Sonora

Known locally as the "witchcraft market," the Sonora market in Mexico City is sure to have whatever remedy the soul or the body needs. It contains the greatest concentration of shamans, santeros, practitioners of voodoo, and natural remedies in the world.

Writer and editor Kurt Hollander, originally from New York, has lived in Mexico City since 1989. His singular tour of the Sonora market takes us past stalls piled up with an infinite variety of powders, lotions, soaps, and incense which, with their brilliant colors and delightfully kitsch illustrations, assure us they will help us to find work, love, or money, or protect us against evil spells. We can also browse among snake skins, dried hummingbirds, dried fox skins, or live exotic animals such as iguanas, squirrels, and toads, to be used for all sorts of spells.

If a large part of the attraction of this book resides in the numerous images that show in detail the pop aesthetic adopted to advertise this merchandise, a glance at the instructions and ´prayers that accompany the products reveals a darker world of economic, emotional, and sexual suffering. The book contextualizes these advertisements in a culture where magical thinking still offers aid to those desperately seeking a panacea.