THE NATURE OF PUERTO RICAN FOLK HEALTH PRACTICES THROUGH HEALERS PERCEPTIONS AND SOMATIC ASSUMPTIONS DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for The Degree Doctor in Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Fanny Santiago-Saavedra, M.S. THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY 2004 Dissertation Committee: Professor Seymour Kleinman Approved by Professor Cynthia Dillard ________________________ Adviser Professor Fiona Travis College of Education Copy right by Fanny Santiago-Saavedra 2004 ABSTRACT This study presents Puerto Rican Folk Healing Practices (PRFHP) as a cultural experience in an attempt to understand attitudes towards health from the healers’ perspective and illuminate factors that resonate with the field of somatics studies, which regards individuals as whole (body-mind-spirit connection). Case studies were used to present the nature of six Puerto Rican folk healers and the practices they perform in the island of Puerto Rico. Qualitative research methods were used to gather the information. Semi-structured interviews, video observations, active participation, journals, and field notes were the tools used to capture the experiential approach of this research. Culturally grounded analysis was done in order to find common themes among six Puerto Rican folk healers and their practices. From the culturally grounded analysis, five major themes emerged. They are service, reverence to nature and natural cycles, the concept of medical mestizaje, physical and spiritual world as a continuum and the sense of embodiment. The second analysis explored how assumptions of the somatic framework relates to Puerto Rican Folk Healing Practices. The assumptions explored are a) perception of the world through the body. b) First person experience is privileged. c) Sarcal consciousness as a powerful guidance. d) reality as determined by the perception of the ii individual e) existence in the world as holistic f) The individuals as simultaneously interconnected with the world. g) The individual as a multi-dimensional being which transcends time and space. Findings from this inquiry present how the first three somatic assumptions, perception of the world through the body, first person experience as privileged and the concept of sarcal consciousness as a powerful guidance, gives discursive logic and a clearer explanation to the cultural theme of embodiment in PRFHP. However, culturally grounded research greatly expands the other four somatic assumptions, especially the last two, the interconnection of the world and the multidimensionality of time and space. Examples from the data that connect the cultural themes of reverence to nature and natural cycles and physical and spiritual worlds as a continuum add the cultural dimensions critically needed to expand the explanations of the last two somatic assumptions. This inquiry presents a possibility of developing a new paradigm for viewing folk health practices as an experiential cultural phenomenon and expand a discursive vocabulary for health and illness that describes experiences and practices for PRFHP and somatic studies. Furthermore, this investigation will open the door for scholars to compile and revise traditional practices from Latin America and the Caribbean region in order to expand the exploration of the rich legacy traditional and indigenous Latin cultures offer the areas of education, cultural studies, and traditional and alternative health. iii To Carla Mamita te amo, sigue pa’lante! iv ACKNOWLEDGMENT I wish to thank my adviser, Dr. Sy Kleinman, for his professional support, encouragement and enthusiasm, which made this dissertation possible, and for his patience and motivation during this time from the beginning stages to its final draft. Thank you also for encouraging me to present in various forums ideas and praxis from the dissertation in order to test and clarify which direction to take. The fact that I have become an accomplished presenter I owe to you Sy! To Dr. Cynthia Dillard for her support and guidance, teaching me about culturally grounded research and other wise approaches to pursue this project with love and patience. Your professional integrity and responsibility advising me went beyond the expected. My hat goes off to you Dr. Dillard. Dr. Fiona Travis for encouraging me to follow my dream in pursuing this project you gave me courage to complete the difficult task of putting together my love for Puerto Rican culture, the human body and folk healing in one stage. To my friends Dianne Kadonaga and Ernest Choi, whose supports led to the completion of this dissertation. Thanks Dianne for your input, conceptualizing and helping me assemble the puzzles of earlier drafts. To Ernest, who patiently read some of my drafts and helped me with the presentation of the data stories and organization