Estella's Stories

NPS Photo

"Grandma was a curandera, she was a curandera. We did not want to get sick because after she did all her curanderismo and all of that, she would have us drink this green drink. Well today’s green tea is so expensive, had she known, had we known, we would have bottled it ourselves."
"She had a tin cup and she would mix like lard or oil and she would rub our tummies. And she knew how to, I don’t know if she knew about the intestines but she would rub us in the right way where we would go ahead and get better and then had us drink our tea."
"Grandma Santo being a curandera was taught by the famous, famous Don Pedrito Jaramillo from Falfurias […] He never took any money for his healings, because he said his healing powers we given to him by God and you don’t pay for that. They would give him a goat, food, to thank him in a different way. People would travel miles to see him. Her real name was Maria De Refugia, which is Mary the Mother of Refuge. Remember that all the people were named after saints."

 

Estella shares a story of fond memories at Mission Espada:

"My immediate family went to Mission Espada, and [...] part of the tradition to keep it alive, one of the organizations that I belong to, did a cultural gathereing of all the children around the missions during Christmas time. We would have the piñatas, the chocolate, and the galletas you know the little cookies and hot chocolate for them, and then we would have different piñatas becasue we have different ages of children. So, that's a fond tradition becasue I have so many memories of those days there and the children are probably now in there 50s and 60s as well. I'm hoping that they still... well of course they are part of Mission Espada."