Traditional Curanderos in Oregon a Lifeline for the Latino Version of Health Care Providers | Oregonlive.Com 11/15/10 11:19 AM

Traditional curanderos in Oregon a lifeline for the Latino version of health care providers | OregonLive.com 11/15/10 11:19 AM

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Home > O! > O! Cover Story Traditional curanderos in Oregon a lifeline for the 25% Off Happy Hour Latino version of health care providers Menu (4-6, 9-close) Published: Saturday, April 03, 2010, 12:40 PM Updated: Saturday, April 03, 2010, 7:11 PM Koji Osakaya Japanese Restaurants have a casual & fun atmosphere. Our menu The Oregonian Share this story Story tools offers a variety of Japanese Follow foods including sushi,Free curry, Gift udon, Card tempura and teriyaki. We consistentlyFree Gift Card: serve Spend the finest $250, in get authentic Japanese$50 Gift cuisine! Card. Spend $500, Get $100 Gift Card. Spend $1,000, Get $225 Gift Card

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Paulson's has been offering great prices & service in Portland20% for off four entire generations purchase in the online store! Save 20% while shopping the Portland Japanese Garden E- Store! Our online gift store offers a unique selection of books, teas, jewelry, garden décor, and more. Great contests on Use promo codeOregonLive.com! 2ORLVE20 at check-out to receive 20% offCheck your out purchase. what we're Offer giving expires November 14,away 2010. this week! Torsten Kjellstrand, The Oregonian During a consultation for a patient complaining about excessive forgetting, curandero Gonzalo Flores chose to do a cleansing. Before the ceremony, he lighted candles - of St. Cyprian, St. Teresa, the Virgin of Guadalupe, St. Dymphna - corresponding to the patient's birthday, place of birth and day of the cleansing. He prayed for help rollover for more and guidance. "The intention is to help the person along the path and remind her that she is not alone, that God's prayer is always around her."

VIEW ALL OFFERS By Gosia Wozniacka

When Guadalupe Maldonado lifted a child in her Head Start classroom, acute pain shot through her Connect with OregonLive.com hip. The Hillsboro woman could barely walk. She visited her doctor and her chiropractor, and took What's this? the medication and advice ordered. But the persistent pain prevented her from working.

Her sister mentioned she might try 7 0 Domitila Juárez. All OregonLive.com Facebook & Twitter Now, Maldonado lay on a blanket on the accounts » 3 floor as Juárez massaged her principal tweets 60 pulse points from head to toe for several hours. When she finished, Juárez turned Recommendations retweet Share to the large portrait of the Virgin of Guadalupe hanging at the center of her Login You need to be logged into Facebook to living room wall and whispered a prayer. see your friends' recommendations

"God is the healer," she added. "All the healing comes from him, not from me." http://www.oregonlive.com/milwaukie/index.ssf/2010/11/one_person_crime_spree_in_milwaukie_ends_in_mu http://www.oregonlive.com/O/index.ssf/2010/04/traditional_curanderos_a_lifel.html Page 1 of 7 Traditional curanderos in Oregon a lifeline for the Latino version of health care providers | OregonLive.com 11/15/10 11:19 AM

http://www.oregonlive.com/milwaukie/index.ssf/2010/11/one_person_crime_spree_in_milwaukie_ends_in_mu 2,352 people shared this. Three days later, hip pain gone, Maldonado returned to work. Will there be an Arctic blast next week? Two to three people a day seek out the 68-year-old Juárez for all sorts of ailments -- sprains, Some forecasters say yes aches and pain, anxiety, or hip and back injuries. She sends anyone with an open wound or major 885 people shared this. fracture to a doctor. Patients come to her Cornelius home from as far as Alaska, and while most Portland couple identified as man and are Latinos, she's started to see the occasional Anglo. woman swept off Yaquina Bay jetty 639 people shared this. She is one of dozens of practitioners of traditional folk medicine in the Portland area who form an under-the-radar network of unexpected health care providers -- curanderos.

They are the Latino version of alternative medicine. Nearly 40 percent of all Americans use alternative treatments, but among Latinos, studies show 44 to 75 percent use traditional folk Facebook social plugin medicine.

The reasons are many: More O!

