Curandero shares insight into mystical practices

When a woman came to Alberto Salinas Jr. recently about her marital problems, the curandero knew exactly what to do.

The woman wanted her first husband to leave her alone and her current husband to come home; he’d left because of family problems and she wanted him to come back, so Salinas told her to light candles.

“I told what candles to buy,” he said. “They’re candles to folk saints, like Don Pedrito Jaramillo.”

The woman also had faith in the spirit of Pancho Villa and used those candles, which can be purchased at a local hierberia, to keep the ex-husband away.

Curanderismo comes from the Spanish word curar, which means to cure or heal, said Tony Zavaleta, vice president for external affairs at the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College. Zavaleta is also an anthropologist who co-authored a book with Salinas called “Curandero Conversations.”

“That’s a term that has been developed by anthropologists and others to describe the practice of curanderos, what they do,” Zavaleta said. “It is the indigenous form of folk medicine along the US Mexico border and throughout Mexico and Latin America. It’s everywhere. It’s based upon herbal medicine, knowledge of medicinal plants for healing, and on and on. Every pre-industrial society, without exception that the world has ever known has had a tradition of healing and of healers, whether they were Native American or European. Very often these healers and their healing traditions were associated with what we know today as shamanism.”

Zavaleta pointed that although we are no longer pre-industrial, many people don’t have access to physical or mental health care and therefore will go to a curandero or curandera.

Salinas, 59, said he became a curandero in his late 20s after losing his job as a Hidalgo County sheriff’s deputy. He’d had problems in the department and couldn’t go back to law enforcement.

“I went to a curandera to seek help,” he said. “I met the spirit of Niño Fidencio by channeling a young Mexican woman, 18 years old. That was my calling to curanderismo.”

Niño Fidencio, says the book “Curandero Conversations,” was a healer. He was born in Guanajuato but later moved to Espinazo, Nuevo Leon, where he performed what many believe were miraculous cures. The book said he is believed to have cured lepers, people with tuberculosis, and the insane “simply by looking at them.”

Salinas wasn’t new to curanderismo; he had grown up with it. As a young boy, his mother took him to curanderas and he was familiar with limpias (cleanings), healings, and other practices. The spirit of Niño Fidencio called him to become a curandero, and he learned the practice through communication with that spirit and through working with other people who practiced curanderismo.

“I received training from the spirit of Niño Fidencio through dreams and revelations,” he said.

That wasn’t the first time, however, that he felt called.

“I felt a calling from my childhood,” he said. “A curandera used to tell my mother I had the healing gift..”

Depending on the situation, there are numerous methods to practice healing through curanderismo. In the case of the woman experiencing marital problems, he recommended she use candles called el anima sola (the lonely soul) and el animo herrante (the wandering soul.

“They are souls that are dedicated to make a certain person come back to another person,” he said. “It’s called candle magic. I bet you before too long she will reveal the result. She will come back and tell me it worked.”

He uses different items for limpias, which is the cleansing of negative energy from a person or a house. The most important herbs for performing a limpia on a person are rosemary and basil. He also uses rue, which the Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary defines as a strong-scented European woody herb.

“Those are very powerful and very popular herbs for limpias,” he said, adding that he sweeps a person with the plants to break up negative energy. He also uses a rock called alumbre for cleansing fear or trauma from a person.

“A fresh egg with a live yolk can be used for cleansing negative energy,” he said. “A lemon can be used to break the negative energies.”

He uses incense to cleanse a house of negative energy. Myrrh, copal, and estoroque are used to cleanse a house; rosemary, cinnamon sticks, ground coffee and sugar can be added to make the cleansing more powerful.

To contact Salinas, call (956) 381-0980.