Curandera
Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya is set in 1940s New Mexico. This novel explores the relationship between a young boy and an elderly curandera (healer) who has come to spend her last years with his family. Upon moving in, she immediately begins to aquaint him with the ancient philosophy and traditions of her craft.
Symbolic Painting:
Find the painting, Curandera, by Ariel. It is filled with organic and magical symbolism.
Notice the female figure directly beneath the main figure of the Curandera. Plants grow from her body directly into the body of the Curandera. This symbolic vegetation thrives throughout her body.
Three hearts containing the profiles of two faces run up her body into her head.
Beneath her healing hands a small pale figure kneels. Symbolic tears run down its face.
A winged head hovering in the left hand corner of the painting gazes down on the Curandera. Its face is in profile and a bold cross seems tattooed under its eye.
Diamond shapes are scattered throughout the upper half of the painting. Some rain, spark-like, from the winged head and hands of the curandera over the small kneeling figure. Other diamond shapes, possessing dark red centers, occupy the otherwise empty spaces of this picture.
Answer the following questions to help you interpret the meanings of the symbols in this painting.
- What does the hovering face with wings represent? What makes you think this?
- Who does the smaller figure beneath the Curandera's hands represent? Why do you think so?
- Why are plants and flowers growing throughout the Curandera's body?
- The Curandera seems to be connected to a large figure lying underground beneath her. Who or what do you think this large figure represents?
- There are three large hearts within the Curandera's body and head. What do these hearts represent?
- Why is this painting filled with plants and flowers?
- This painting is filled with diamond shaped objects. What do you think these objects represent?
Curandera
Pat Mora
They think she lives alone
on the edge of town in a two-room house
where she moved when her husband died
at thirty-five of a gunshot wound
in the bed of another woman. The curandera
and house have aged together to the rhythm
of the desert.
She wakes early, lights candles before
her sacred statues, brews tea of hierbabuena.
She moves down her porch steps, rubs
cool morning sand into her hands, into her arms.
Like a large black bird, she feeds on
the desert, gathering herbs for her basket.
Her days are slow, days of grinding
dried snake into power, of crushing
wild bees to mix with white wine.
And the townspeople come, hoping
to be touched by her ointments,
her hands, her prayers, her eyes.
She listens to their stories, and she listens
to the desert, always the desert.
By sunset she is tired. The wind
strokes the strands of long grey hair
the smells of drying plants drifts
into her blood, the sun seeps
into her bones. She dozes
on her back porch. Rocking, rocking.
At night she cooks chopped cactus
and brews more tea. She brushes a layer
of sand from her bed, sand which covers
the table, stove, floor. She blows
the statues clean, the candles out.
Before sleeping, she listens to the message
of the owl and the coyote. She closes her eyes
and breathes with the mice and snakes and wind.
Analyze the appearance and character of the 'curandera' as described in the above poem. Then compare/contrast this description to Ultima (using information from the chapter in which Antonio and Ultima first meet).