We need to talk about Castelobruxo
Honourable Members of the Brazillian High Council of Magic, the Latin American Comitee of Mystical Affairs, the International Confederation of Wizards and any other member of Earth magic community who is willing to listen,
We need to talk about Castelobruxo. More especificaly, about its name. And for that we need to go back to the beginning, in what will be an attempt to tell for the first time the real history of our school’s creation.
Before being an organized educational institution that annually receives students from all over South America and the world, this beautiful and rich territory belonged to a Macuxi tribe. At that time, using spells that protect our school from atrancados’ eyes to this day, these Native people used to live in golden ocas made from materials that had their coloration altered by village children in their first steps on the path of magic, in ceremony of thanks to Wei, the Sun.
When Europeans came to our continent, seizing land and resources, murdering many who tried to defend themselves and indoctrinating those who remained, legends about this golden paradise hidden in the forest had already multiplied through most of the territory. Guided by these myths, Europeans funded several expeditions in pursuit of this supposed wealth. It was only in 1736 that a group consisting of Portuguese, Spanish and Native wizards from other areas was able to notice and pierce the barriers that hid the golden village of the Macuxi. This alliance aimed to learn from the "new" continent and the magic it carried and studied with members of the tribe who were interested in this exchange of knowledge, just as it had done with other folk in previous encounters
Half a century after they first met, this new magical community had a great production of knowledge in several fields, but kept itself isolated from external influence and current events. Gradually, motivated by an insatiable curiosity and interest in the development of world magic, the leaders decided to integrate as many people as possible into the community, which led to a period of great change and population growth that lasted almost two decades. The new members were from African, Native and even European origin and brought wisdom and customs of their own increasing the diversity of the village, but leaving the group in a time of organizational restructuring.
On October 17, 1808, taking advantage of this vulnerability, a coup led by the dark wizard Herédio Almada Castelobruxo, who has since been defined as the founder of our school, took place. In his view, everything created by the established alliance was an affront to the magic of his motherland, so he made it his mission to reverse everything he saw as perverted. Few members of the community were able to escape his hatred and entire families were massacrated.
The following years we already know, because they were the history that did not have to be erased. Castelobruxo strengthened the school's ties with Europe and established restrictive policies for the admission of teachers and students. Many of his biased and exclusionary rules were softened over time, until we reach the educational institution we know today.
I am part of the Multicultural Alliance of Magic Students formed at our school and together, after years of research throughout America, we are pleased with the dossier we assembled. With it in hand, we turned to the faculty of our institute, requesting that an assembly be opened with the purpose of changing the name of our school, but we were not heeded.
World magic community has helped us greatly in the past when we restructured our weakened school after years of dictatorships throughout Latin America. With initiatives to integrate non-registered institutions that emerged from this political moment, we dramatically reformed our faculty, our uniforms, the use of our school space and established here for the first time a system of houses, inspired by many other schools who have it as an effective tool to reinforce the sense of belonging to the school environment.
Armed with our research, including all the documents and records found, we ask the international community not to ignore us as many try and provide us with the necessary assistance to rewrite our history. The time has come for us to begin to honor the valuable legacy of the great pajés, shamans, and wizards who created our school from gentle and curious hearts, putting Castelobruxo in its place, away from our statues, murals, tributes and celebrations, and duly registered in the list of dark wizards.
Aza Menchú Dandara Coliman,
President of the Multicultural Alliance of Magic Students and apprentice of the mystic arts.
I chose to use “Earth magic community” cause I feel like Aza believes in extraterrestrial beings but thinks this is too small of a matter for them.
Atrancado would be the term used to refer to the population without magic.
Oca is the name given to the typical Brazilian indigenous housing.
A friend of mine made the association between Castelobruxo and Castelo Branco when we were talking about our dissatisfaction with the name JK chose for the Latin American wizarding school and this guided much of this text.
For the name of the student I decided mix influences. I saw it in a dictionary of African first names on Geledés website that Aza means "powerful" in Swahili. Menchú comes from Rigoberta Menchú, an indigenous feminist activist from Guatemala. Dandara comes from the Afro-Brazilian warrior of the same name who participated in the resistance to slavery in Quilombo dos Palmares. Coliman means red condor in Mapudungun language.
My idea on the houses is that they would also have very distinct influences, brought by the unregistered schools that were integrated. I had an idea for one, the Jiquitaia House for the brave and diligent, based on the Macuxi tradition involving jiquitaia ants. the house would carry the colors orange and brown, besides the green of Castelobruxo. Aza belongs to this house.
