Dear
Elena and Veronica,
I left you for three weeks this summer to be curious. I came
to Mexico because when I was your age I called myself Mexican. I called
myself Mexican because it helped me be accepted into groups that seemed more
accepting, similar, and understanding of me. As an adult I am challenging
myself to uncover the realities undiscovered from carelessly calling myself
Mexican. Being a counselor has helped me grow and trust my curiosity.
Today as a mental health professional I felt compelled to see what
healing means in the Mexican identity. I found Curanderismo. I have
spent a lot of time discerning what it means for me to have called myself
Mexican and with it I have encountered a humanistic style of healing that
Latinos call Curanderismo.
The curiosity for Mexico is tied to my desire to replenish the
decreased connection we have to our traditions, especially the healing
qualities. I hope to be a productive member of our community, ethnicity,
and humanity. The pull to Mexico is around the imbalance teetering ethnic
peoples towards poverty, particularly discrimination for Mexicans. The
motivation for this trip is the shrinking visibility for our ties to Mexican
traditions that our grandparents relied on. This investigation is a way
for me to learn how to address the distinction between being New Mexican and
Mexican while also enhancing my perspectives on wellness. There is also a
hope to decrease the disparity between those that have access to healing and
others left to endure without medicines or wellness. This trip is serving
my need to become a better counselor and enhance my identity.
Over the years my declared Mexican heritage meshed into my
identity and served me, but now I am beginning to see how it limits me.
It is a piece of an identity I have worn. My identity has been a
way to distinguish myself from some, align with others, and declare to many who
I think I am. I am excited to share with you that the curiosity for and
exposure to other cultures is giving me understanding of how identities can be
binding, adaptable and living.
I came to Mexico to learn more about an ancient and traditional
form of healing called Curanderismo. There are numerous types of
curanderos. Along with the many types, are the unique styles that each curandero
can have, like a fingerprint. Curanderismo
is a way of healing that requires the use of four elements, fire, water,
plants, and air. It is a form of medicine that incorporates knowledge,
trust, and instinct. It is a form of medicine that connects divine uncertainty
with intricate insight into observable cures. It is a magical
demonstration of how nature provides the elements and energies to ensure our
bodies function appropriately. Curanderismo is more about being connected
to wellness and symbiosis than it is to being Mexican.
I came to Mexico to witness aspects of how Curanderismo is used.
I came with hopes of learning more about a community of health care
professionals that functioned off the grid. The grid being for profit,
providing an alternative motivation I like to think of as, for passion.
This trip has allowed me to indulge in the spectrum of my own illnesses.
I feel like I am walking away with acceptance that Curanderismo is not a
panacea. What I witnessed cannot be encapsulated by words, because what
happened during my trip was cosmic. How do you put cosmic into words?
I feel like I can only hint at what Curanderismo is.
Curanderismo is the attention to harmony. Curanderismo is the practices
and aspires for an ultimate respect for others. If Jesus Christ were to
come back I believe he would smile at the lifestyle of the Curandero. If Buddha
were to stumble across a Curandera he would likely smile. There seems to
be a grace from what I see as divinity that shines on the practices of
Curanderismo. The experiences I had from the cleansings called Limpias, messages
called Sobrados, and sweat session in a Temezcal, helps
me see the nature of healing. It helps me connect with what seems to be the
universal and primal desire to live. There also are aspects that can be
pragmatic and even scientific.
The practical components to Curanderismo that make up this
attention to harmony are the pedagogy, techniques, and its social ability.
Curanderismo has not found its way into the colonial form of teaching.
There is not a formal curriculum like in contemporary healing practices.
It is taught generationally from an elder to a youth. Usually, a
curandero will see the gift of healing in a person and an invitation will be presented
to them. The process is not a vocation. Curanderismo is a gift and
choice to pursue the learning necessary to share the individual’s gift with the
world.
The learning is by immersion. The student is a mentee. The
lessons are a legacy of plant knowledge combined with techniques to bring
together the Devine, the patient, an altar, and elements. The gathering
of plants is an art in itself. Special attention to the dignity of the
plant is taught to ensure a dignified respect for the plants life and
contribution to its destined healing. The healing process is encapsulated
by a special technique geared uniquely to address an ailment. The
Curandero and their mentees recite a pattern, a choreographed ritual, stirring
energy, in trust that healing will happen.
The social science is in the generational observations that help
communities learn and teach the effects that surrounding plants have on
wellness. The tradition transcends culture and becomes the formula.
The idea of Curanderismo seen as a gift is the harmony and respect that creates
ecosystems. The intimacy and connection between participants shows that
there is social science in the application. The patient and the Curandero
are crossing the belief in individualism to share energy. The experience
seems to conduct a transfer of medicine in the form of minerals, chemicals,
fluids, inhalants, poetry of words leading to thoughts being converted to neuro
transmissions, and lastly the discharge of barriers to relief.
That is a summary of what I can describe. There is so much
to share. The plant knowledge can be lifetime of learning. The
rituals require commitment for learning. The Practice is a powerful
responsibility that should be performed under careful observation and
supervision. The final piece of the process, I can describe.
I am altered. I gained insight into areas of my identity
that can heal, need healing, be shared, and clarity for what I can pursue to
nurture a better me. I am validating ideas around healing and illness
that feel foreign. Professionally they seem marginalized. Despite
the lack of knowledge and familiarity, I recognize I have a talent for sensing
these ideas.
The ideas I have seem like artifacts and waypoints left by
ancestors, tucked away in passages, that they expected me to cross. I
once felt a strong anger that these ideas were perceived to lack value in the
modern world. I had bitterness that the world and technologies were
depreciating them. I encountered a heavy discouragement, but most
importantly, I found hope for these lessons during my time in Oaxaca.
Before finding my path into the mental health world I was
constantly being told who I should be. I felt like I was being corralled into
how I should participate in the world. Most things I was taught I
believed to be concrete. I had emptiness because people that looked like
me rarely had answers to my question. How come the world is unfair in too
many places? How come health is a luxury? What is my worth?
With the encounters I am having with Curanderismo, my questions are
coming to life, becoming visible, and at a pace that is letting me absorb.
The ideas I am describing are still formulating in my thoughts.
This paper gives me a great opportunity to organize them. The
curanderos have taught me that healing comes through my senses. I take my
medicine through the senses. Some raw ideas can be that what I hear feeds
my thoughts. What I see heightens my understanding of reality. What
I touch connects me. What I taste I consume and becomes me. The
aromas around me inform me of where I am and what surrounds me. My
thoughts and ideas are valuable and need to be shared.
Because of this visit, its experiences, and training I am
expanding my definition of illness and even considering defining my own.
My medicine is in my curiosity. What I need to heal is revealed in
my fears. I don't have to take classes for pedagogy of lessons that are
as rampant as the rain or as accessible as the seasons. I don't have to
earn my spot, apply, and hope I can participate. I am capable of healing.
I can be responsible with power. I will be respectful of fears.
I will guide you and teach what you want to learn. This is an
invitation. There is no obligation to be healed or to learn to heal.
It will always be here, waiting like a flower to be smelled, touched,
admired, possibly tasted, and listened to. I wish for you to investigate
your contribution and consumptions. I
ask that you learn balance and trust.
You are loved! Be good
