Borderlands Curanderos

Curanderas/os constituted the most common healers in Latin America until the contemporary era. Largely rooted in Catholic and humoral belief systems blended with Indigenous or African healing patterns, most labored within a local setting and are practically absent from historical scholarship due to the social nature of their healing. As social healers, they blended into communities and did not seek the exclusive privileges of professional healers, who set themselves apart by education or status from the communities that they served. A small percentage of curanderas/os rose to national or international acclaim, often attracting the attention of intellectuals seeking to understand the historical contexts for their fame or to apply threads of thought from the present to the past.Borderlands Curanderos explores the meanings of two curanderas/os who crossed into the United States in the late nineteenth century. Santa Teresa Urrea and Don Pedrito Jaramillo have been subjected to extensive historical scrutiny, so it is refreshing that Jennifer Seman brings novel interpretations to their lives and memories, stressing the liminality of border regions divided by geopolitical boundaries but unified by deep ethnic beliefs, ways of living, and hostility. These fabled curanderas/os drew many supporters in the border region but also considerable hostility from US whites and professional healers on both sides of the border. Seman fleshes out the healers' lives within an excellent contextualization of the region.The work's structure enhances its accessibility. A brief overview of the borderlands and the historiography of curanderas/os is followed by two chapters on Santa Teresa Urrea and two chapters on Don Pedrito Jaramillo. The chapters are conveniently subdivided to allow for a multifaceted understanding of the healers. The conclusion offers reflections on life in contemporary borderlands. An appendix tabulates Don Pedrito's recetas (“recipes” or “prescriptions”) and healings.Santa Teresa Urrea acquired her healing gift from the Virgin in 1889 at age 16, when she suffered a severe illness. Born to an Indigenous teenager and a small-estate owner, she quickly acquired local fame as a healer among rural laborers and was referred to as Santa Teresa by Mayo and Yaqui peoples. Teresa criticized the church's hierarchy over “social justice,” inspiring in part the 1891 Tomochic rebellion (p. 54). Though her role in the rebellion was marginal, she and her father, don Tomás Urrea, were exiled from Mexico to Arizona. Seman's work provides depth and texture to Teresa's life and labors in the United States.Seman describes two phases to Santa Teresa's fame, the first in the borderlands and the second in urban California. She and her father initially settled in Arizona, where she attracted the attention of Liberal opponents to Porfirio Díaz and continued to serve numerous borderlands supplicants. Teresa and her father continued to criticize injustices against border residents and laborers seeking just conditions. (A sustained analysis of Tomás's politics might be warranted.) A vexing medical case drew her to San Diego and then to San Francisco, where “the Mexican Joan of Arc” became part of the “medical marketplace” of hustlers, homeopaths, patent medicine vendors, and others operating outside the domain of professional medicine. Santa Teresa died in 1906, far from the Indigenous and borderlands peoples who revered her healing and charitable powers.Don Pedrito Jaramillo, born to Tarascan peoples in Jalisco, shared with Teresa a similar socioeconomic background. But his life trajectory in the southern Rio Grande Valley was quite different. Many of Jaramillo's cures involved water, baths, and herbs and were often accompanied by charitable food and lodging. Don Pedrito crossed into the United States in 1881, about 60 miles from the border. People from both sides of the border sought his assistance, in a pilgrimage that offered its own healing power. Jaramillo's home became a hub of healing and charity known throughout the region.President Plutarco Elías Calles's 1928 visit to the popular El Niño Fidencio exposed curanderas/os’ central role in the borderlands. A San Antonio–based opponent of Calles declared curanderismo no more than “black magic” with which a civilized Mexico needed to sever all ties (p. 113). José Tomás Canales countered this by upholding a vision of Mexico's raza cósmica, a concept of identity to which curanderismo, “with its unique mix of science, faith, and (what some believed) magic” that “contributed to the vitality and health of borderlands communities,” was vital (p. 131).The borderlands have been a violent zone for migrants and residents alike. Lynchings, Texas Rangers, federal border agents, and day-to-day racism are oppressive attributes of the borderlands for migrants and residents alike, to which cultural activities and positive identities are partial responses. Scores visit Don Pedrito's shrine each year, knowing his continued healing powers and assistance in their lives. Both Don Pedrito and Santa Teresa attended to individuals, but more importantly to the past and present social worlds of the borderlands.Seman's book adds substantively to the historiography of Mexican curanderas/os. It is well researched and well written. Graced by images and maps that greatly assist the reader, it could easily be assigned in an undergraduate course

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