Pueblo Mágico Pilsen Produces Matriarchal Latinas Leading in Healing Rituals, Divination, and Manifestation
Learn About Mujeres Poderosas In Chicago
Mexico offers many pueblos mágicos with unique histories, beauty, and magical experiences. Chicago also offers its Pilsen neighborhood, a once Czech neighborhood that bloomed into The Heart of Chicago with Mexican culture, art, food, and heritage rooted in community politics. In addition, Pilsen has been producing powerful women who thrive in business rooted in spirituality.
Historically, Pilsen has been home to a large number of Christian-based churches and organizations. Prior to the pandemic, however, the Archdiocese of Chicago consolidated their parishioners and closed half of their churches in this neighborhood. Although many generations were saddened and impacted by the change in these patriarchal institutions, matriarchal leading Latinas have been guiding community members with emotional and spiritual healing with rituals, tarot, healing crystals, divination, and manifestation for a lot longer before “brujeria” became a trend.
There is no denying Pilsen vibrates differently than many other trendy gentrified neighborhoods surrounding the downtown area of Chicago. Near a classic Pilsen intersection, many spiritual and holistic businesses are stationed near where many “brujas” currently live. The translation for the word is witch, but it’s important to clarify the term “bruja” is not always the appropriate term for spiritual women who conduct rituals. Many spiritual women do not identify as brujas because they do not refer to their work as spell work. However, it is commonly used within the Latinx community to label anything that is not sanctioned by Christianity or the Catholic faith as “normal” practices of faith.
Reactions fueled by deep-rooted fear within our community demonize the connotation and can often be misconstrued. Despite the trends we see on Teen Vogue and Cosmopolitan, many botanicas and businesses of Curanderismo and Santeria were often looked down upon by religious people in the Latinx community.
Our Fears Deep-Rooted in White Supremacy & Patriarchy
Charlene Reynoso, also known as Que Mala Bruja, has been reading tarot for about 20 years. Her grandmother is Puerto Rican and owned a gift shop featuring a botanica in the back of the store. Her grandmother did not advertise the botanica, but it was there for those who knew or were curious, due to the possible backlash of religious members of the community. Charlene grew up in a Catholic home and taught Catechism for 7 years, but she also nurtured her connection to the spirit realm and learned to communicate with her ancestors to develop a relationship that offered her intuitive guidance.
Charlene stresses that the fear of brujeria is “a system and direct result of generational trauma. There is a reason why there is a disconnect and a divide between organized religions and the free expression of spirituality. It is built into our DNA and passed down to us by generation after generation.” With the introduction of white supremacy through colonialism, our native practices of honoring and embracing the planet, our individual and collective spirit, and our spiritual gifts were “beaten, raped, and murdered out of our bloodlines. The fear of practicing our own truth became associated with physical harm and was labeled evil. These acts of terror and the generational trauma it produced enabled white supremacy to weaponize Christian religions in order to strip the power of our people.”
Charlene began doing her work for the community offering services of tarot and selling ritual candles at community markets across Chicago. Although her following began as a word of mouth, she claims Pilsen’s community is responsible for her large success because she was welcomed with open arms. She opened the legendary Ojo de Fortuna in Pilsen because she witnessed the need for a communal space for healers, brujas, and queer Latinas to do their work, sell their products, and build community with other powerful spiritual women. Unfortunately, as a result of the pandemic, Ojo de Fortuna closed its doors but you can request to work with Charlene at www.quemalabruja.com/.
Spiritual & Energetic Healing
Sandy Martinez grew up in Pilsen in the Jehovah’s Witnesses' faith. Sandy witnessed this religious community demonstrate competitive actions, lies, control, deceit for rankings, and patriarchal bias and oppression. Her mother refused and left the congregation. Sandy vividly remembers the fear instilled in her that prevented her to ask deeper questions about spirituality and faith. “I was scared to explore on my own because I was always told as a kid that “todo eso son cosas de Satanás,” stated Sandy, an echo commonly heard among powerful women in Latinx culture which translates into, “all of those things are acts of Satan.”
Her mother has always been a spiritual woman but never identified herself as one. Sandy says her mother “is calm, collected, and conscious of how words are powerful.” Sandy became more open and confident to explore her spirituality freely when her mother began selling nutritional products, studied the mechanics of the body, received certifications in natural medicine, iridology, and auricular acupuncture. As an adult, Sandy explored her spirituality through different faiths to develop her intuition and connection to her higher power. More importantly, Sandy has always been attracted to stones and crystals but also began to incorporate them in her own healing, rituals, and energy work.
