LibGuides: Virtual Exhibits: Curanderas y Parteras: A Celebration of Healers in New Mexico

A Celebration of Healers in New Mexico

This display is in honor and recognition of our rich Hispanic culture and heritage in New Mexico. Every day should be a celebration of our healers, but special awareness should be given to las curanderas y las parteras, the traditional healers and midwives in Hispanic culture. Curanderismo is rooted in strong religious beliefs of harmony with nature, spirit, and self. There is an emphasis on one's overall health with a focus on personal relationships and nutrition. While curanderismo is still practiced today, it has also influenced modern healthcare especially in New Mexico. The resources provided on this display will provide a glimpse into the history of las curanderas y las parteras as well as provide a look into its modern practice and influence on mainstream healthcare.

Special Collections Spotlight

Medicine Women, Curanderas, and Women Doctors by Bobette Perrone; Victoria Krueger; H. Henrietta Stockel
Call Number: W 21 P43 1989

ISBN: 9780806125121

Publication Date: 1993-03-15
The Folk Healer by Eliseo Torres; Carolyn Banks (Editor); Clark Magruder (Editor)
Call Number: WZ 309 T69 1983

ISBN: 0961200812

Publication Date: 1984-01-01
The Badianus manuscript, Codex Barberini by Martin de la Cruz
Call Number: WZ 290 B14 1940

Publication Date: 1940
Libellus de medicinalibus indorum herbis : manuscrito azteca de 1552
Call Number: WZ 290 C88 1552

Publication Date: 1964

Interview with Reynaldo Deveaux, MD
This interview with Dr. Reynaldo Deveaux, a family practitioner who practiced in Taos, New Mexico from 1942 to 1983, contains information on small town/rural medicine in a heavily Hispanic-American county. Dr. Deveaux came to Taos directly from medical school in Mexico City during World War II and practiced for six years as a federal government contract physician, then stayed as a private practitioner for another 35 years. The interview includes information about traditional medicine within the Hispanic culture of Taos and its vicinity; the special circumstances and stresses of health care delivery in rural New Mexico during World War II; Taos area physicians, particularly Drs. Warner Onstine and Al Rosen; the licensure difficulties associated with a foreign medical degree; Holy Cross Hospital in Taos; and other subjects.
Interview with Elizabeth Budlong, R.N.
This interview with Elizabeth Budlong, RN (1911-1989) focuses on her quarter-century career as a public health nurse/school nurse in Taos County, New Mexico. From 1950 until her retirement in 1973, Ms. Budlong played a major role as an independent health care practioner in her county, devising and executing her own public health and school programs--dental clinics, well-baby immunization campaigns, venereal disease detection programs, and others--which dominated her work as public health nurse for Taos County. Other subjects discussed include her own personal background; the political realities of public health nursing (securing funding within tight county budgets); the relationship between the central administration in Santa Fe and public health workers in the field; popular reaction to public health work; midwifery in Taos County; the attitude of traditional Hispanic-Americans toward the "Anglo" public health establishment; and others.