University of Wisconsin Milwaukee UWM Digital Commons Theses and Dissertations 5-1-2013 Medicina del Barrio: Shadow Medicine Among Milwaukee's Latino Community Ramona Chiquita Tenorio University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.uwm.edu/etd Part of the Alternative and Complementary Medicine Commons, Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons, and the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Tenorio, Ramona Chiquita, "Medicina del Barrio: Shadow Medicine Among Milwaukee's Latino Community" (2013). Theses and Dissertations. 166. https://dc.uwm.edu/etd/166 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by UWM Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of UWM Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. MEDICINA DEL BARRIO: SHADOW MEDICINE AMONG MILWAUKEE’S LATINO COMMUNITY by Ramona C. Tenorio A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology at The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee May 2013 ABSTRACT MEDICINA DEL BARRIO: SHADOW MEDICINE AMONG MILWAUKEE’S LATINO COMMUNITY by Ramona C. Tenorio The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, under the supervision of Dr. Tracey Heatherington As a result of exclusionary state and federal policy decisions on immigration and health care, marginalized immigrants often seek health care in the shadows of U.S. cities through practitioners such as curandera/os* (healers), huesera/os* (bonesetters), parteras* (midwives), and sobadora/es* (massagers). under the radar of biomedical practice. This research focuses on this phenomenon in the context of globalized social networks and health care practices of marginalized Latino immigrants in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and within the broader economic and political context in this country. Latino immigrants continue practicing forms of their medicine even after immigrating to this country. People do not just throw away their cultural understandings of the body, of healing, birthing and illness when they cross international borders; rather, as I suggest in this research, these understandings become translated to fit into a new transnational context. People do not arrive to the U.S. as blank slates; they arrive as peoples with discernible cultural traditions. Immigrants to this country not only bring rich cultural foods and ii language to their new locations, they bring with them a rich history of medicinal and healing knowledge that includes traditional pharmacopoeias. This project draws from the medical anthropology literature, particularly from the areas of women’s health and medical pluralism. Additionally, it draws on the broader literature on immigration, transnationalism and social networking. iii © Copyright by Ramona C. Tenorio, 2013 All Rights Reserved iv For Gramma Limon, for teaching me the true meaning of unconditional love, te amaré siempre. v TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE vii PART I: INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER I LATINO LAY HEALING IN MILWAUKEE 2 !Ay Caray! 2 Introduction 3 Research Contribution 5 Questioning Cultural Continuity 6 Hot and Cold 10 Tangled Speech and Deceptive Euphemisms: The Problem with Traditional Medicine 12 Cultural-Bound Syndromes 22 Finding a Latino Lay Healer 25 Shadow Medicine 31 Dissertation Structure 33 CHAPTER II FIELDWORK, METHODS, FINDINGS, WRITING 36 Los Primeros—Latinos in Milwaukee 36 Fieldwork 43 Research Participants 47 Research Questions and Findings 48 History of the ‘Mexican Moon’ 54 Embodiment as a Methodological Perspective 57 Ethnographic Writing 66 PART II: THE HEALERS 74 CHAPTER III UNA MUJER HACE DE TODO 75 Introductions 75 Encounters with Doña Celia 79 In The Kitchen with Doña Celia 85 Encounters with Doña Trini 88 Encounters with Doña Marta 94 La Doctora at the Nutrition Store 97 Los Hueseros, The Bonesetters 101 Bones of a Dog 110 Who is a True Healer? Legitimatization and Charlatans 112 Conclusion 117 CHAPTER IV AUTHORITATIVE KNOWLEDGE AND GENDER 118 IDEOLOGIES Introduction 118 Woman’s Work and Female Autonomy 120 vi Knowledge Transmission and Knowing One Another 122 Gendered Space and Power Structures 125 Woman’s Reproductive Health and Intuitive Knowledge 128 Conclusion 136 PART III: THE PRACTICE 138 CHAPTER V: HERBS, FIRE, WATER, EGGS 139 Introduction 139 Latino Herbal Knowledge 140 Guarding Herbal Knowledge and The History of Plant Imperialism 142 Fire and Water 146 The Shell of an Egg 150 Mis Tripas and My Embodied Experiences 153 CHAPTER VI: CLEANSINGS, THE VIRGEN, AND SPIRITUALITY 161 Introduction 161 Healing El Mal De Ojo 162 La Virgen de Carmen 166 Smoke 170 You Throw the Eggs Behind You 172 PART IV: IMMIGRATION AND HEALTH 178 CHAPTER VII: RAIDS, FEARS, AND MEDICAL MARGINALITY 179 El Rey Raid 179 The Immigration and Nationality Act 181 Repercussions for Wisconsin and Milwaukee County under Tommy Thompson 185 Milwaukee Latinos in the Wake of a National Crackdown 185 Las Marchas and Collective Resistance 191 Transnational Fear 193 Conclusion 194 CHAPTER VIII SOCIO-MEDICAL NETWORKING