Re-enchanting the world: la bruja and class struggle in Chicana/Latina cultural production

Drawing from Silvia Federici’s (2019) work where she claims that it was necessary for the ruling class to “disenchant” the world in order to dominate it during the early phase of capitalist development in Europe in the sixteenth century, this chapter examines the cultural work of Chicana, Gloria Lucas, and Puerto Rican rapper Princess Nokia, and their renditions of the witch, or la bruja, in cultural production. I argue that for Chicanas/Latinas, la bruja is deployed to make a political critique rooted in class struggle. They draw from a history of magico-political resistance when so-called witches led rebellions against their oppressors. In an era when white supremacists and the Far Right gain power and acceptance, and the Latino Right in the evangelical church supports them, la bruja stands as a symbol of resistance against the “disenchanted” world the Right wants to uphold. La bruja, from a Chicana/Latina perspective, allows the viewer to see the world as enchanted again, not dominated.