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Paula de Eguiluz was a female healer of African descent in the 16th century. She was tried for witchcraft three times. She was a well known health-care practitioner in one of the largest slave cities in the New World. She had an important impact on the community of African healers.

Early life
Paula was born in Santo Domingo. Her mother, Guiomar, was an enslaved women for a man named Diego de Leguizamón. Paula lived in this house with her mom until her teens when she was bought by Íñigo de Otaza. She was enslaved to him for many years until she was sold to a man named Juan de Eguiluz in Havana.

Career
When Paula lived in Cartagena, there was a significant population of enslaved African women and African inhabitants in this area. Many people came and went since Cartagena was a port city. Due to the amount of people coming and going into the city, there was a substantial amount of healers and ritual specialists. There was also a large amount of sickness and disease that would make its way through the city. Many of the healers tried to create cures for these diseases. However, Spaniards and Creoles saw these women as the cause of the sickness and disease. Paula learned about remedies and rituals to help heal others.

The Three Trials
Paula was accused and tried for witchcraft three separate times. These trials took place between 1623-1636.

The first time Paula was accused of withcraft was around 1624. She didn't understand why she was arrested. It took her three months and thirteen hearings for her to understand want the Inquisitors wanted to hear as her testimony: the story of the witches sabbath. The Inquisitors were not going to settle with any explanation she gave unless it was her confessing that she was a witch. She told a story about her witchcraft and her pact with the devil. None of it was true. It was all fiction, but it is what the Inquisitors wanted to hear. She was charged with witchcraft and had to be whipped around 200 times in public streets, serve two years in the general hospital wearing the sambenito.

The second time Paula was arrested was in 1632. There was suspicion that she had returned back to withcraft and made another pact with the devil. For her second trial, she had 21 hearings in which she developed a script of what the Inquisitors wanted to hear. By this time, however, she has made friends and connections within her local area. Paula used these connections to try and help reduce her sentence. However, she also gave the Inquisitors a list of peoples names who may also be witches. This list had 21 women arrested due to witchcraft. For her testimony in this trial, she said what the Inquisitors wanted, but also included her experience with herbs, recipes and healing. She stressed the fact that she was trying to heal others, not harm, but was also saying that she did worship the devil. Paula knew this was the only way the Inquisitors would listen to her.

In 1634, a prosecutor wanted to have Paula's second trial reviewed. Some of the women that Paula gave up in her testimony during her second trial were angry and wanted to testify against her. Five women said they confessed to participating in witchcraft because Paula convinced them to. Paula did not talk as much in this trial as she did in the others. She knew this trial was more serious, and she could potentially be executed. She emphasized her works as a healer. She even calls herself a curandera in this trial.

The Story of the Bishop and the Witch
One of people Paula de Eguiluz tried to heal was Bishop Pérez de Lazarraga. He was a very wealthy man and had a competitive job in the New World. However even with this money, he chose to have Paula try to heal his sickness. Peréz didn't care about Paula's ideals or beliefs; he just wanted her to help him. He kept seeing her and having her try to heal him even though there was social issues with their relationship. This action shows how much he believed in her ability to help him.