Nearly a millennium-and-a-half after the cultivation of corn in Mesoamerica, around 1,200 BCE, the Olmec civilization is founded. This thriving society gives rise to the first cities and evidence shows advanced surgical procedures such as trephination (to treat a wide range of ills such as epileptic seizure, brain swelling and blunt trauma to the head). The fall of Olmec leads to the Zapotec, then Maya, and then Toltec civilizations. It’s not until 1521 that Mesoamerica’s Archaic Period ends with the Aztec Empire, when Spain’s conquistador Hernán Cortés overtakes the empire’s capital city, Tenochtitlan.
In all this time, a rich cultural tapestry becomes Mexico’s (and the broader Latin America’s) ancestral claim to a “diverse folk healing system,” as outlined by Renaldo Maduro, PhD, in his paper published in The Western Journal of Medicine entitled, “Curanderismo and Latino Views of Disease and Curing.” He notes that there are eight components from their worldview, that disease and/or illness are rooted in emotion, environmental imbalance or disharmony, “malevolent forces,” spiritual disconnection or “loss of soul,” sometimes bringing the family together as a unit, among others.
He goes on to explain that Mexican culture’s healing traditions, known as curanderismo (with healers known as curanderos), demonstrate a strong relationship between the healer and the patient. In looking at the Mexican ancient healing practices in this article, we can see how integrative medical perspective can be seen today, blending curanderismo and modern, allopathic medicine.
Rituals of Curanderismo
There are many rituals associated with curanderismo, all with the intent on bringing back the balance to the individual or family that Dr. Maduro described in his research.
As one example, the use of temazcal, or sweat lodge, for psychological, physiological and spiritual healing, is a curanderismo practice trending currently with Westerners today. In essence, a shaman-lead ritual in a hut that is heated and steamed through tossing water onto hot stones. A reporter, Susannah Rigg, from the Independent, detailed recently her experience in an Oaxacan temazcal. She describes individuals’ reasons for attending these ancient Mexican healing rituals in temazcales, noting that “[s]ome are regulars, there for the health benefits, hoping to clear their pores, raise their heart rate and cleanse their lungs. Some are quietly focused, there for spiritual purification.”
There are smaller, more personal rituals one can perform to heal oneself. In my research, I see several examples of the power of laughter therapy in use by curanderos. By laughing we release a wide array of endorphins that act as buffering agents to stressors.
As well, there is a ritual of burying bad emotional and spiritual components of one’s life. Curanderos guide those afflicted with emotional trauma to dig a hole, and speak their negative emotions or feelings or traumatic experiences into the hole and then covering it up as a way to release it from your body, mind and spirit. There is more research being done on the use of curanderismo with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) with a combination of stronger health interventions than burying, literally, your feelings. (Is that where that phrase originated, perhaps?)
Curanderismo’s Herbalism
Curanderismo encourages the use of plant-based medicines to intervene in all varieties of disease and illness, most to do with issues relating to the digestive tract. Mexican ancient culture is onto something as current research shows how important our gut-brain connection is to our physical and emotional health.
In curanderismo, aloe vera exists prominently as a curative for skin burns, cuts and more. It’s also used as a drink to aid digestion. Now we know that aloe vera has anti-inflammatory and antibiotic properties when applied topically or ingested. In ancient Mexico, an aloe vera plant would be placed at the entrance of a home where an individual was having negative spiritual experiences.
From juice therapy–papaya fruit is widely used as another digestive remedy for indigestion–to tinctures and other forms of herbalism, as explains Stanford School of Medicine, curanderismo herbalistic healing is still widely used and practiced.
Curanderos in Training in Mexico Today
In Dr. Cheo Torres’s TEDxABQ, “Connecting Modern Medicine to Traditional Healing: Dr. Cheo Torres at TEDxABQ,” he reminisces about his mother’s home remedies that stemmed from curanderismo. But more powerfully, he goes on to explain the power of curanderismo when combined with the understanding of modern medicine today. In this integrative medicine approach, a new generation of curanderos are being trained at community centers in Mexico to help tackle the difficult issues of providing quality, affordable healthcare.
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Have you ever experienced any ancient healing practices within Latin American, especially Mexican, culture? What was it like? Let us know in the comments.