Witchcraft and Welfare: Spiritual Capital and the Business of Magic in Modern Puerto Rico

This volume offers an engagingly written ethnography and history of brujeria (witch-healing) as practiced on the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico. Romberg argues convincingly that brujeria is not a marginal or exotic practice, but an active partner of contemporary Puerto Rican consumerism and the welfare state. The book concludes with an insightful discussion of the nature of magic and an exposition on the quest for "authenticity" in contemporary Caribbean religions. Recommended. Stephen D. Glazier, Professor of Anthropology, University of Nebraska.

This is probably the first and single most important book on Puerto Rican Espiritismo and Brujeria (Witchcraft) as it is practiced on the island. The book does not just only give you an anthropological look into Brujeria, but also the history on how it probably started out on the Island as well as how Taino, African and Spanish Catholic influences has changed the face of Brujeria and Espiritismo in Puerto Rico. The book also introduces Haydee, La Numero Uno Bruja de Loiza. :The Number One Witch-Healer of Loiza, Puerto Rico." The author takes you into the mind of a modern bruja, and their practices. It also gives you how Cuban Santeria and its pantheon of Orisha Spirits has been intermingled and embraced into its cosmology. Topics on Curanderismo and Kardecian Spiritism are also spoken about. This is an important book for all Puerto Rican who are looking for their identity within Espiritismo, Santeria, Curanderismo or Brujeria. Haydee "may she rest in peace" may have lived a life that many have not approved on, she may have been a hypocrite to others, but she was honest, she had nothing to hide. Not to the author of the book and especially not to any of it's readers. For that alone I enjoyed its sincearity, and I can Highly recommend this book.