Sunday Speaker Series: Curanderismo: Past, Present, Future.

This presentation, or rather, plática, will be set to encourage an interactive dialogue between guest speaker, Danielle López, and the museum visitor. “My goal is to create a new dialogue of what constitutes accepted modalities of knowledge production through the lens of Gloria Anzaldúa’s conocimiento occurring here, in my native U.S-Mexico Borderlands,” explains López, a borderland native. The focus of López studies is on healing through traditional curanderismo in interdisciplinary spaces which include regional and internationally inspired holistic healing practices.

To complement the presentation, a selection of items from the museum’s collection pertaining to traditional healing, or curanderismo, will feature items referencing Don Pedrito Jaramillo. Jaramillo was a traditional healer who practiced in and around Falfurrias from to the late 1800s until his passing in 1907.

López earned a Master of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies with a concentration in Mexican-American Literature, Medical Anthropology and Latin Art History at the University of Texas – Pan American (now, UTRGV). Her work as a cultural theory educator, a practicing curandera, a chicana spiritual activist, and a performance artist in the Río Grande Valley continues to guide her ongoing passion to preserve the culture, medicine and art of her transcultural borderland heritage.

Sunday Speaker Series is included in the fee for regular museum admission. FRIENDS of the MOSTHistory are admitted free as a benefit of FRIENDship.

This program is made possible with generous support from the Carmen C. Guerra Endowment. Mrs. Guerra was deeply committed to supporting educational opportunities in the Rio Grande Valley. This named endowment was created at the museum by her family to honor her memory and to continue her commitment to providing opportunities for education to the community.