“God Gives the Poor Herbs and Fungi to Mend the Ailments”: Traditional Medicine, Indigenous Care, and the Fungal Novel

In this article I establish that there is a nascent interest in Latin American writers to represent the versatility of fungi. I conduct an in-depth analysis of the Mexican novel Brujas [Witches] (2020) by Brenda Lozano from a feminist political ecology viewpoint (Arriagada Oyarzún and Zambra Álvarez, 2019), focusing on the representation of the role of fungi in Indigenous medicine and care within Mexico. My theoretical framework is informed by feminist theorizations on care (Tronto 1993; Puig de la Bellcasa 2017; The Care Collective 2020), decolonial perspectives of climate degradation (Svampa and Viale 2014; Gudynas 2011, 2015, 2016), and Indigenous systems of knowledge and medicine. After introducing the history of Indigenous biomedical history in Latin America, I examine the crucial role of fungi in the novel as agents of gender, race, socio-political resistance, and resilience. I conclude by proposing the categories of mycophilic (fungus-loving) and mycophobic (fungus-fearing) fungal novels.