
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, March 30, 1992                   TAG: 9203300065
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A1   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: Cox News Service
DATELINE: MEXICO CITY                                LENGTH: Medium

WITCHES: FREE TRADE WILL HAUNT MEXICAN CULTURE

In a recent conference of about 100 witches here, the otherworldly spiritualists put aside talk of remedies and Tarot cards. Instead, they talked free trade.

And they decided they're for it, basically. "Free trade will be good for the economy, but not for our culture," said Antonio Vazquez, who described himself as the leading warlock.

"There will be a cultural invasion from the United States. We aren't against the treaty, but we're going to be very strong in our struggle to preserve our rituals, ceremonies."

He and 97 of his colleagues signed a press release to that effect.

The witches say they will fight for their culture, though the methods they've chosen seem somewhat earthly and banal for people who boast of an ability to throw magical hexes and spells.

"We're holding meetings to preserve the culture, and we're guarding documents, recordings and rituals," Vazquez said.

He said he and other witches hold private ceremonies in the mountains of Mexico's Oaxaca and Quintana Roo states, and at their "Templo Mayor," which are visited only by witches and curers.

Free trade will bring U.S. style resort development that may destroy these refuges, Vazquez said. The rituals themselves might become commercialized, he added.

Every year, witches gather in the southern Mexico town of Catemaco to hold "white magic" and "black magic" ceremonies said to bring luck, health and power, or deal misfortune to enemies.

The practices are an odd mix of Indian religions, Christianity and modern-day occult.

At least one of the Catemaco witches, Luis Marthen Torres Huicho, had no qualms about free trade.

"Free trade, and everything else, will go perfectly well this year," predicted Marthen, who evidently feels a generalized support for his president, Carlos Salinas, and other powers that be.

But Roderic Camp, an expert on Mexico at Tulane University in New Orleans, expects some of Mexico's traditions to recede in the wave of U.S. businesses that will flood south of the border as a result of free trade with Mexico.

"You are bound to give up some of your cultural qualities as the culture becomes more involved with Western values," he said.

by CNB