Course Description

This course explores the history, traditions, rituals, and remedies of curanderismo, a folk healing tradition in the southwestern United States, Mexico, and Latin America. In this course, students will examine how Chicana/o/x ancestors used traditional methods of healing and shaped the cultural diversity of traditional medicine. We will also discuss the resurgence of this medicine and its future. This online class offers a unique way to study curanderismo in an online classroom with optional in-person workshops on topics such as temazcal, herbal medicine and preparation, creating a personal plant journal, limpias, and other topics. Students will be required to attend three live lectures on Zoom. 

Texts

Curanderismo: The Art of Traditional Medicine without Borders, Eliseo Torres

Healing with Herbs and Rituals: A Mexican Tradition, Eliseo Torres and Timothy L. Sawyer

Woman Who Glows in the Dark: A Curandera Reveals Traditional Aztec Secrets of Physical and Spiritual Health, Elena Avila and Joy Parker

Requirements

Students will complete weekly discussion posts + responses, a plant journal and tincture video, a midterm essay, a group presentation, attend guest lectures via Zoom, and complete a final project.

About the Instructor(s): Myrriah Gómez

Myrriah Gómez has a PhD in Literature with an emphasis in Latina/o Studies. Her book Nuclear Nuevo Mexico: Colonialism and the Effects of the Nuclear Industrial Complex on Nuevomexicanos is part of her research and teaching related to the interdisciplinary field of Chicanx Studies.