They All Want Magic

by De La Portilla, Elizabeth

• ISBN13: 9781603440998
• ISBN10: 1603440992
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-03-30
• Publisher: Texas A & M Univ Pr

Summary

Curanderas-traditional healers in Mexican culture-bridge the gaps between multiple planes of existence-spiritual and material, modern and pre-modern-dispensing medicinal herbs, prayers, and instruction. Elizabeth de la Portilla writes of the world and practices of San Antonio curanderas. As a scholar, an ethnographer, and a curandera in training, her parallel perspectives uniquely aid readers in understanding this subordinated culture. Retelling the stories various healers have shared, interpreting their answers to her probing questions, and describing the herbs and recipes they use in their arts, the author vividly illuminates the borderland context of San Antonio. Scholars and readers of anthropology, sociology, Chicana and Chicano studies, and women's studies will savor the many layers of meaning and application inThey All Want Magic.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. ix
Introduction	p. 1
The Road Home	p. 7
Living in the Borderlands Means	p. 19
Work as Medicine	p. 29
Curanderismo as a Template for a Mexican American World View	p. 51
Healers and Their Clients	p. 67
The Cultural Life of Plants in Curanderismo	p. 93
Curanderismo and Its Possibilities	p. 103
Epilogue	p. 117
Appendices	p. 123
Notes	p. 131
Bibliography	p. 137
Index	p. 143
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