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Ramon Solorio
Dr. Ruben Mendoza
SBS 300
14 May 2013
Book Review: A War of Witches
The narrative written by anthropologist Timothy J. Knab is one in which unveils the
history and traditions of the Aztecs and the stories and culture which have been passed down
through the many generations in Mexico. At the time of the narrative Knab was a professor at the
University de las Americas in Puebla, Mexico in where he was doing field work in the Sierra de
Puebla region. For him to do this he studied the language of Nahuat, which was the local
language of the village and become somewhat fluent in it as well as Spanish. Knab's narrative
covers the Aztec traditions of curanderos(healers) and brujos(witches) in which they have to go
into Talocan, a dream-land, and recover or cure people's souls. The point of the narrative was to
show and discover the history and traditions of the Aztec descendants living in the Sierra de
Puebla and the war of witches that took place in the 1920's. This narrative is intriguing to me
since I am of Mexican decent and have a special interest in this topic in which unveils the
'secrets' of the Aztecs.
Knab meets up with Inocente and Rubia which are elder people who are curanderos for
the small village of San Martin, as well as brujos which he finds out. Since he is interested in the
their traditions, they advise him to try and pray to the Gods of the Underworld. Knab goes into
the mouth of a cave to retrieve his nagual, which is a 'spirit animal' to which you share the same
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fate throughout life. Curanderos go into the dreamland of Talocan to save people's nagual which
may be trapped by the Gods for different reasons. Rubia directs Knab to go and give offerings to
the Gods and to pray to them. She gives him a list of items in which he must offer to the Gods in
a specific order. The list includes cigarettes which will keep off evil spirits, candles for the alter,
aguardiente which is a strong cane alcohol that the villagers drink, and a live chicken which he
will sacrifice. These practices are extremely related to the Aztecs in which they sacrifice people
to the Sun God. He is also told to stay overnight in the cave and try to find out what his nagual
is.
Knab comes back from the ritual after sleeping there and entering Talocan. He discovers
that he wants to know more and then realizes that he is able to control his dreaming like Inocente
and Rubia are able to. His understanding of the Aztec traditions is mixing with him and his
anthropological research by him actually learning how to do it. After that, Rubia and Inocente
teach him more and tell him that he must find his nagual and that he must learn how to travel
through Talocan in order to find it. Eventually Knab becomes good at this and even makes a
friends, Cruz, in the dream-world to which he has an important effect to the end of the narrative.
After going back and forth from Mexico City to Sierra de Puebla people realize that Knab
too has become a curandero. A poor family asks Knab to please pray and find the nagual of their
only daughter, Linda. Eventually Knab goes further and further into Talocan and realizes what is
had happened in the War of Witches which killed more than one hundred people from the village
of San Martin. This allows him to find the truth of what he wanted to know throughout the whole
narrative. He finds out what exactly happened in the War of Witches that took place in the 1920's
and how this problem came to be and how it was resolved between the villagers. He realizes that
Inocente went as far as trying to poison Rubia which was his comadre, or godparent because of
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what had happened back in the day. Linda's family allows Knab to obtain such answers to which
he had been looking for.
Knab does a great job in showing the social issues as well as some theories that the
Aztecs had for themselves and how they translated to the people of the Sierra de Puebla.
Something that I found interesting throughout the novel was how the villagers gave importance
to certain objects such as the offerings they put out to the Gods of the underworld in order for
them to listen to them while the prayers happened. One theory that we mentioned or talked about
in class was symbolic interactionism. It states how society imposes meanings on objects, events,
and behaviors. This is something that frequently happens throughout this novel in which the
villagers give importance to difference things for the sake of savings of finding ones nagual in
the underworld of Talocan. The novel "A War of Witches" gives a great understanding of theory
and different social issues for the people of San Martin
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References
1. Knab, Timothy J. (1995). A War of Witches: A Journey into the Underworld of the
Contemporary Aztecs. Boulder: HarperCollins.