Curanderismo: Mexican American Folk Healing PDF
Preview Curanderismo: Mexican American Folk Healing
6wfl'fw(erisfn<7 Robert T. Trotter II and Juan Antonio with a foreword by Luis D. Leon Curanderismo MEXICAN AMERICAN FOLK HEALING The University of Georgia Press Athens and London University of Georgia paperback edition, 1997 ©1981, 1997 by the University of Georgia Press Athens, Georgia 30602 www.ugapress.org All rights reserved Printed digitally in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Trotter, Robert T. Curanderismo, Mexican American folk healing / Robert T. Trotter II and Juan Antonio Chavira ; with a foreword by Luis D. Leon. — 2nd ed., University of Georgia Press pbk. ed. xxi, 204 p. : ill.; 22 cm. Includes bibliographical references (p. 185-199) and index. ISBN 0-8203-1962-7 (pbk. : alk. paper) I. Mexican Americans—Folklore. 2. Traditional medicine—United States. 3. Healing—United States— Folklore. I. Chavira, Juan Antonio. II. Title. GRI II.M49 T76 1997 6I5.8'82'o896872073—dc2i 97-15784 ISBN-I3: 978-0-8203-1962-9 British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data available ISBN for This digital edition: 978-G-82G3- 4071-5 To the people of the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas This page intentionally left blank CONTENTS FOREWORD ix PREFACE Xix 1 Curanderismo: Past and Present Viewpoints 1 2 The History of Curanderismo 25 3 The Cultural Context of Illness 41 4 Curanderos' Theories of Healing 61 5 The Material Level 73 6 The Spiritual Level 102 7 The Mental Level 149 8 The Future of Curanderismo 162 APPENDIX 177 GLOSSARY 179 REFERENCES 185 INDEX 2O1 ILLUSTRATIONS Sign outside a curandera's house 47 Curandera instructing an apprentice in the reading of cards 5 9 Curandera instructing an apprentice in the use of herbal remedies 75 Curandero preparing an egg to be used in a cure 81 Patient being given a barrida with a crucifix 83 Child being cured of mal de ojo with an egg 93 Spiritualist in trance during a spiritual session 132 Spiritualist healing a participant in a spiritual session 138 Altar in a curandero's workroom 151 Curandero working on the mental level 155 FOREWORD Luis D. Leon THE REISSUE of Robert Trotter and Juan Antonio Chavira's Curanderismo: Mexican American Folk Healing represents a critical turning point in the study of Chicano culture, just as it did when it was first published.1 Originally, Trotter and Chavira's Curanderismo broke radically with the derogatory assumptions about Mexican American religious healing prac- tices circulating mainly in medical anthropology literature. In its second printing, the text signifies a fresh academic mo- mentum to understanding the complex religious traditions of Mexican Americans. Academic interest in Chicano reli- gious healing practices in particular has waxed and waned since the late 1960s. The Immigration Act of 1965 was a watershed for legal Mexican immigration into the United States. From the time of the act's passage, until the per-nation Western Hemisphere limit was passed in 1976, legal migration from Mexico in- creased steadily and substantially.2 This onslaught of Mexi- cans aroused concern about the kinds of diseases Mexicans might carry with them, and their culturally specific health care techniques. United States public policy-making and health-care providing institutions subsequently channeled money into research on disease, health, and healing among Mexican Americans. Take, for example, the establishment ix
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