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| Catemaco Brujos |
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Gonzalo Aguirre Pech, organized "brujo tourism" in Catemaco, Veracruz in the mid 1950´s. Until then
brujos were mostly of the white witch variety content with herbal healing and occasional spells.
Aguirre, after serving as the taxi driver for Catemaco´s then "Brujo Mayor " (Wizard # 1), Manuel Utrera,
took over the old master´s clientel and somehow promoted himself into world renown, attracting Mexican
presidents and dozens of other politicians, film stars and camera crews. Allegedly, Aguirre sold his soul
to the devil on Cerro Mono Blanco, and developed sufficient diabolical powers to turn his enemies and
detractor into toads and rats and hang them outside his offices to warn the unbelievers.
brujos were mostly of the white witch variety content with herbal healing and occasional spells.
Aguirre, after serving as the taxi driver for Catemaco´s then "Brujo Mayor " (Wizard # 1), Manuel Utrera,
took over the old master´s clientel and somehow promoted himself into world renown, attracting Mexican
presidents and dozens of other politicians, film stars and camera crews. Allegedly, Aguirre sold his soul
to the devil on Cerro Mono Blanco, and developed sufficient diabolical powers to turn his enemies and
detractor into toads and rats and hang them outside his offices to warn the unbelievers.
| Brujo Tourism History |
| Aguirre burial place, far from Mono Blanco. |
| Apparently he also founded the original Congreso de Brujos as a get together for his entourage of fellow shamans. In 1982, shortly after his death, the tourist industry in Catemaco tried to resurrect the Congreso Internacional de Brujeria, actually by then the fifth such congress. The original event had gathered international press coverage with its initiation of a black mass succeeded by assorted parapsychics, anthropological specialists on witchcraft and a row boat race on Laguna Catemaco. Most of the old master´s assistants then opened their own brujo enterprises, including Nicolas Chagala, Tillio Lutrera, Rodolfo Berdon, Julian Gueixpal (El Salto One, Antonio Vázquez, went so far as proclaim himself the Brujo Mayor and move his offices to Tijuana. Many of Gonzalo Aguirre´s sons and daughters also followed in his footsteps, including one who actually combines a medical degree with witchcraft. |
| The family is so successful that aside from large real estate holdings their properties include a major Catemaco hotel, a well known chain of local drugstores and several medical centers. Many of the Aguirre family and the lesser stars of the Brinco de Leon´s entourage still provide the soul of Catemaco´s commercial brujo tourism. Apparently some brujo blood is thicker than others. One of Aguirrre´s assistants, Julian Gueixpal , now has most of his offspring running some of the more fashionable brujo clinics in Catemaco: Tito Gueixpal Seba, (El Poder Negro), and Apolinar Gueixpal Cobix (another El Salto del Tigre). A grandson, Pedro Gueixpal Cobix (El Poder del Tigre) now also has his own office. June 2007 in process |
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