El Nino Fidencio the Mythical Curandero

The Huichol Indians are an indigenous group that lives “in the Sierra Madre Mountains of northwestern Mexico” (Woolcott). The Huichol religion is an animistic religion. According to Dr. Pamela Lindell, animistic religions are “religions that believe that all of nature – humans, animals, plants, rocks, the ocean, etc. - is animated by spirits and souls” (“Professor’s Notes 2” 3). To better understand the Huichol Indians and their religion, this paper examines Huichol myth, symbolism, rituals, religious specialists, and deities from various anthropological perspectives.

Santeria is built on sympathetic, homeopathic magic, imitative. It revolves around the laws of contact and similarity.

There had been convictions that these healing practices were helpful, at least as supportive care, to clients suffering chronic mental illness. Spiritist healing practices: Spiritist medium diagnosed by seeing (inwardly envisioning) the causes of the illness and other problems to the spirit world. They do not heal in any direct sense but open their bodies to possession by illness or problem causing spirits who have attached themselves to sufferers. Healing takes place when the spirit medium assists the sufferer to come into harmony with these spirits and forgive them so as to change his or her emotions, lifestyle, physical complaints and/or destiny. The widespread fear in Puerto Rico associated with either becoming or being labeled as a loco acts a restraint on the ways medium works with persons whom they perceived psychiatric concepts and definitions of mental illness and those of the Spiritists. There was a case that was compared with the most frequent complaint of 220 women receiving help from Spiritits mediums at ritual healing

A curandero is a Mexican-American folk healer that heals physical, mental, and spiritual illnesses. The folk healer uses prayer, faith, and herbal remedies to heal. People associate repeated healing with healthy relationships between people, culture, and the environment. Mora and Anaya portray the curandera in different and similar ways. The literary works consist of common characteristics and qualities that the curanderos possess irrespective of the different genders. In both poems, the curanderos are knowledgeable. Besides, they have a close connection with nature, and the people from their towns respect them greatly.

Elialde author of The Sacred and the Profane introduces a new model of the sacred and the profane. Elialde’s model is meant to be universal, therefore meant to be appropriate for any recognized religion. David Carrasco author of Religions of Mesoamerica and Kay Almere Read and Jason J. González authors of Mesoamerican Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Heroes, Rituals, and Beliefs of Mexico and Central America, discuss their interpretation of the Mesoamerican religion although their views on the Mesoamerican religion differs in some aspects when compared to Eliade’s model of the sacred and the profane there are a few noticeable similarities between both views.

According Grace Alvarez Sesma “Curanderismo is usually a synthesis of Mexican pan-indigenous, culture and beliefs, and depending on the curandera’s religious, cultural, and/or tribal background (if any), it may or may not, also have Catholic, Sephardic, and African influences” (Curanderismo.org). In addition, it is also known as a traditional folk medicine that is based upon raw natural herbed remedies, prayers, massage, limpias (spiritual cleansings), honoring the earth, mid-wife, spiritual communication, herbal foraging, healing of the mind, soul, and body. In Bless Me, Ultima there are many examples of how Ultima clearly depicts the identity and practice of a Curandera. Throughout the novel she is noted to have practiced in mid wife duties with the aided birth of Antonio, concocted herbal remedies, foraged along the llano, spiritual cleansings within the Tellez home, and heal the PTSD mind of Antonio’s brother Leon, heal the confused soul of Antonio, and heal the cursed body of Lucas. A particular foraging example would be, “In the mornings, before it was too hot, Ultima and I walked in the hills of the llano, gathering the wild herbs and roots for her medicines” (Anaya, pg. 39). Further into chapter 4 Ultima also explains to Antonio during their foraging

A curandero is a Mexican-American folk healer that heals physical, mental, and spiritual illnesses. The folk healer uses prayer, faith, and herbal remedies to heal. People associate repeated healing with healthy relationships between people, culture, and the environment. In the poem, “Curandera”, by Pat Mora and the novel, “Bless Me, Ultima”, by Rudolfo Anaya portray the curandera in different and similar ways. The literary works consist of common characteristics and qualities that the curanderos possess irrespective of the different genders. In both poems, the curanderos are knowledgeable. Besides, they have a close connection with nature, and the people from their towns respect them greatly.

