Mexican Magic

A modern Mexican bruja is a powerful person, one who reads the tarot and performs spellwork and rituals of devotion to their spirit guides and deities. Brujeria, which translates as witchcraft in Spanish, is a unique form of spirituality that blends core elements of Afro-Indigenous beliefs. Having originated in Mexico, brujeria is now practiced in Latinx communities across the world.

American Brujeria is about the fascinating blend of American and Mexican folk magic currently used by those living in the US but whose roots are steeped in Mexican culture. This type of Mexican American folk magic, which the author calls “American brujeria”, features its own unique saints and spirits as well as familiar ones, such as the infamous Santa Muerte.

Santa Muerte (Holy Death or Saint Death) is considered to be the female personification of death. This powerful and mysterious folk saint provides blessings including safe passage to the afterlife. Hailed as a potent and powerful protector, she is also the patron saint of those who live on the fringes of society as well as those who face violence and death. Santa Muerte is a complete ritual guide to working with this famous - and infamous! - Mexican folk saint. It takes us beyond the sensational headlines to reveal the truth about why Santa Muerte is so beloved by so many.

Abrán González always knew he was different. Called a coyote because of his fair skin, the kid from Barelas found escape through boxing and became one of the youngest Golden Gloves champs. But the arrival of a letter from a dying woman turns his entire life into a lie. The revelation that he was adopted makes him feel like an orphan and sends him on a quest to find his birth father.

After receiving a frantic letter from her newly-wed cousin begging for someone to save her from a mysterious doom, Noemí Taboada heads to High Place, a distant house in the Mexican countryside. She’s not sure what she will find—her cousin’s husband, a handsome Englishman, is a stranger, and Noemí knows little about the region.

Discover all the different practices and beliefs of brujeria that make it so popular. Brujeria has been a worldwide phenomenon that has managed to change over the years. Mexican culture has always been greatly influenced by Latin American culture and traditions. It forms an integral part of what we know as Latin America. Brujeria's origins and its long-lasting impact has shaped Mexican society in more ways than one. From being a beacon of hope for women in society to carving out a niche for Latinos, brujeria has always been much more than just witchcraft.

Gillian Armstead-Bancroft—Pride of the East Side and once-perfect bruja, wife, and mother—is going to spend her summer getting good at being bad. The first time she left Freedom, Kansas, behind, she did it by doing everything right. This time, she’ll hide from the large Mexican American family welcoming her home and work in secret to break the curse that’s erased her magical life. Only by doing it all wrong can Gillian get herself and her two children away from the ghosts of her hometown by summer’s end.

Beginning in the summer of 1903, an insidious crime wave filled New York City, and then the entire country, with fear. The children of Italian immigrants were kidnapped, and dozens of innocent victims were gunned down. Bombs tore apart tenement buildings. Judges, senators, Rockefellers, and society matrons were threatened with gruesome deaths. The perpetrators seemed both omnipresent and invisible. Their only calling card: the symbol of a black hand.

She is the adventurer of the family. Her brother, the gentle dreamer. Even as they bond over folktales and hold each other close, their world has never felt so dangerous. Revolutionaries and pelones are in conflict, soldiers have turned into scavengers, and an escaped tiger has slipped up the mountain, looking for easy prey. As the darkest of legends becomes real, a young girl will do anything to save her brother’s life.

Orphan Elizabeth Somers’ malevolent aunt and uncle ship her off to the ominous Winterhouse Hotel, owned by the peculiar Norbridge Falls. Upon arrival, Elizabeth quickly discovers that Winterhouse has many charms - most notably its massive library. It’s not long before she locates a magical book of puzzles that will unlock a mystery involving Norbridge and his sinister family.

Vlad is a vampire with the misfortune of having rosy cheeks that—gasp!—make him look abysmally alive. But being the fabulous vampire that he is (and hoping to avoid rejection), he hides his rosy complexion behind elaborate vampire outfits in traditional black. That is, he does until he finds out that his best friend has a pink secret of her own.

In the hottest hour of the hottest day of the year, a fateful wind blows into Oaxaca City. It whistles down cobbled streets and rustles the jacaranda trees before slipping into the window of an 11-year-old girl named Clara. Unbeknownst to her, Clara has been marked for la Lotería. Life and Death deal the Lotería cards but once a year, and the stakes could not be higher. Every card reveals a new twist in Clara’s fate - a scorpion, an arrow, a blood-red rose. If Life wins, Clara will live to a ripe old age. If Death prevails, she’ll flicker out like a candle.

Emilia and Gregorio spent their childhood following their grandmother through the mountains of central México, gathering the ingredients she used for curandera work and learning about the supernatural world. When she passes away, the siblings are left alone. So they scrape together their money and pay coyotes to smuggle them to their father in the United States. The siblings are exhausted before they even reach the border, where the coyotes seize Emilia for their own harsh ends.

The magical town of Tres Leches, home to the figures of Texas-Mexico border lore, has been through a lot. Most recently, the town was released from a curse that kept La Llorona, the wailing woman, haunting the shores of their river. But just when the townsfolk were preparing to return to sunny riverside picnics and barbecues, the children of Tres Leches mysteriously began to go missing. The town suspects another monstruo, the Dancing Devil, is luring kids to El Camarón Dance Hall & Arcade.

Antonio and the Ceiling Fan: A New Mexican Christmas Story is a short story set in rural northern New Mexico. It is a holiday story of magical realism, focusing on a teenager coming to realize the power of his family, his mother, and the mortality that we all face. He also has a talking ceiling fan. Disclaimer: This short story contains a fair amount of Spanish dialog, most of which is described in context.

An edge-of-your-seat urban fantasy filled with mystery, monsters, and mythology. For centuries magical beings forgot their own legends and lived as humans.The world remembered them only as myths--until now. All over the world descendants of those ancient beings are waking, unlocking newfound powers. Liliana had it all: an idyllic life in Tucson, Arizona filled with loving friends, a close-knit family, a devoted boyfriend, and plans for a perfect future. All that changes when she wakes up on the morning of her eighteenth birthday knowing someone was going to die. Plagued by death whispers ...

Ten-year-old Lola has always been touched by magic. In her Mexico City home, built around a towering tree, she is accustomed to enchanted blooms that change with the seasons, a sandbox that spits out mysterious treasures, and mischievous chaneques that scuttle about unseen by all but her. Magic has always been a part of her life, but now she must embrace the extraordinary as never before. Ever since The Thing That Happened, Lola's brother Alex has been sick. As his condition worsens, something begins eating away at the tree, causing its leaves and blossoms to crumble like ash.