AMONG 196 MILWAUKEE’S LATINOS Introduction 196 When Helping Yourself is Not Enough 197 Socio-medical Networking as Social Capital 200 Undocumented and Uninsured 201 Biomedical Cost of Care 205 Questioning the Efficacy of Biomedicine 212 CHAPTER IX: ENGAGING WITH BIOMEDICINE 216 Introduction 216 vii Thanksgiving 217 Kitchen Table Talks and Café de Olla 221 The Community Health Survey 233 Mammography on Wheels 237 PART V: TRANSNATIONALISM AND BORDER CONNECTIONS 241 CHAPTER X: DEL OTRO LADO 242 Introduction 242 La Partera and Midwifery Certification in Mexico 244 Parallels of Power: Historical Similarity with Midwifery Certification In the U.S. 252 Social Stigma and Agency 254 Conclusion 257 CHAPTER XI: BORDER CONNECTIONS 259 Introduction 259 Crossing the border again 260 Medical Migration 264 Keeping Ties 266 When Death Happens: How a body makes it back home 274 CHAPTER XII: ADELANTE PUEBLO MÍO 278 Moving Towards Community-Engaged Health Care 278 The Prospective Future of Shadow Medicine in Milwaukee 279 Models for Incorporating “Traditional” and Biomedicine in Clinical Practice 281 REFERENCES 286 APPENDIX A. GLOSSARY OF TERMS 304 B. TABLES 310 C. QUESTIONNAIRES 315 D. DOCUMENTS 322 CURRICULUM VITAE 326 viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I especially would like to thank the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee’s Roberto Hernandez Center for sponsoring this research, and my advisor Dr. Tracey Heatherington and my committee members--Dr. Paul Brodwin, Dr. Cheryl Ajirotutu and Dr. Kristin Ruggiero--for seeing the importance of this work for Milwaukee’s Latino community. Thank you to Milwaukee’s community health clinics for allowing me access to their facilities and patients in order to network into the community. I am truly grateful to all the participants in this research and especially to the woman healers who have opened up their homes to me and were willing to share their stories of courage and passion in treating and healing Milwaukee’s Latino community. Without you this research would not have been possible. Thank you to Dr. Gregory Jay and the Cultures in Communities Program at UWM for believing in my potential as an educator and scholar. Thank you for your constant financial support, which allowed me to present my research at conferences both national and international, and thank you for providing me with a wonderful office all these years allowing me to prosper as both an educator and researcher. Thank you to Monique Hassman and to Dr. Mellissa Shoeffel for your constant encouragement and support. You both are two of the best officemates and friends in the world. We shared some very special times in and away from our space in Holton Hall. You both will always be like sisters to me. I love you ix both immensely. Thank you Scott for providing the much needed fuel for late hours in the office; your Kickapoo Coffee™ special blend, “Tired Ass Student Blend” was just what we needed to pull us through an all-nighter! The process of writing a dissertation has been one of the most challenging endeavors in my life. It depended on long hours away from my wonderful and supportive husband Victor Manuel Tenorio Ochoa and my beloved children: Cuauhtemoc Leon Tenorio, Cecilia Eva Tenorio, Ricardo Emmanuel Tenorio, and Sarai Tenorio. I cannot thank you all enough for allowing me to fulfill my dream. It was not always an easy sacrifice, at times it was excruciating to be away from all of you. Thank you for your understanding and patience with the seemingly endless takeout food. Thank you to Cecilia Tenorio, Anne Drury, and Michelle Leonard for extending your hours to read my dissertation, and for providing me with valuable feedback. Matt Dalstrom and Oren Segal, your unwavering encouragement, advice and support are truly appreciated. I am especially grateful to Matt for his candid responses to my innumerous questions on pedagogy, research, and anthropological theory, and for helping me to maneuver through the scary world of academia. I am so thankful that I was blessed with such wonderful cohorts (Jenli Ko, Shannon Dosemagen, Michelle Burnham, Amy Samuelson, Erin Bilyeu, Lisa Becker, Paula Porubcan) in the anthropology department, especially those from the TA office (Sabin Hall); your humor made grading and prelims bearable. To Alejandra Estrin Dashe, thank you for passing the torch and providing contacts for me in the field. x Cecilia, I will forever cherish the time we spent at Starbucks on Appleton combing through my thoughts and words, while sipping teas and lattes. ¡Te quiero muchisisimo mijita chula! Words cannot express what your presence during this process has meant to me. To my dog Jack (even if you can’t read this), your silent reassurance of love and support all these years and through this process is not forgotten. Max (the cat), what can I say; your sleeping on my keyboard was not always helpful when I was trying to write, but you always put a smile on my face. I would not have even had the dream of obtaining a PhD without the encouragement of my lifelong mentor and friend, Dr.