"Our Curandera (Healer)" Esperanza Villanueva

I remember a beautiful, special lady. She was my aunt. Her name was Andrea. She was the healer (curandera ) in small community. She was a special Indigenous person. She had white skin and hair, and her eyes were blue. Her clothes were a typical costume of a small village in Mexico: a long “futa” or shawl in my country called a rebozo, and a, hat., She was always accompanied by a donkey.

She was the official healer of the small village. She was an expert midwife, chiropractor, and dispenser of remedies for infections.. She used the different plants and she made different combinations of herbs.

She was famous and never refused to go to different places and she received patients in her home on specific days of the week. When she was finished the treatment in her home, she made a sauna (temascal). This was a sort of igloo made of clay. It was divided in two parts, one had small branches and the other was like a chimney. In it there was a container of water and different kinds of plants.

Her clients always paid her with corn, cereal, eggs, or different kinds of animals. I have a good memory of my childhood at this time. It was about this village and how she diagnosed adult and child illness and how and how she cured everything.

Also by Esperanza Villanueva, read "Two Volcanoes"