The Witches of El Paso

A lawyer and her elderly great-aunt use their supernatural gifts to find a lost child in this richly imagined and empowering story of motherhood, magic, and legacy in the vein of The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina and La Hacienda.

If you call to the witches, they will come.

1943, El Paso, Texas: teenager Nena spends her days caring for the small children of her older sisters, while longing for a life of freedom and adventure. The premonitions and fainting spells she has endured since childhood are getting worse, and Nena worries she’ll end up like the scary old curandera down the street. Nena prays for help, and when the mysterious Sister Benedicta arrives late one night, Nena is taken across borders of space and time for a life-changing experience in colonial Mexico. 

In the present-day, Nena’s grand-niece Marta is balancing motherhood and a struggling legal aid practice, just as her own supernatural powers are emerging. When the 93-year-old Nena’s care is added to Marta’s already full plate, the two women’s destinies become irrevocably intertwined, as they both struggle to find fulfillment and escape through La Vista, or “the hum,” a mysterious, inherited magical ability that allows its recipients to tap into the subconscious hunger for destruction, rebirth, the natural world, lust, and the call to heed our darkest desires and brightest truths.

Blending historical fiction with magical realism, The Witches of El Paso explores the enticing and destructive magic that arises out of the depths of human desire, to tell a story of empowerment and wonder that transcends borders both physical and metaphorical.

“Sexy, smart, and soulful, Luis Jaramillo’s The Witches of El Paso pulls us across borders and time to get to the essence of what it means for families to survive this beautiful, fractured world” (Mira Jacob, author of Good Talk).