Latinos are uninsured at three times the rate of non-Latino whites, so oftentimes it comes down to Most Comments Most Recent money. O! stories with the most comments in the "Many Latinos use folk healers because other health care is not readily available," says Alberto last 7 days. Moreno, migrant health coordinator for the state Department of Health and Human Services. An action movie that stands in "The Western medical system is often the last resort for our community, it's so cost-prohibitive." 2 one place: Danny Boyle on '127 Hours' Latinos face language and cultural barriers -- or fear of deportation -- that can lead to distrust of Author Richard Thompson Western health care providers, says Santiago Ventura Morales, a community leader in Woodburn. 2 follows many tracks of Portland streetcars Or there are people like Maldonado who have insurance but turn to curanderos when Western medicine doesn't work.

"Health care in the United States is not holistic; it doesn't satisfy the people's spiritual and Most Active Users What's this? psychological needs," says Ventura. "When Latinos go with a traditional healer, they feel complete confidence. A healer is a doctor, nurse, counselor and spiritual guide all in one." Users with the most OregonLive.com comments in the last 7 days Health care has been front and center of the national conversation for the past year but didn't go so far as to take into account needs in specific cultural communities. 135 nobuddie nobuddie

rickdick Still, the curandero network, a lifeline to Latinos that fills the gap of health care in their 107 rickdick community, remains unregulated and untested. Bringing curanderos into the mainstream could help curtail scams, prevent medical complications and make health care more attractive for Latinos, says Gonzalo Flores, a licensed Portland acupuncturist and practicing curandero. 82 Elphie Elphie That's starting to happen across the country and in the metro area. In fact, the services of curanderos might have something to offer mainstream health care, much like acupuncture and other non-Western traditions. 82 pfigment pfigment "Rather than thinking that these guys are all witch doctors, we should ask how do we integrate some of the practices with the Western medical model to more effectively serve the Latino community," Flores says. "Curanderos can be a bridge." 78 DistantReader

*** Both Flores and Juárez were born into families of curanderos. Users We Love Juárez watched her mother and grandmothers dispense herbs, give massages and deliver babies in her small John Tutrone hometown in Mexico. Later, when Juárez married, "the gift of OregonLive.com contributor provides healing just came," and she continued when her children a weekly video diary for Oregon high sponsored her immigration to Oregon 15 years ago. Juárez school football player, Logan Mayes. doesn't advertise herself, doesn't have business cards, but More Users We Love accepts donations: Maldonado paid $20 for several hours of massage. It's not how Juárez supports herself, though. Until last year, she worked full time at a cannery. From Our Advertisers

"For me, it's not a job," she said. "It's something that God Torsten Kjellstrand, The gives you so that you can give it back to other people." Oregonian • Contemporary Furnishings For Your Home The egg, Flores says, symbolizes a and Patio Flores traces his curandero roots to Tejano and Apache person's life force, reinforces the spirit and • Hot air balloon rides. • Drop-in downtown dining. ancestors -- his grandmother traveled around Texas ranches, the connection to God, and helps absorb and break negative patterns. After placing setting bones and delivering babies. the egg on the patient's neck, he sweeps Advertise With Us » down the patient's body with a goose fan, Flores blends beliefs in cleansing rituals that involve feathers, wiping down remaining blockage and guiding the patient's way towards http://www.oregonlive.com/O/index.ssf/2010/04/traditional_curanderos_a_lifel.html Page 2 of 7 Traditional curanderos in Oregon a lifeline for the Latino version of health care providers | OregonLive.com 11/15/10 11:19 AM

guiding the patient's way towards eggs, incense and Native American prayers, among others. assurance. He charges $150 for a cleansing but makes his living as a licensed acupuncturist and specialist in Oriental medicine at GroundSpring Healing Center. Popular Tags What's this?

"Traditional healing is part of the Americas," Flores says. "A hundred years ago, Western medicine book review book reviews was the alternative medicine." books fiction fiction review history *** immigration john terry matt kramer Curanderismo -- from the Spanish cura for both "priest" and "healing" -- blends indigenous memoir movies murder new in the practices and botanical medicines with Catholic and African elements, Flores says. Its holistic northwest newcomers nonfiction approach treats illness as an imbalance with the natural universe. northwest novel oregon Oregon oregon "For Latinos, healing means a combination of the spiritual, mental, physical and emotional, while shakespeare festival oregon shakespeare Western culture separates healing," says Lucrecia Suarez, a Portland therapist who works at festival at 75 portland Portland religion Conexiones, which offers culturally responsive counseling. sara perry In Oregon, most curanderos operate out of their homes; a few run botanicas, shops that sell herbs and "spiritual" supplies; and they specialize -- as bonesetters, massage therapists, herbalists or spiritualists.

