Witches and Babies

****UPDATED AS OF AUGUST 9th, 2012**** with corrections regarding the witch doctors.
Anything in BOLD lettering is new, verified knowledge. I apologize for having to correct some of what I wrote in this post originally, but after talking with more sources I realized all that I had been told was not 100% accurate and I now feel confident that I have a much better and true understanding about the culture and beliefs of the witch doctors aka 'brujas'. 

The color red. One of my favorite colors, actually. I have bright red scrubs that I wear here :) People say the color red represents passion, power, energy, danger, strength, desire, and love. But here, the color red has a much powerful supernatural meaning. What I write about in this post is what I have learned here, in the Balfate area of the North coast of Honduras, and I am not sure if this applies to other areas of the country or not.

Superstition and witches. There are two types of witches here: bruja negras y bruja blancas. Yep, black witches and white witches. Black=curses and harm to another person while white=divination, healing, etc. But brujas themselves do not make this distinction; I mean really, who would call themselves an evil witch? They refer to themselves as bruja blancas, but depending on the people's perception/experience with her, people in the area might refer to her as either blanca or negra. A "partera" is a midwife, and bruja blancas are midwifes because they also deliver babies and deal with general health related things as well, so they may also refer to themselves as 'partera' instead of bruja as well. 

Many people here believe in evil spirits and curses being the reason for certain health problems. Because of this, there are many superstitious beliefs regarding pregnancy. The one I have the most knowledge of and have dealt with the most with many patients is referred to as "amarrar los meses" which translates to "tying up the months". This is how it works. If a woman is married to (or committed  and might as well be married to) a really great man who has a job, great morals, handsome, and is just all around someone that most women here would want to marry, sometimes single/unmarried women can become jealous of the man's wife. Then the wife become's pregnant. This is the jealous woman's perfect opportunity! If the woman truly is jealous and has no regard for the wife's well being, she will go to a bruja and tell her about this other woman who has the great husband she wants for herself. She pays the witch and tells her the woman's expected due date for the baby so the witch can "amarrar los meses" right before labor. "Tying up the months" is when the umbilical cord wraps around the baby's neck and what the witch and the woman are hoping for is that the baby dies during child birth and hopefully the mother dies too. I know it sounds totally crazy, but many women do believe this happens and that this is the reason behind complications during childbirth. If both the baby and mother die, now the husband is back on the market and eligible for marriage--and the jealous woman will do everything she can to win him over for herself. If just the baby dies, she hopes that the death of the baby causes marital problems or at least creates instability in the relationship so there is a chance of her winning him over even though the wife didn't die.

So back to the color red. In the culture of the North coast of Honduras (I'm not sure about other places), red signifies protection, safety, and has come to bee seen as overall good fortune. Although I should mention not everyone reads into it that much. A red shirt can just be a red shirt that some one likes, not because they think it has special meaning to it. But for pregnant women the color red is very important; it protects her from evil spirits. When a woman who believes in these curses and the power of las brujas becomes pregnant, the first thing she makes sure to do is to not tell anyone her actual due date for the baby. If the jealous woman or the witch caught wind of the due date they would then successfully be able to tie up the months, but if they don't know the real date they will be less successful with this. Another thing the pregnant woman does is wear the color red: red panties, socks, shirt, leggings, jewlery, hair accessory; anything. She will also tie a small red ribbon around her waist (underneath her clothes though, so it's not showing) and put a safety pin on the inside of the seam of her pants or skirt. The purpose of the ribbon is it's wrapping around the baby and keeping it safe from evil spirits because if it tries to attack through the belly it becomes confused by the power of the red ribbon and the thought is that it will circle around and around and never actually reach the mother and baby but continuously running around the belly on the ribbon. This is also the purpose for wearing red panties or leggings because it is covering where the evil spirit could possibly enter and harm the child. And the safety pin will snag the spirit and catch it.

In the home, spirits can only enter through windows; not doors and not chimneys (if they have one) either. To protect the household from them, the mother will put safety pins on the corners of the curtains but make sure they are concealed and not visible. The ribbon, safety pin on her pants, and the safety pins on the curtains are all things not to be seen by anyone. They all will catch or snag the spirits, but if someone is aware that they've been placed there for protection, it defeats the purpose of catching the spirit by surprise and actually has the opposite effect of announcing that you're a) pregnant, if people weren't already aware b) believe in the power of the brujas and the evil spirits, and c) if the witch or spirits see these they will try to come up with a sneakier plan of attack since you've clearly used all the usual means of protection for you and your child.

Witches are normal people. They don't dress or talk differently. In fact, I met one this afternoon and talked with her and parted with a hug and kiss on the cheek goodbye. And she refers to herself as a partera (midwife) or a bruja blanca. She does not call herself a bruja negra, but if someone comes to her and offers her enough money she will tie up the months, etc which some people would consider bad and then refer to her as a bruja negra, not blanca. But if someone came to her for something seen by others as 'good' then they would refer to her as a bruja negra. It all depends on your perspective and your previous experience and therefore bias of the bruja. There's no sign outside of the brujas doors that says "witch doctor lives here, please talk with the receptionist for an appointment"; it's just common knowledge in the community of who has these powers/encounters with spirits (whether 'good' or 'bad') and everyone knows where they live anyways because everyone knows everyone in these communities, and is possibly related to her as well. 

After childbirth. Although red is worn underneath clothing for protection, like I said it is also worn outside as well. When a baby is still considered a newborn, the mother will always put a red bracelet on it and will choose whether or not to dress it in a red hat, socks (very common), blanket, etc. After giving birth (more commonly referred to as "dar la luz" which means "to give a light"--to bring light into the world. They really do value and think of childbirth as something very special and beautiful here in comparison with other places), the mother will usually put a cotton ball in each of her ears; this protects her from evil spirits entering through her ears while her body is still recovering from the work and possible damage to her body from recently having a child.

So after learning and experiencing all of this with prenatal care for some patients, I'm all worried they're going to think I'm pregnant when I wear my set of red scrubs. Haha. But I've gathered that most people know I'm a gringa and assume I am unaware of the cultural beliefs associated with this color and that I probably am not purposefully wearing red all over for protection, and most of them know I am single. Although even if someone is single it is very likely she will still take all these precautions because it has become so custom here and it's the idea of "better safe than sorry" because you never know who has something against you. Anyways, I do think there's only been one woman who did think I was pregnant, the way she spoke to me and interacted with me when I just so happened to be wearing red scrubs that day.

Wow. I feel like I just wrote a novel there. Lo siento! And if you actually got this far in reading it, nice job! That's impressive. If I think of any other details I forgot I'll add those to my next post, but if there's ever any questions or obvious points that I didn't address that you're curious about just leave me a comment and I'll answer it :)

Once again, thank you for reading and I will be blogging a lot this week because I have a lot of new things to write about, so I'll try to find time to write it all down before I forget.

Que Dios le bendiga,
Maria