Curandero

A curandero is a male shaman or healer who practices Latino folk medicine, curanderismo. (A [Page 649]female practitioner is called curandera; for the purposes of this article the two terms are interchanged.) Hispanic cultures in the United States and elsewhere have a strong tradition of folk medicine. Curanderos and other practitioners of folk healing are respected, influential members of Latino communities and have a variety of skills.

In many traditional cultures, including Hispanic American cultures, there is a general belief that many illnesses are caused by not only physical factors but also spiritual ones. A range of ideas contribute to this belief system, including the idea that physical roots of a health problem such as an infection can be tied to spiritual and supernatural forces.

For example, a physical infection might be influenced by God or evil forces, including witchcraft (brujeria) or even Satan. Curanderas are, in a sense, intervening in spiritual matters between spiritual forces and their patients and assisting the patients in healing themselves.

Curanderos are equipped to handle both the physical and spiritual aspects of health issues and therefore are very important to some Latino communities.

The presence of botanicas, stores where herbal and religious healing elements are sold, is one good indicator that the local culture holds traditional healing beliefs and curanderas in high regard. (This is not to say that, for example, Western pharmacies would not also play an important role in the community; rather, in communities that use curanderos a multitiered approach to illness and health, including both Western and traditional methods, is often adopted.) The details of a community's curanderismo are closely tied to the specific region of Latin or South America from which the community members originate.

Certain symptoms within a culture are special signifiers and perceived in unique ways; these are culture-bound syndromes. An example of this is the “evil eye,” mal ojo. A successful healer of the evil eye, whether she is a curandera or an M.D., will recognize both the cultural implications of the malady (in which children exhibit fever, crying, and vomiting as a result of spiritual issues) and the physical ones.

In other words, the healer will address the main danger—dehydration—and also the spiritual needs of the patient and family. Most curanderas are well aware of their limits and many refer patients to Western medical professionals as needed. And, along these lines, the wise M.D. who treats people from more traditional Hispanic communities will endeavor to be sensitive to the role of folk medicine in the lives of her patients and will ask them what they feel the causes of the malady might be and what they have done to treat it. Furthermore, families might consult both an M.D. and a curandero, and pick, choose, and combine which methods they use from each consultation. This exchange of healing methods should highlight the ways curanderos impact American society as a whole. The research area of cultural influences on medical issues is steadily growing in our culture; see, for example, studies on the influence of folk medicine on pain management in cancer patients.

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