Twice ToldRamón Espech's introduction to his copy of the Chiloé brujos file (1882, printed 1960)
- Language
- Spanish
- Reading
- transcribed from the page image
- Translation
- ours
- Retrieved
- 10 October 2026
Spelling as printed in 1960. Line breaks are not kept; the break between pages is marked. The extract takes Espech’s “Introducción” (signed “R. Espech”) and one paragraph of his travel notes, “Preocupaciones de los chilotes”, from the page after it; footnote 1 of the journal (“pinco”) is not needed here.
[p. 125] Introducción.— Existe en Chiloé, desde época muy remota, una asociación de brujos llamada por los habitantes del Archipiélago “Médicos de la tierra” y entre ellos es titulada con el nombre de “La Recta Provincia”.
Esta institución llegó a hacerse temible no sólo para los indígenas, que fue entre los que tuvo origen, sino también para la gente ilustrada y hasta para las autoridades. Adquirió tal poder que un brujo era entre los chilotes más respetado que los gobernadores y hasta que los curas mismos. Cuando a un cura se le interpelaba sobre la existencia y poder de los brujos, contestaba con cierta sonrisa de duda “no hay brujos; pero guardarse de ellos”.
En 1880, siendo intendente don Luis Martiniano Rodríguez, fueron tantas y tan repetidas las quejas y delaciones que tuvo del abuso que los tales brujos cometían que al fin se decidió extirparlos. Al efecto, a imitación del procedimiento seguido con los hijos de Loyola en 1767, impartió a las autoridades subalternas del archipiélago la orden de que en un día dado hiciesen una recogida de todos los brujos y se los remitiesen a Ancud, con todos sus trevejos, yerbas, que debían servir de cuerpo de delito.
Llegados que fueron se encerró con ellos y, uno a uno, fueron convencidos breve y sumariamente de la impotencia de su institución. Apartó de entre ellos a los que, por las revelaciones que se hicieron, aparecían complicados en hechos que caían bajo el imperio de la justicia ordinaria, a los cuales se les siguió un proceso de cuyo expediente he tomado las copias que corren de fojas 1 a fojas 66 inclusive; y a los otros les dió larga.
De otro expediente he tomado las copias que corren de fojas 67 a 81 inclusive, por encontrarse en las declaraciones algunas revelaciones que guardan similitud con las anteriores y arrojan más luz sobre la célebre institución de los brujos.
Firmado: R. Espech.
[p. 126] Conversando sobre los brujos, supe que desde la persecución que les hizo el intendente, curan sólo a escondidas; que sus yerbas no tienen poder contra él; y que hacen mucha falta para curar los males tirados (3).
Translation
Ours.
[p. 125] Introduction.— For a very long time there has existed in Chiloé an association of brujos which the inhabitants of the archipelago call “Doctors of the land” and which among themselves goes by the name “La Recta Provincia”.
This institution came to be feared not only by the Indigenous people, among whom it began, but also by educated people and even by the authorities. It acquired such power that among the Chilotes a brujo was more respected than the governors and even than the priests themselves. When a priest was asked about the existence and power of the brujos, he would answer with a certain smile of doubt, “there are no brujos; but guard against them”.
In 1880, when Luis Martiniano Rodríguez was Intendant, the complaints and denunciations he received about the abuse these brujos committed were so many and so repeated that in the end he decided to root them out. To that end, on the model of the procedure followed with the sons of Loyola in 1767, he gave the subordinate authorities of the archipelago the order that on a given day they should round up all the brujos and send them to Ancud, with all their paraphernalia and herbs, which were to serve as evidence of the offence.
When they arrived he shut himself in with them and, one by one, they were convinced, briefly and summarily, of the powerlessness of their institution. From among them he set apart those who, from the revelations that were made, appeared implicated in acts that came under ordinary justice, and a case was brought against them, from whose file I have taken the copies that run from folio 1 to folio 66 inclusive; the others he let go.
From another file I have taken the copies that run from folio 67 to 81 inclusive, because the statements in it contain some revelations that are similar to the earlier ones and shed more light on the famous institution of the brujos.
Signed: R. Espech.
[p. 126] Talking about the brujos, I learned that since the Intendant’s persecution of them they cure only in hiding, that their herbs have no power against him, and that they are badly missed for curing the “males tirados” (illnesses cast on someone).
Notes
What it is. The introduction Ramón Espech wrote for the copy of the Ancud file that he made for Benjamín Vicuña Mackenna. Catepillan (2019) dates the copy to 1882, and Espech’s own travel note on the next page is dated March 1882. “Sons of Loyola” are the Jesuits, whom the Spanish crown expelled in 1767; the Intendant’s roundup is compared to that expulsion by Espech, not by any source of 1880.
What to notice. Espech gives no source for how the roundup went: the account of the Intendant shutting himself in with the brujos and convincing them “uno a uno” is his, written two years later. It differs from the rumour reported by Rojas Flores (2002, p. 173) that the Intendant had them whipped. The two copied runs of folios (1 to 66 and 67 to 81) cover a fraction of a file that Rojas Flores says ran to more than 260 folios.
How far to trust it. It is an informed, secondhand account, and it is on the side of the Intendant. Espech presents the priest’s remark as what priests used to answer, not as one conversation of his own.
Readings we are unsure of: “trevejos” (read as printed; it means tools or gear, here the brujos’ paraphernalia); the rest is clear in the page image.