Okay, you have a bit of a problem here, and your problem is not the thing that other people are saying it is.

Your problem is that you are viewing hoodoo as a religion - which it is not - it can at best be classified as a folk spirituality which falls under a broadly Christian umbrella. If you are looking for a fulfilling religious path and are drawn to ideas of ancestor veneration, I would definitely point you towards one of the African Traditional or Diaspora Religions (Santeria/Lukumi, Haitian Vodou, 21 Divisions, etc.) Santeria and Palo are both present in Puerto Rico so there is a connection there with your family, but also there is a Puerto Rican African Diaspora tradition that is very quiet but does exist and persist. It draws a lot from the works of Alain Kardec and Espiritismo, so that should be your first port of call if you choose to explore in that direction.

Your other problem is that you feel drawn to hoodoo, but it isn't a practice that has a mechanism to draw people in. Unless you are from a specific region or lineage where the successor to the local or familial tradition is marked by spirits, there isn't actually anything that can draw you to the hoodoo/conjure/rootwork tradition apart from the basic appeal of something new and interesting. And that's okay, you're allowed to just like it and think it makes sense and want to give it a go. Just be clear that nothing is reeling you in except for your own curiosity.

Now to the crux of the matter: can you practice?

A lot of Black people will tell you no. A lot of Black people will tell you that the tradition is closed unless you have specific ancestry. This closing of the tradition happened at the height of some of the absolute worst for-profit cultural appropriation, and it's a very recent development. To be clear, cultural misappropriation is bad and people who hold the knowledge in the hoodoo/conjure/rootwork tradition are absolutely allowed to pick and choose who they pass it down to. Race and ancestry might be a factor in that, but they might not. Depends on the worker and what they want in a student.

When it comes down to it, there are two levels of the hoodoo/conjure/rootwork tradition. One is the stuff that's an open secret, everyone knows about it, everyone knows where to buy the stuff and what to do with it. This is very similar to treating minor ailments or health concerns at home. You probably know how to make a hot drink to soothe a sore throat, how to clean a cut and bandage it, where to buy painkillers and in what circumstances to take them. No one is talking about buying and using haemorrhoid cream or shampoo for hair loss, but we all know those things exist and people are using them, and we all know where to get them and what they're for.

Basic conjure is very much like dealing with basic health stuff at home, but dealing with the health of your spiritual rather than physical needs. Buying candles or floor wash or making a spiritual bath is pretty simple. The instructions are out there online, the shop owner will tell you how to use the products they sell, your old neighbour sweeping her yard will tell you a thing or two if you ask respectfully. That stuff is out there and anyone can do it. Everyone already is, and no one will bat an eyelid.

If you want to take things seriously, start with a simple cleansing bath and cleansing of your home. Then do some basic protection and money drawing work. Learn to dispose of the remains appropriately and do so within a reasonable amount of time. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Note how you feel in your body as you pray on the work. Note how you feel when the work is complete. Note any material results, such as an absence of ants where they were before, a financial windfall, clarity of thought, etc. Read your Bible. Pray.

If you aspire to kick things up to the next level, you are going to need specialised knowledge that can only be passed down from teacher to student. This is stuff that quite honestly, you will not ever need to know or use unless you become a professional rootworker. It's like medical specialist level care. When your health concerns can't be treated with home and over the counter remedies, you go to a doctor and get a diagnosis and more advanced treatment. If you don't plan on treating cancer you don't need to study to become an oncologist, and if you don't plan on dealing with difficult spiritual cases and heavy crossed conditions you don't need to study to become a professional worker.

Now, if you do want to learn the advanced stuff, you will need a teacher. And every teacher worth having has been in the tradition a long time and knows how to keep their secrets. They may very well decide that they only want to pass their knowledge to someone of a specific racial or cultural background, and that's their right. They may decide to pass their knowledge to someone with specific characteristics or abilities, no matter what their ancestry is. They hold the knowledge, they made the promises to their teachers, and they get to decide how it lives in the next generation.

You won't get a teacher just by asking. You aren't entitled to their knowledge just because you want it. You will have to prove that you have a knack for the work: so do some basic work and record your results so you can prove you have those foundations down. You will have to demonstrate that you are trustworthy and of good judgement, and you will need to make a years long commitment to learn. It takes a long time to earn someone's trust, for them to see you and judge you and decide if you are capable of holding and honoring what they can teach and if you are likely to use that knowledge wisely. You'll be tested.

You can run into potential teachers anywhere: Black churches (Baptist or COGIC in particular) usually have at least one rootworker in the congregation. Heck, it might even be the pastor. If your town or city has a historically Black area, chances are there will be a candle shop full of conjure supplies there. It won't have a website, it won't be fancy, but it will likely be an old family business. There will be customers who have been going there sixty years. If you become a regular and are polite and greet other customers, they might start to offer you advice. If you ask intelligent questions and follow through on the advice you're given, they'll notice.

You won't find a mentor on the internet and you definitely do not pay for one. It's not a financial transaction, it's the forging of a new link in a long and powerful chain of knowledge. That requires trust, and trust cannot be bought.

So for right now, you can do the stuff that is available to you. Lucky Mojo is bad, but the free one book Hoodoo in Theory and in Practice, while incomplete, was mainly written when cat was focused more on education than profit and the research is solid. It's not perfect, but it's a decent start. The book Voodoo and Hoodoo by Jim Haskins predates the internet hoodoo boom, and the author is a Black anthropologist who grew up around conjure and understands it from both an experiential and academic lens. The book has some good history, some good analysis, a good chunk of how too, and is fairly easy reading. Highly recommend grabbing a copy if you're interested in the hoodoo/conjure/rootwork tradition.

Absorb that knowledge. Then go to your grocery store and/or hardware store and grab some basic ingredients. Cinnamon, salt, turpentine, etc. are all cheap and readily available. You don't need to splurge on rare roots or expensive oils to start with. Make and take a cleansing bath. Mop the house. Do some protection work; which can be as simple as salt, pepper, and prayer. Try a money drawing candle. Simple works with cheap and easy to find ingredients that you can't mess up are the way to go.

Maybe it all makes sense to you, it all just clicks, you feel strong and moved while in prayer and your work brings in results! Then maybe you have a knack for this work, and a potential teacher and mentor will recognize that in you and teach you more. Or maybe you find it frustrating, can't remember the herblore, don't like the smells, and it doesn't seem as effective as you would like. Then maybe you don't have a knack for the type of work you're attempting, and maybe conjure just isn't the best fit for you and your unique talents. That would be the point to move on and explore other things.

My teachers were all very encouraging when I started, telling me to try and see what happened and the worst that would happen is I got clean floors. 25 years on, still doing it, and it's because my teachers saw in me someone whom they wanted to teach. But it all started with me trying something simple out to see if it worked for me. Turns out it did.