These religious and spiritual influences play a major role in the Hispanics health, illness and daily life. In much a similar manner, the Native American Indian family adopts the cultural beliefs to associate with illness and health. They believe that a person’s state of exists when he or she exists in harmony with nature and sickness occurs when an imbalance between the natural or supernatural forces and the sick individual exists (Askim-Lovseth & Aldana, 2010). Traditional health believes and practices involving healing ceremonies and rituals restore balance when illness happens. “These can be conducted by their traditional medicine men or women, who are thought to have compelling powers, the ability to read minds, and know-how in concocting medicine, drugs and poisons.” For the white young family, the cultural belief of invincibility and youth are the driving force behind health prevention (Askim-Lovseth & Aldana, 2010). “Focus on the temporary is regularised, while thinking about health is assigned to an adult person where family accountabilities pertain.” Protecting against illness or disease does not feature into their daily lives. Disease or illness is something that is insubstantial and distant, and unimaginable to their young, resilient bodies and thus irrelevant (Edelman & Mandle, 2010).

the spirits of the dead and facilitate their resurrection” (Phillips 2005, 16). Indians began to practice their

Not to mention, Hispanics also believe that illness and disease are caused by the paranormal and psychological disorders (Edelman, Kudzma, & Mandle, 2014). Mal de ojo (evil eye) is believed to be caused by the look of animosity by a person (Edelman, Kudzma, & Mandle, 2014; Jarvis, 2012). Susto (fright) and ataque de nervios (hysteria) are provoked by traumatic incidents, crises, and powerful emotions (Edelman, Kudzma, & Mandle, 2014). Folk healers such as curandero, spiritualist, yerbero, and sabador are still used, including home remedies (Edelman, Kudzma, & Mandle, 2014). Curanderos use prayers, herbs, rituals, and laying of the hands as a form of health promotion (Edelman, Kudzma, & Mandle, 2014). The

Modern practitioners of Santeria may be attracted to the religion for a variety of reasons, notable among which are curiosity with secret rituals and the longing among many immigrants and people of color to get in touch with Caribbean and African roots. What each specific individual wants from a religion is difficult to generalize upon, but Santeria offers a way for people to achieve harmony in their lives through communication with and obedience to orishas, the divine beings that act as intermediaries between humans and the Supreme Being, Olodumare. Santeria teaches how to know and appease the specific desires of a pantheon of orishas who alert devotees to problems in their lives and protect them from harm. In

From the destruction of a religion or belief system grows another. In Things Fall Apart the village of Umuofia’s culture includes an unnamed religion strongly based on spiritual beings. Their religion bears a strong resemblance to one in Christianity,

In The Hold Life Has: Coca and Cultural Identity in an Andean Community, Catherine Allen describes several rituals. As an outsider, while reading and learning about the rituals one thing was quite obvious, community reciprocity is the driving organizing dynamic for Andean culture. Furthermore, it is evident that Andean’s are drawn as a group into a shared communion with the Earth, with the Sacred Places, and with the ancestral dead. Carnival Time is an example of a shared communion or common focus that depicts the descent, locality, religion, and political factionalism that define this indigenous group of people.

1. “Root metaphors” from the Aztec and Spanish worlds have combined through the how these two cultures view sun and light and how they associate them with divine beings. Long before the Spanish arrived, Aztec civilization had a cosmic system of five time cycles that included five different suns which they believed influenced results of regarding creation or the apocalypse. Furthermore, they came to believe that their god(s) used the sun as divine messages for them. Because of this conclusion “root metaphor” they feared that the god(s)’s punishment for them would be that the day would turn to night forever unless human sacrifices were made. In contrast, the Spanish used solar imagery as divine representation in relation to the Psalms

Throughout the years, Cuba is known to be a Communist country struggling to determine its own identity. Some Cubans have fought with the decision to stay in their native country or migrate to the United States. Others have decided to settle in Cuba and let their fate be determined by the gods. Santería, an African religion mixed with Catholic traditions, is practiced by many Cubans and allows followers to establish their destiny by the orishas, or African spirits. It also gives a sense of individuality to the characters in the novel, Dreaming in Cuban which incorporates several elements of the faith into the story. Overall, the Santería religion affects the Cuban people in many parts of their lives politically, artistically, musically, and