Known as curanderas, they carry on a tradition long revered in local Hispanic culture.
WHY WE’RE HERE
We’re exploring how America defines itself one place at a time. In the Rio Grande Valley, which straddles the Mexican border in Texas, cities like Edinburg, Pharr and McAllen are steeped in old Mexican American traditions.
On a recent day, Chriselda Hernandez heard a knock at her door in the Texas border town of Edinburg. It was a college student who said she was suffering from a string of bad luck. A drunken driver had crashed into her car. Then someone broke into the new car she was driving and stole her laptop. “I need a limpia,” she pleaded — a spiritual cleanse.
Ms. Hernandez moved to an altar in her living room that bore an image of the Virgin of Guadalupe. Slowly, she mixed a concoction of sage and palo santo, a wood native to South America, and lit it with a match. Then she turned back to the young woman and waved the healing smoke over her body.
“You are holding on to something,” Ms. Hernandez whispered to her. “Let it go. There is no shame.”