'La Curandera' could teach much about healing

Dona Chona, la Curandera — my mother — was ahead of her time. She ran the original "one stop holistic healing center."

She had a cure for almost everything — neurosis, paralysis and skin disease, to name a few. She cured patients whom modern physicians had declared incurable. She counseled people on matters of the "heart," removed black-magic curses and read fortunes. She even had cures for illnesses not known to Anglo medicine — empacho, susto, and mal ojo. In short, she was a classic "curandera" — a medical folk practitioner in the Mexican community.

My mother had a regional reputation for healing. Families traveled from Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Texas to be cured by La Senora de Utah. It was not unusual for her to treat Mexican children and adults who had been to the local county hospital where they were advised to go home, come back next month, or that there was nothing wrong with them.

Her success in treating people from the Mexican community whom modern medicine could not, demonstrates how a culture defines what is illness and cure. It is only recently that modern medicine has started to accept that concept and one reason the holistic wellness/healing movement is gaining greater acceptance.

The curandera's success is basic and no big secret. It is based on the fundamental support system she calls upon that is an integral part of Mexican culture — God, the family and the curandera. Modern medicine is now recognizing what is a given in Mexican folk medicine: treat the whole person — mind, soul and body. Freud talked about the importance of treating both the psyche with the soma. My mother did this intuitively.

A patient who came to see my mother usually brought family members along, since illness, for Mexicans, is a family matter. Family members would sit very solemnly and place much faith in my mother. She always greeted them in a warm manner, offering them coffee and sweet bread. It was not uncommon for her to cook a meal if she knew they had traveled any great distance. After everyone was comfortable, she would let all the family members know that it was not she who would heal the patient but rather the patient's faith, as well as the faith of all the family members — "es la voluntad de Dios" (It is the will of God).