Paula de Eguiluz (fl. 1636) was a healer of African descent on the island of Hispaniola. After gaining her freedom, she became known in Cuba and New Spain as a powerful healer and diviner, blending African spiritual knowledge with Indigenous remedies and Catholic prayer. People sought her out for cures, protection, and guidance—especially those who had nowhere else to turn.
Her reputation quickly drew the attention of the Spanish Inquisition. Paula was accused multiple times of brujería, charged with using spells, potions, and forbidden rituals. She was arrested, interrogated, and punished, yet each time she was released, she returned to her work. The trials never stopped her practice; they only spread her name further.
What made Paula dangerous to the authorities was not fear or superstition, but independence. She was a formerly enslaved Black woman exercising spiritual authority in a rigid colonial world. Despite imprisonment and public punishment, Paula de Eguiluz continued healing until the end of her life—becoming a lasting symbol of resistance, survival, and ancestral knowledge that refused to be erased.
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