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| Remedios to heal the Chicana/o spirit |
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Social justice in mental health is not an oxymoron. It is time for transcultural healing and ethnopsychiatry to be revived. The Department of Chicana/o Studies is honored to a part of Sisters of Color United for Education and its upcoming conference on The Dance of the Flower Medicine: Danza Xochitl Pahtli – Mexican/Chicano Health Symposium that will be held in Denver from August 5-7, 2009 and to host an event at Metropolitan State College on Friday, August 7th.
Disparities in Latina/o health and mental health are abysmal. The enormous cervical and breast cancer rates among Latinas reported in El Semanario is equally appalling. Deciphering data like this educes repressed memories of my dearest mother who died of breast cancer at the age of 49.
I watched her body incipiently deteriorate for several years while this intrusive illness invaded the essence of her being. She went through chemotherapy and suffered from the devastating effects of this treatment. The mastectomy was just as demoralizing as her body was maimed. I remember women of her generation that endured these pains like good Mexican mothers, sin decir nada.
As a senior in college at the time, I traveled back and forth to Kansas to visit with her during her last days on this earth. In one of my last visits, I informed her that I was going to drop out of college and come home to care of her.
She looked me and stated, “Mijo, there is not anything that you can do for me. God is calling me. I want you to go back to Colorado and finish college. Promise me that you will, and I promise you that I will be at your graduation.” I kept my promise but it was a painful journey, not knowing whether I had made the right decision.
She died and was buried on March 11, 1976 two months before I graduated from college. Her spirit was hovering over the ceremony that glorious morning as I crossed the stage and was handed a piece of sheepskin with letters inscribed on it. I could feel her presence at that exact moment. She had kept her promise.
During the Dance of the Flower Medicine: Danza Xochitl Pahtli, curanderas/curanderos from México and New México will visit Denver. Curanderas/os assist us in healing and ameliorating wounded spirits caused by traumatic experiences in life. Curanderismo is a form of therapeutic decolonization; and no, not from a Western perspective. It is a holistic approach to becoming and maintaining health. A healthy spirit can guide you through life and provide you with insight, knowledge, and comfort. It is a gift.
A sojourn back in time reminds us of nuestras abuelitas as they picked natural medicine from the back yard and concocted remedios. We are also keenly aware of how La Raza’s cultural medicine was viewed as quackery by medical scientists, referring to the community’s healers as charlatans who did not know what they were doing.
In the 1960’s and 1970’s, Chicana/o communities were struggling for social justice. Many warriors were scarred by political battles leaving open wounds locked in the vestiges of nuestras corazones. There were no pills that soothed broken spirits caused by broken treaties. Coraje (anger) y rabia (rage) had invaded the communities collective soul. Indigenous ceremonies were not always available. Acting out against internal demons further exacerbated stress and tension in relationships, many times causing more harm than good.
I am eternally grateful for having been mentored for 13 years by a curandera, a sage, a guru, a woman with exceptional insight and gifts. On the day that I met Diana Velazquez, I could not fathom what a journey with a curandera meant. Our paths crossed at a time in my life when I needed to heal from my own struggles. Diana knew that because of her uncanny insight. She was never one to be fooled as she took me on the journey, one laden with a lot of challenges.
Activism was a remedio. As a healer and cultural activist, I was embroiled challenges for 17 years over how to best deliver substance abuse and mental health services to Chicana/o communities. The Chicana/o Movement produced activists in a variety of disciplines whose stories are untold. Many graduate students, walking out of universities with Master’s degrees in psychology and social work, knew that La Raza had been subjected to culturally deficient and invasive philosophies from a mainstream traditional WASP model, blaming the victim for his or her own calamities.
There are also many healers who are quiet leaders struggling every day to make systems healthier and more culturally responsive to our communities’ health needs. Their stories are not about a massive movement; they are stories about preserving love for the human condition, suffering from the devastating effects of colonization. They are stories about balancing out life’s struggles, contributing to humanity and finding peace within.
Currently, the Chicana/o Department at Metropolitan State College of Denver offers a class in Curanderismo. It fulfills a dream come true. For it is within higher education with its magnificence that we can teach our counterparts about the many contributions that La Raza has made to the fields of medicine and psychiatry. It is a place where we can build upon the knowledge that nuestra cultura offers to the betterment of humanity. It is a place where we can leave our insignia on society.
My doctoral dissertation entitled: “Effective Management Strategies When Incorporating Curanderismo into a Mainstream Mental Health System,” will no longer sit idly on a shelf. It will come to life as the community sorts through the mishmash and blending of two healing systems without compromising the healing forces of either one. It is time to share and contribute nuestro conocimiento to the world. The department is appreciative to those peaceful activist warriors who constantly push the envelope in hopes of creating social justice in the field of mental health.
Gracias a las curanderas/os que estan compartiendo su conocimiento. Vengan todos a participar.
Ramón Del Castillo, Ph.D. is an Independent Journalist.
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