La Bruja’s Magic
Caridad De La Luz is not technically a witch. The thirty-one year old Latina performer from the Bronx blends a rich mix of poetry, hip-hop, drama, and comedy to become La Bruja.
She describes her talent as inherent and remembers first performing in her grandmother’s living room for family members. Spanish, Salsa, and Cuban records played in her home and formed her musical foundation. La Bruja says her family continues to be apart of her audience today.
In the clip La Bruja explains why she calls herself a witch. And hear one star character from her act, abuelita, based on her own grandmother.
La Bruja says she first discovered her voice through poetry and open mic performances at the Nuyorican Poet’s Café on the Lower East Side.
Once she a captured a following, La Bruja says she introduced her audience to her hip-hop and eventually merged into acting.
Besides the accolades and albums, one of her proudest roles she says is being a mother of two.
In her work and performances, La Bruja both makes fun of and aims to break the stereotypes of Latinas.
“One of the challenges is the perception that Latinas are, spicy, caliente, sexual creatures, not that I am not that,” she jokes. “But that is not all that I am. It’s a challenge to have people accept and understand that there is a mind and a heart here, not just a body.”
La Bruja also considers herself an activist and started a foundation called Latinas 4 Life. She works with schools and reaches out to young people who she believes need to hear positive messages.
“A lot of people think that they can’t do these types of things, ” she says. People say my poem wouldn’t be good enough or I am not a writer, but chances are if you just did it, you are, so I hope to inspire and make people feel they can do it too.”
In the spring of 2009, La Bruja approaches her thirteenth year as a performer.
She explains, “I went this whole way around before becoming La Bruja, I worked at Bloomingdales, I was a secretary, I was doing all these things, not following my passion, I was miserable, and no one told me it was ok to go for it.”
At the end of the night she says her goal is for the audience to feel connected and that they are not alone.
Listen to La Bruja and the audience from a performance at Cemi Underground.