of Chapters 2 and 4. To my parents, Fanny Pineiro and Nicomedes Santiago who from a distance -yet from so close- were actively involved, especially during the fieldwork stage of the dissertation. You encouraged me to follow my dream no matter how far fetched it seemed. Gracias Papi y Mami por creer en mi. To my informants, Milagros, Mildred, Hector, and Jose for helping me with the contact and driving to the participants’ interviews and demonstrations. You were wonderful! To the participants in this study, thank you for show me your love for v healing. Without you, this project would not be possible. Los quiero muchos, y les estoy agradecida! Finally, to the two close to my heart. First, my loving husband Harold whose immense love and patience has prevailed all this years, experiencing too close by the growing pains of dissertation for the second time, -his being the first-, Thank you for being part of my life. Second, to my daughter Carla whose love, laughs and inspiration move my heart. Los llevo en my corazon a los dos. vi VITA April 22, 1965 ………………………………Born in San Juan, Puerto Rico 1987…………………………………………B. A., Universidad de Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras, PR 1992…………………………………………M. S., University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 1991-1992…………………………………. Graduate Teaching Associate, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 1994-1996……………………………..……Adjunct Faculty, University of Cincinnati, CCM, Cincinnati, OH 1996-2000………………………………….Graduate Teaching Associate, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 2001-2002………………………………….Graduate Teaching Associate, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: College of Education vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Abstract……………………………………………………………………..ii Dedication………………………………………………………………… iv Acknowledgments…………………………………………………………. v Vita………………………………………………………………………… vii Chapters: 1. Introduction……………………………………………………………………… 1 1.1 Purpose of the study……………………………………………....... 4 1.2 Theoretical Framework of Somatics……………………………….. 5 1.3 Puerto Rican Folk Healing Practices (PRFHP) and Somatics Studies: could relate? …………………………………………………..... 6 1.3.1 Somatics and PRFHP perceived reality through the body……………………………………….……………7 1.3.2 The use of the first person experience is privileged as well as the perception of reality as an internal activity……..……… 7 1.3.3 The concept of sarcal consciousness as powerful guidance………………………………………………….. 9 1.3.4 Reality is determined by the perception of the individual…………………………………..…………………9 1.3.5 Existence in the world is holistic……………………………10 1.3.6 Individuals are simultaneously interconnected with the world……………………………………….11 1.3.7 Individuals are multi-dimensional beings going beyond time and space…………………………………….……………..…..12 1.4. The contributions to this research………………………………………13 1.5 Delimitations of the study……………………………………………….14 1.6 Limitations of the study…………………………………………………16 1.7 Definition of terms and concepts………………………………………..15 viii 1.8 Chapter organization…………………………………………………….19 2. Literature Review…………………………………………………………………21 2.1 Western influences in the Latino health care literature…………………22 2.2 Alternative ways to study and research Puerto Rican Folk Health Practices: Somatic Studies………………………24 2.2.1 Theoretical Background……………………………………….25 2.2.2 Somatic theory and Inquiry……………………………………27 2.3 Somatics notions in two non-western folk traditions: Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and Mexican Curanderismo MC)……………….29 2.4 Literature found about Puerto Rican Folk Practices………….…………32 2.4.1 Cosmological influences in PRFHP: Where do these practices come from?...........................................................................34 2.4.2. PRFHP Causes of Illnesses……………………………………48 2.4.3 PRFHP Diagnosis………………………………………………48 2.4.4: PRFHP Therapeutics…………………………………………..51 2.4.5 Traditional health roles performed on this particular investigation……………………………………………….56 2.4.6 The Healer formation…………………………………………..58 2.4.7 The need to study Puerto Rican Folk Health Practices………...59 2.5 Summary…………………………………………………………....……62 3. Methodology………………………………………………………………………65 3.1 motivation for the study………………………………………………….65 3.2 The purpose for this research…………………………………………….68 3.3 Theoretical Framework…………………………………………………..69 3.4 Case studies………………………………………………………………71 3.5 Method of obtaining the data…………………………………………….72 3.6.1 Healers’ selections and Interviews……………………………..73 3.6.2 Observations and Active Participation…………………………76 3.6 Interpretation and analysis……………………………………………….78 3.7 Chapter Summary………………………………………………………..80 ix 4. Data Stories……………………………………………………….………………82 4.1 Introduction……………………………………………………………..82 4.2 Healer’s profiles……………………………………..………………….83 4.2.1 Jose Raul Rivera Rosado………………………..…………….83