Spirit doctors / by Monica Delgado and Michael Van Wagenen.

Format:

Video

Contributor:

Delgado, Monica.

Van Wagenen, Michael.

Series:

Academic Video Online

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Healers--Texas--Lower Rio Grande Valley.

Healers.

Healing--Texas--Lower Rio Grande Valley.

Healing.

Mexican Americans--Texas--Lower Rio Grande Valley--Medicine.

Mexican Americans.

Traditional medicine--Texas--Lower Rio Grande Valley.

Traditional medicine.

Genre:

Documentary films.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (27 min.).

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Filmakers Library, 1997.

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

Folk healing has been part of the Mexican culture since pre-Columbian days. This tradition still flourishes in the Mexican American communities of the lower Rio Grande Valley. This film follows three healers in their daily work. Josefa, a traditional curandera, uses a variety of herbal and spiritual techniques. She is shown giving blessings, performing ritual cleansings and communicating the wandering soul of the dead man. Maria heals her patients by channeling the spirit of Mexico's most famous healer who died sixty years ago. Trini is a traditional partera, or midwife. She plays an important role in the community where one third of all births take place outside of the hospital. Filmmaker Monica Delgado is herself a descendant of a curandera and partera. These cameo portraits show how traditional beliefs flourish in Mexican American culture.

Notes:

Originally released as DVD.

Title from resource description page (viewed May 24, 2011).

Recorded Rio Grande Valley, Texas 0000.

Gold Apple, National Educational Film & Video Festival, 1997

Southwest Council of Latin American Studies, 1997

Best Documentary, Utah Short Film & Video Festival, 1996

OCLC:

747797296