Bruja is the Spanish name for a witch. A bruja was very much like the strega of Italy and the bruxa of neighboring Portugal. The term was found throughout Latin America where it was used simultaneously with local names for witches and for witch/vampires, such as the tlahuelpuchi, the blood-sucking witch of Mexico. In Spain and the Americas, the bruja was a living person, usually a woman, who was able to transform herself into various kinds of animals and attack infants.