The owner of the MoonlitCrab Etsy shop, Sandy began creating as a way to deal with her emotions in a healthy way. “People need to know how to express themselves. It was very hard for me to talk about spirituality, my feelings, and my curiosities. Creating was my way of dealing,” said Sandy. She creates and blesses all of her jewelry pieces in her shop with love. She begins her rituals with a meditation using clearing herbs, incense, and smoke to cleanse the energy of her jewelry and bless her work with loving energy. Crystals and stones are used for attracting and responding to energy but intentions also hold power. Sandy believes wearing crystals and energy will remind you of your intentions.
Reclaiming Our Divinity
Ojo! Mucho ojo! Be careful to open a spiritual portal you are not ready to embark on. Just like our earth realm has chaos, darkness, and dark entities, the spirit realm also can be dangerous if you don’t know where and how to begin exploring it. In danza Azteca, a spiritual tradition and ritual dance, there is a designated person carrying the burning copal throughout the ceremony to cleanse and protect the energy of the space. It is extremely important to cleanse and protect your energy always when doing this work.
Bianca Herrera, Bodacious Bruja, a Pilsen resident, has been doing tarot and reclaiming her divinity for 8 years. She grew up in a Catholic home that was open-minded about Curanderismo. She began exploring her spirituality fluidly.
“I am not claiming to be a type of godlike. I am connecting to my own lineage, getting in tune with my own dreams and the needs of my spiritual self. The way I do this can also help other people with tarot and divination. I tell people all the time that if they wanted to do tarot, they could,” stated Bianca.
Spiritual women engaging in divination explore parts of their own soul to embrace healing and master their truth, an inner knowing of their Higher/ Divine Self. Bianca says, “People think that shadow work is peace and love but no. You can get lost. Not everyone is ready for ego death.” Reclaiming your divinity is a difficult and challenging experience that takes time, patience, self-love, self-care, and perseverance.
Leading Our Community
Cristina Puzio has lived in Pilsen all her life. She has experienced psychic abilities since she was a child communicating with energy, spirits, and nature. She has aided numerous members of her community battling gang violence, domestic violence, alcoholism, and sexual trauma for 25 years. She was raised Catholic and her spiritual practice consists of working with the angelic realm, saints, Curanderismo, reiki, and Toltec practices.
“At the end of the day, whether I am pagan or Buddhist, or a bruja or not, people just need help. I’ve been surrounded by immigrants, including women who have been physically abused or sexually assaulted. Women who have gone through a lot!” says Cristina.
She reminds her clients about connecting with the archangels and meditation. She also introduces alternative emotional healing practices. In 2012, Cristina was certified to practice Reiki and in 2017, she founded Community Healing Mercado, a traveling market for the community with affordable access to healing and wellness resources including meditation and sound healing.
“Some people use negative words to label what we do like dark arts or brujeria but people do enjoy it and need it because it’s like a form of therapy. I hope more people feel comfortable seeking out spiritual help. It is important to trust your gut. Seek respectable healers and practitioners that know what they are doing,” said Cristina.
The Balance of Matriarchy
Most spiritual women often have solid foundations of faith that stem from their upbringing at home. Latina women in Pilsen in particular were more likely to grow up in patriarchal homes and religions. Many are not accustomed to seeing women in spiritual leadership. For example, Catholic women are not allowed to conduct the ritual of mass, which consecrates the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ.
Today, more women are leading community and private small groups in rituals and divination for healing, intuitive guidance, and manifestation. Yet, these practices are not new. Many people in our communities have pioneered the way for us to express spirituality freely and preserved our ancient practices. They also have been subjected to rejection, discrimination, and judgment for many generations by members of our own community. As cute and cool as the trend gets, it is important to honor and support the Latinx botanica businesses that pioneered to provide us with tools and knowledge to be able to heal emotionally and spiritually through energetic and soul work services.
Most importantly, we must acknowledge the powerful women who continue to challenge and innovate rather than attempt to eradicate our current spiritual practices to assist others in healing and inspire the exploration of divine consciousness.
Learn more about conducting rituals from Charlene, Sandy, Bianca, and Cristina in “Rituals 101: Guidance On Conducting Rituals & Divination From Powerful Spiritual Women.”
