Las brujas de Barahona: del proceso de 1527 a la literatura de los siglos XVIII y XIX
The Witches of Barahona: from the 1527 Process to the 18th and 19th Century Literature

Summary/Abstract: The witches of Barahona have become a commonplace that has survived in the collective ideology. The origin of the belief in these infanticidal women, who mistreat neighbors, make a pact with the devil, smear themselves, fly and attend meetings in the fields of Barahona, must be found in a process initiated in 1526 against Juana de Morillas and in 1527 against Francisca la Ansarona and Quiteria de Morillas. The crimes against these women crystallize in stories that forget the protagonists of the witch-outbreak and refer to a shapeless mass of women who will be alluded to in various texts from the 18th and 19th centuries. These witches are mentioned in Las brujas del campo de Barahona (1795) of Torres Villarroel; in the press of both centuries, in the Cartas marruecas of José Cadalso (1789), in the annotations of Fernández de Moratín to the relation of the Auto de Fe de Logroño de 1610 (1811) and in an anonymous story Las brujas de Barahona y la castellana de Arbaizal (1841), which stands out especially for its length and the attention it devotes to these sorceresses. In this article, these texts will be reviewed in order to determine to what extent there is a connection with the historical process that is collected in files 96 no. 1425 and 99 no. 1441.

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