Recent trends related to high modernity, transnationalism, and globalization have led to transformations in practices of witchcraft, or brujeríía, in modern Puerto Rico. As Romberg illustrates in Witchcraft and Welfare, change is not unusual in vernacular religions; in many ways, it is what defines them. The difference today, however, is the speed at which transformation occurs and the readiness with which it is embraced. The superfluity of commodities and ideas moving among practitioners of diverse vernacular religions throughout the Caribbean and North and South America, to say nothing of the movement of practitioners themselves, has increased the potential for the borrowing and lending of religious signifiers. These include concrete goods such as candles, books, and images and statues of Catholic saints, Buddhas, and Hindu gods, and less concrete goods such as ceremonies, prayers, and charms.

Romberg’s arguments in this book are framed by an introduction and epilogue, both of which wrestle with the concept of authenticity. Haydéée, Romberg’s primary informant and “the number one witch-healer of Villas de Loiza,” seems unconventional in many ways. She welcomes Romberg into her inner circle, in exchange demanding that her life be recorded via photography and audiotaped interviews, a process that increases Haydéée’s power and reputation as a healer. Despite Haydéée’s unconventionality and eclecticism, or perhaps because of it, she is a natural ally to help Romberg illustrate the point that changeability is brujeríía’s most authentic quality.

The only place where I feel Romberg falls short is in her failure to analyze the 70-plus images included in her book. Rather than using the images to illustrate specific points, she allows them to simply stand as illustrations. It is surprising that she devotes so much text to exploring the significance of signs in general and so little to discussing the specific signs themselves.

The arguments in this book are insightful, the descriptions rich and evocative. Romberg draws on impressively diverse historical and ethnographic material to produce a two-part account. Part 1 is primarily historical and concerns itself with the three waves of globalization that have washed up on Puerto Rico’s shores since 1502, when the island became the domain of the Spanish Catholic state. The first wave was marked by slavery and Catholicism, two global forces that helped to shape brujería from its very inception. The second wave began in the mid-19th century with the push toward independence and a rise in anti-Spanish sentiment and extends through the 1898 U.S. invasion and into the 1970s. The most important religious influences of this period were the introduction of Scientific, or Kardecean, Spiritualism and the influx of Protestant beliefs. Romberg’s thorough examination of Kardecean influences on brujería practices is a long overdue contribution to the study of religion in the Caribbean. Equally impressive is her handling of the third wave of globalization, from 1980 to the present, which she calls the “commodification of faith.” Here she offers an in-depth look at the internationalization of objects sold in the religious goods stores known as botáánicas.

In part 2 of the book, Romberg draws on ethnographic material to describe contemporary brujeríía practices, specifically its entrepreneurial aspects. She goes to great lengths to demonstrate perceived links between spiritual and material wealth. Although her material is rich, it seems that she is preoccupied with explaining and justifying the materialism that marks brujería and is perhaps too focused on linking this materialism with the effects of American consumerism. Near the end of the book Romberg writes, “although I show that vernacular religions have emerged historically as a contestation of official, often repressive forms of religiosity and healing, I cannot assert that this is what propels brujeríía today” (p. 267). She argues that brujeríía and other popular religions are no longer “liberating and transformative revolutionary forces in society” (p. 267). Although Romberg seems to welcome this contradiction to theoretical expectation, one also gets the impression that she is a bit disappointed by it. Perhaps this is why she spends so much time trying to convince the reader that it is, indeed, all right. Despite this preoccupation, however, Romberg really is at her best in the second part of the book. Her respect for her work and for her research subjects is evident throughout the text. I highly recommend this book for students of religion, the Caribbean, globalization, and transnational studies. It provides an excellent overview of vernacular religion in Puerto Rico for beginning students, as well as many new details for experienced scholars.