Afuerxs and Cultural Practice in Shadowshaper and Labyrinth Lost

Abstract

In the young adult novels Shadowshaper (2015) by Daniel José Older and Labyrinth Lost (2016) by Zoraida Córdova, Sierra Santiago and Alejandra Mortiz are the inheritors of great power in their respective cultural communities: shadowshaping, the ability to provide spirits with a physical form through drawing, murals, sculpture, or storytelling; and the Deathday, a ceremony to celebrate a bruja (or brujo) receiving her particular ability, including elemental control, healing, and/or defense, among others. Yet initially, through acts of refusal, the young women are outside of the material, ritual, and cultural practices of their communities.