Arnoldo García

curanderas dignidad

The curanderas put their hands on

my body, rubbed my skin with

plants and the palms of their

penetrating hands. My body

becomes one body as their

hands shape and pull at

every contour and curve of my

body. The curandera is the

body of bodies, who embrace

themselves, who absorb all

my sorrows, ghosts and

pain massaging me into

myself: I have a curandera,

therefore my body exists.

I am reassured of the

existence of the world, the

cosmos and my body where

her hands reside, live,

struggle, dream, become and

make my body real. My grandmother,

who healed with her thoughts, prayers

eyes and hands, had three bodies:

her body as mother, lover and

grandmother.

Her body as a woman who loved

other women equally and in

some cases more than she loved

her husband and her family and

even herself.

Her body as a healer, a curandera,

who negated her own body

who leapt out of her body

to make your body bodily, a

maternal temple, existence. This

was the only body capable of holding

all her bodies together. She could

cuddle and nurture babies, even

baptize them when she didn't

believe in the baptizer.

Because she was a bodily-healer, she

died but her body continued living

not only in my body and in those

she healed and cared for

but in her own body. She rescued

us even after death, took care

of us after we buried her and

then came back to visit me

twice before saying farewell

to this place, this part, this dimension

of the world

she built, healed, smiled at,

cultivated flowers, plants and

fruits. The curandera is a

seed, floating, holding on,

taken care of, planted, cultivated,

watered, sprouting people and

flowering for the next

generations.

She wanted to be wanted and

she would dress as a man

to go to the dances and

dance with women, she would

charm and seduce and make

them whole, make each one

two women in one and she, three

women in one body forever

gestating herself, self-gestating

the community, her family, her

lovers. Her hands, her stretched

body stretched by having given

birth to six girsl and six boys,

were, are her dignity, not mute

out loud gentle tenderness from

her lips. She counseled:

if you are in a tight situation,

violence or humiliation aimed at

you, do not answer in-kind.

If you don't know what to do,

what to say, how to react:

respond with your dignity,

react with your dignity,

answer with your dignity

and nothing can stop you,

no one can get away from you

no one will raise their voice

against you because dignity

and nothing else will matter

Your dignity will shut down ignorance.

her dignity was the cure,

la curandera la dignidad