Curanderas/os constituted the most common healers in Latin America until the contemporary era. Largely rooted in Catholic and humoral belief systems blended with Indigenous or African healing patterns, most labored within a local setting and are practically absent from historical scholarship due to the social nature of their healing. As social healers, they blended into communities and did not seek the exclusive privileges of professional healers, who set themselves apart by education or status from the communities that they served. A small percentage of curanderas/os rose to national or international acclaim, often attracting the attention of intellectuals seeking to understand the historical contexts for their fame or to apply threads of thought from the present to the past.
Borderlands Curanderos explores the meanings of two curanderas/os who crossed into the United States in the late nineteenth century. Santa Teresa Urrea and Don Pedrito Jaramillo have been subjected to extensive historical...
