that was very close to my mother, immediately understood what I was suffering from. She said I was suffering from susto this is fright and required a limpia "spiritual cleansing". As my mother recalls she said that; my aunt sent my uncle to gather certain tree branches and other herbs which she used to perform the limpia. My mother said that my tia passed the branches over me while reciting certain prayers at the end of which I was very calm. After the limpia my tia sent my uncle to dispose of the branches used in the limpia, he was to cast the branches across a river at a certain time of the night. My mother says that I was well for several months after this but...
The hauntings returned and the waking and crying started again. Then my father called on my tia grand aunt his tia from Zacatecas. Tia Lucia was a curandera and a midwife that specialized in child birth and healing pregnant women. Because she was also a curandera she knew how to protect the home, she told my mother that something about me was attracting the spirits to the home. She performed a blessing ceremony over the home and from then on the hauntings stopped. Still the age of 1 year old my Grandmother says that once when my mother went to visit her while I was in the crib I looked at them then pointed to the kitchen and when they looked there was a spectral figure(ghost) standing there seemingly trying to get a glass of water which caused my Grandmother and Mother to pray that it leave the home.
I grew up having been treated with herbs and traditional snake doctor medicines by my father whom fervently believes in the power of the traditional healers. He always sought to cure our childhood ailments with traditional Mexican medicines before taking us to the local MD.
Even our visits to the Rancho El Llano Grande in Zacatecas my abuelita"grandmother" would treat us with herbs and other traditional medicines. Such as ear infections being treated with the drops of honey from the Honeypot Ant . Once my Grandfather cured my mother of dyssentary with an infusion of ground rice in water and Chicalote this a traditional Mexican herb remedy. In the Pueblo of Nochistlan in Zacatecas there was a healer that specialized in making remedios from the Rattlesnake this man made many medicines such as ointments for pain/arthritis using the venom of the snake and other medicines. The primary use of the vibora de cascabel (rattlesnake) are eating the prepared bones and dried meat to heal skin conditions, or used as a revitalizing tonic. In his displays the man always had live rattlesnakes and herbs of many kinds for different medicines.
My tia Tina grand aunt on my mothers side in Ciudad Juarez was a devotee of La Santa Muerte which I found out years after her death and a she was practitioner of Santos, of which she did tell me stories about the Santos how to pray to them and venerate them, when we'd stay and visit every summer. Chihuahua is on the way to Zacatecas which is more Central Mexico and Chihuahua is more Northern Mexico. Keeping in mind that my family being predominantly Catholic had no intention of telling me that what my tia was teaching me was a form of Mexican Brujeria as time would tell this would lead towards my first magical training.
These early beginnings nurtured my interest in the practice of Brujeria which started in my teens. In the beginning I gained an interest in what I thought was Voodoo which through studying I learned was Hoodoo so in my effort to learn Hoodoo I started to visit the local Botanica in the Barrio. Here instead of learning "Hoodoo" I started to learn more Brujeria which started with the Santa Muerte which is why she remains so dear to me in addition I learned some classic Brujeria spells using herbs and some other Santo spells. In those days I really needed the sacred lady's protection due to the kind of harsh environment I was involved in at the time.
So my studies in Brujeria started to mix with certain forms of Hoodoo I was studying through booklets and an alleged Homestudy Course which came later and really had most of what the conjure booklets already taught me. Much later I would see as experience teaches us, that some of things in that alleged training manual were inconsistent and so what I learned from the classic conjure books was always more accurate and in harmony with my Brujeria upbringing. This particular form of Hoodoo was the "New Orleans Hoodoo" which means the Hoodoo was flavored with some Voodoo lore yet the herbal lore was purely Hoodoo in origin. Add to this the herbal lore and magical lore I was learning from my own heritage and I have had a winning combination.
Living in the City of Angels helped to round out my magical upbringing in many ways. Los Angeles is a very big place one that has many botanicas, which means you will meet many interesting people not just the proprietors but also practitioners that are like yourself coming in for supplies. It is in these instances you either make friends or enemies luckily I made some good acquaintances. This is when in conversation a brujo or bruja gets to exchange magical ideas with fellow practitioners. This is why my candle magic is different from traditional Hoodoo like the color schemes used in the Master Book of candle Burning which is a classic on Hoodoo Candle Magic. My candle magic uses similar techniques while employing some variances in the candle colors this is due to my brujeria background, there are forms of candle magic unique to brujeria.
Although I have learned many techniques from various Brujas and Brujos in those early years I would never say that they were my official teachers in the sense that I was their apprentice because I never was their apprentice. They were people that I met in those old botanicas that helped flavor and mold my practices of which I am very grateful, we never stop learning.
Another great influence on my Brujeria studies is that I have been a student of Anthropology for some years and in College took several courses such as Archaeology, Physical Anthropology, Ancient Civilazations of Meso-America, Native American studies, Socio-Cultural Anthropology, Myth Religion and Magic studies
I have also had the experience of restoring and repairing ancient occult artifacts( I will keep my word and not say for who) from various world cultures such as New Guinea and surrounding Islands. This has given me a feel for the antiquity of the spiritual world and its many faces.
As for my nickname Brujo Negro? Many people used to call me Brujo on account of my practices though my father one day jokingly called me Brujo Negro because of my fondness for wearing black clothing the nickname stayed with me ever since.
