Brujeria

Brujeria is a brutal-death metal-grindcore band hailing from Mexico which name comes from the Spanish language, meaning “Witchcraft”. Their extreme attitude involving permanent use of urban militia masks, an old custom of refusing to make live shows, and performing under pseudonyms to portrait themselves as a Latino band of drug lords, have been part of their passport to success. Although they have recently performed live at locations across the United States and Latin America, at the very start of their career they were concealing their identities due to being supposedly wanted by the FBI. Their lyrics, which are sung entirely in Spanish, are focused on anti-Christianity, critics to the U.S. immigration policies, exaltation of figures like the XIX century Mexican revolutionary “Pancho Villa” and the infamous 80’s Colombian drug lord “Pablo Escobar” (El patrón - The Boss). Other recursive subjects in their songs are a libertarian political revolution, parodies involving Catholic saints prostitution, Satanism and “Santería”, narcotics smuggling, also including performances about killing some U.S. white people (the “gringos”). It would be a mistake to appreciate Brujeria with serious concern, since their embrace of the absurdity of violence in the Mexico/U.S. border socierties follows a tradition of Mexican/chicano political humor with roots in earlier centuries. Since their very start they have confronted ambivalent patterns going from explicit racial hatred and closed Satanism to more mature and realistic points of view.