Curandonos a Traves de Comida y Curanderismo: Analyzing Forms of Healing Art
Thursday, February 15, 2024: 4:30 PM
Williford B (Hilton Chicago)
Artists such as Carmen Lomas Garza, Alexis Marie Ramos, and Debora Kuetzpal Vasquez are women of color (Chicana, Tejana, and Xicana, respectively) who illustrate and reclaim
decolonial forms of healing that were not often seen in academic spaces, museums, and
textbooks. Their work challenges the colonial Western form of knowledge as they illustrate the embodied knowledge of healing through food and curanderismo, or folk medicine, that has traditionally been passed down orally for generations. I am a graduate student whose research analyzes art involving food and curanderismo. My research is informed by Chicana scholars such as Gloria Anzaldúa, and I argue that the body can use foods to heal what Anzaldúa coined "una herida abierta" that was left from colonization and the oppression of curanderismo. It is worth noting that curanderismo is unique in the Rio Grande Valley as this embodied knowledge was primarily brought from Mexico to the borderlands and continues to thrive with every remedio we make and use. These artists and their works illustrate and remind us of our rich culture and embodied knowledge. Curanderismo is not meant to discredit medicinal advancements, but rather recognize the decolonial and embodied form of knowledge that connects the body, food, and healing.
decolonial forms of healing that were not often seen in academic spaces, museums, and
textbooks. Their work challenges the colonial Western form of knowledge as they illustrate the embodied knowledge of healing through food and curanderismo, or folk medicine, that has traditionally been passed down orally for generations. I am a graduate student whose research analyzes art involving food and curanderismo. My research is informed by Chicana scholars such as Gloria Anzaldúa, and I argue that the body can use foods to heal what Anzaldúa coined "una herida abierta" that was left from colonization and the oppression of curanderismo. It is worth noting that curanderismo is unique in the Rio Grande Valley as this embodied knowledge was primarily brought from Mexico to the borderlands and continues to thrive with every remedio we make and use. These artists and their works illustrate and remind us of our rich culture and embodied knowledge. Curanderismo is not meant to discredit medicinal advancements, but rather recognize the decolonial and embodied form of knowledge that connects the body, food, and healing.