With a shared culture, curanderos understand culture-bound comments such as, "I have a curse," and don't dismiss complaints of soul loss, evil eye, jealousy or physical or emotional blockage. These culture-bound issues, Suarez says, are considered ailments only in a specific community.

In fact, Latinos rarely reveal them to Western doctors -- or even that they see a curandero -- for fear of ridicule. But whether Anglos give curanderos credence or not, the placebo effect cannot be underestimated. Improvement in health based solely on the power of conviction is scientifically proven, and ignoring culture-bound ailments can hinder healing, Suarez says.

"The basic principle of psychology is that people believe in the healer and his methods," she says. "All these practices are different doors to the same thing."

***

Trust can be a dangerous thing, though, in an unregulated health industry. Some curanderos are scammers, charge thousands of dollars, sell expired or prescription medication, or give illegal injections. Those should be red flags.

Take, for example, the woman who billed herself in ads in Latino newspapers as Doña Tere. She claimed to be able to cure alcoholism, insomnia and headaches, money problems, even impotence. She could ritually "tie" or "untie" relationships, dissolve bad spells and heal the spirit. "Results in just a few days, guaranteed."

Chronic migraines sent Alfonsa Bustos to Doña Tere every eight days between February and April 2008. Doña Tere asked for $5,000 cash, then more money, then gold pendants and earrings, Walmart gift cards and a television. "The TV was so that I could see the person who put the spell on me," said Bustos. "She told us she would return all the things we brought."

In all Bustos lost about $10,000; others who filed complaints by May 2009 reported they gave Doña Tere between $1,600 and $6,500. Despite half a dozen complaints from residents of Tigard, Oregon City and Salem, the Oregon Department of Justice didn't have enough evidence to pursue Doña Tere, who by that time had disappeared.

Fraud often goes unreported because some fear dealing with the government because of immigration issues, says Tony Green of the state Department of Justice. And the sometimes subjective nature of healing makes it difficult to judge the difference between a dishonest and a reputable healer.

"Even if we could catch them, the victims often feel like they did get something of value, no matter how meager," Green says, "so the cases are tough to prosecute criminally."

***

http://www.oregonlive.com/O/index.ssf/2010/04/traditional_curanderos_a_lifel.html Page 3 of 7 Traditional curanderos in Oregon a lifeline for the Latino version of health care providers | OregonLive.com 11/15/10 11:19 AM

Torsten Kjellstrand, The Oregonian "This is the kind of healing my family has done for a thousand years," says Flores. His methods have three pillars, based on Native American, African and Catholic mystical traditions. Flores is both a practicing curandero and a licensed acupuncturist who runs a business that features acupuncture, traditional Chinese herbal and massage therapies.

Integrating legitimate curanderos into the health care system may be an answer to avoid scams as well as lessen the burden of treating serious conditions in emergency rooms.

The Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Center, which runs half a dozen primary care clinics in Washington and Yamhill counties, periodically arranges meetings of doctors with curanderos, says Dr. Lyn Jacobs, the center's family practice physician.

"There's an effort to include them, so we know what they're doing and they know us," she says.

Patients at Virginia Garcia have access to an acupuncturist and a naturopath, as well as a doctor certified by the American Board of Integrative Holistic Medicine, who guides treatments with herbs, supplements, massage and other non-Western approaches. One of the clinics grows an herb garden.

"We believe that allopathic (Western) medicine does not have all answers," Jacobs says.

Other area clinics are connecting, too. In 2005, clinical nurse manager Leda Garside participated in the Oregon-Mexico health professionals exchange. The exchange -- organized by the Department of Human Services' Migrant Health Office and the Mexican Consulate -- took Oregon doctors, nurses and policymakers to Mexico, where they observed curanderos working closely with hospital doctors.

Garside, who works at Salud Services in Hillsboro, learned that many local Latino clients frequent curanderos -- which affects their overall care.

"We always ask, because it's not uncommon, in case it may interfere with the medication we give them," says Garside.

Around the country, Flores says, more medical schools and clinics look at health more holistically, including teaching about curanderos, who can provide cultural knowledge to make health care more affordable and effective for Latinos.

And it's not just Latinos. More Anglos show up at Domitila Juárez's Corvallis home, seeking her healing massages.

Explains Flores: "Americans are becoming interested in curanderos because, guess what, they get the body-mind-spirit thing." - Gosia Wozniacka

Related topics: alternative medicine, health care providers, traditional healing, virginia garcia clinic

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kabaa April 03, 2010 at 1:16PM

Great! Let's get illegal freeloaders of our health care system off public medical care we pay for and let them go to curandero's at their own expense.