In many of the supermarkets and drugstores of the southwest, many medicinal plants are sold in plastic bags with Spanish-name labels. Some of these plants are native, while others were brought to the New World by the settlers of the colonial period. In San Antonio, Laredo, and many other towns in Texas, a person can visit a botanica, a shop which specializes in herbal medicines as well as religious figurines, incense, “milagros,” and other necessities of the Hispanic “curanderismo” tradition.
The late Michael Moore of Bisbee, Arizona was the foremost Anglo herbalist of the American southwest. He collected information from Hispanic and Indian healers for forty years. To survive the stressful xeric environment, the endemic plants of the region are chemical factories, producing compounds that allow them to thrive – compounds that, incidentally, can also be of benefit to humans. Many of the compounds present in our modern medicines were originally discovered in plants, and pharmaceutical companies now have researchers spread out all over the world interviewing indigenous people to learn what they know about plant medicines. Plants have been medicine for people for millennia, and still are, for much of the non-industrial world.
Historically, as the New World was settled, no doctors were available, or they were two or three days away by horseback or wagon. People used herbs because they had no other option to treat their illnesses.
Herbal medicine was the norm for doctors in the United States until the processes of vaccination and synthesizing of medicines were developed. For example, tuberculosis victims moved to the southwest in the late 1800’s for the dry air that allowed increased ease in breathing. The doctors of the time treated them with herbal medicines, such as snakeweed , or broomweed, which contains a chemical that acts somewhat like that which is in an asthma inhaler. Herbs work very well for moderate problems, but only treat the symptoms of more serious diseases such as rheumatic fever, tuberculosis, or gonorrhea, and today we have the benefit of medicines that our forebearers didn’t know..
Medicine Women, Curanderas, and Women Doctors, by Perrone, Stockel, and Krueger is an excellent introduction to the various medical traditions present in the southwestern United States. Here’s a summary of their perception of curanderismo.
Curanderismo, the centuries old New World Hispanic form of medical care, begins within the family. In an extended family, there is usually at least one woman that is the living repository of herbal knowledge who often grows her favorite medicinal plants herself. If her remedies fail, then a patient seeks the help of a medicine woman, a curandera or a medicine man, a curandero. The curandera has more extensive knowledge of the remedies that have helped generations of ancestors. If her cures fail, modern medical science is now consulted.
Curanderas believe that if they are successful and their patient recovers, it is the result of God’s will. The curandera believes that God put the remedies, “remedios” on earth as cures for ailments. Their patients believe that God has chosen the curandera, and with every success are proved worthy. As part of the cure, curanderas invoke the saints as intercessors that present petitions to God for healing. Curanderismo addresses not only the medical needs of the patient, but also their psychological, spiritual, and social needs.
Herbal treatments can often be effective, but in the United States, the curanderismo tradition is slowly fading, for few young people see the profession as a viable economic alternative for themselves. And, sadly, the knowledge is being lost.
Nature Notes is sponsored by the Dixon Water Foundation and is produced by KRTS Marfa Public Radio in cooperation with the Sibley Nature Center in Midland, Texas. This episode was written by Burr Williams of the Sibley Nature Center.