Remedios: The Healing Life of Eva Castellanoz

by Joanne B. Mulcahy

Overview

Former President Ronald Reagan called Eva Castellanoz a "national treasure" when he awarded her an NEA National Heritage Fellowship in 1987. Featured in National Geographic, National Public Radio, and numerous other publications, Castellanoz is celebrated as a folk artist, community activist and a curandera, a traditional Mexican healer who uses a mind-body-spirit approach. During her 16 year friendship with Joanne Mulcahy, Castellanoz has revealed her life story as well as her remedios — her remedies, both medicinal and metaphoric — for life's maladies. Using her own observations and Castellanoz’s stories, Mulcahy employs creative nonfiction and oral accounts to portray the life, beliefs, and practices of this remarkable woman. Anyone who has been healed by Eva Castellanoz has felt her power and wisdom. Anyone who reads this vivid portrait will come away feeling wiser and empowered by the story of this courageous and loving healer.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781595340658
Publisher:	Trinity University Press
Publication date:	02/23/2010
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Joanne Mulcahy is folklorist-in-residence at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon. She also teaches creative nonfiction, ethnographic writing, and humanities classes at Lewis and Clark's Northwest Writing Institute. She is the author of Birth and Rebirth on an Alaskan Island: The Life of an Alutiiq Healer, based on more than a decade of field research with Native Alutiiq women on Kodiak Island. Her awards include fellowships from the Oregon Institute of Literary Arts, the New Letters nonfiction prize, and grants from the British Council, the Alaska Humanities Forum, and the Oregon Council for the Humanities.

Table of Contents

Preface vii

Acknowledgments ix

A Note on Methods xii

Introduction xiv

Part I The Root

1 Measuring Faith 2

2 The Story Too Big to Tell 10

3 Crossing Over 19

4 La Mula 33

5 The Dress That Doesn't Fit 39

6 Choosing Ripeness 51

7 Gnawing the Bone 61

8 The Door and the Hinge 69

Part II Healing

9 Ther Call 84

10 Magical Thinking 92

11 Drinking in the Pain 104

12 Cutting the Onions 113

13 The Mexican Jacuzzi 123

Part III The Dream

14 My Piece of the Puzzle 134

15 Ask Me 144

16 Reviving the Root 151

17 Healing Women 161

18 A Courageous Heart 169

19 How Not to Be 175

20 La Casa 183

Epilogue: My Spiritual Legs 193

Notes 199

Editorial Reviews

Mulcahy offers us an up-close look at the life of the healer woman. We can't help but be inspired—maybe even healed.” — San Antonio Express-News

“Joanne B. Mulcahy has given us a rare glimpse into the life and methods of a curandera, the traditional female healers and leaders of many of our Latin American and Latino comunities. Respectfully, thoughtfully written, and beautifully structured, Remedios allows the reader to participate in these healing encounters. Each chapter is organized around a problem and its accompanying remedio. We learn about curanderismo from the inside out. The book is also a sensitive portrait of an extraordinary woman, Eva Castellanoz, and through her story we learn about the immigration experience from a female perspective. Mulcahy has done for the curandera experience what Carlos Castaneda did for shamanism. The book is itself a remedio, inspiring and healing.” — Julia Alvarez

From the Publisher