Regarding magic...

One of the most mysterious and most often discussed (by foreigners) aspects of life on Hispaniola is the practice of voodoo and other forms of spiritualism not commonly seen in Wisconsin. I have made no formal study of these beliefs, but I have heard plenty of stories and made some observations. First of all, it doesn't seem to be a formal religion in the same sense as the Catholicism or Pentecostalism that I see every day in my community. It's more like a set of folk beliefs that get kind of mixed in with the christianity. The beliefs touch many parts of life, and while some are clearly silly stories told to children, others are taken very seriously. Here is a scattering of examples...

I am told that one can sell their soul to the devil in exchange for wealth and prosperity. When you make this deal, the devil sends a spirit called a “baca” to watch over your property. There is a landowner in my site whom it is said has made such a deal. Children are told that if they steal fruit from his orchards, the “baca” will eat them. I never tried stealing his fruit, so I can't speak to the truthfulness of this one.

Kids are also told stories about witches who fly and can take the shape of animals. One of my friends swears to me that he once saw, late at night, a creature that had the head and torso of a woman, but the body of a donkey. Apparently witches like to eat little children (there is a theme here).

There are other kinds of witchcraft, though, that are taken more seriously by local adults. I know a teenager whose dad had a disagreement with a local practitioner of “brujaria” (witchcraft). This person did something to give the kid a terrible stomach ache that would not go away. The family ended up having to pay this “witch doctor” a large amount of money in order for him to remove whatever was causing the pain. They say it worked.

The most common practice of folk beliefs, though, seems to be in the brewing of herbal cocktails to cure any number of ailments. This is something I never figured out completely, because some brews seem to be considered just medicinal and others are considered magical. I never tried anything magical, but my host mother would make me medicinal teas whenever I had anything from the sniffles to diarrhea. The teas would be made with an assortment of local fruits, spices, leaves, and flowers. The ingredients and boiling procedure are always very specific, and the results are both delicious and satisfying.

Magical brews, I am told, move beyond treating simple diseases into things like inducing euphoria, causing one to fall in love, or enslaving the drinker's will to that of the brewer. I have never seen these in action. The consequences of misusing one of these drinks, though, can be dangerous. A few times when neighbors have had unexplained illnesses, I am told that it's because they chose to drink a magical brew that was made incorrectly.

It would be easy to scoff at these things, and say that they are just stories made up by uneducated people to explain the world. Perhaps it is all nonsense. Or maybe the world is a more mysterious, multidimensional place than cynical American suburbanites choose to believe. I hesitate to automatically dismiss a lot of these stories. My neighbors may lack formal education, but experience has taught them an awful lot about agriculture, engineering, and even medicine (those herbal teas really DO work). A man was once dying of prostate cancer, totally unable to urinate. He took a mixture of honey and some local tree root, and immediately felt better. Ten years later he is still alive and completely cured. Maybe education isn't everything. I leave you to draw your own conclusions.