In this video, Antonio Vazquez, a Tarahumara curandero, as they are popularly known, or "shaman", as some people might describe him (see "shamanism" link), performs a type of combination diagnostic technique and curing ceremony, which is, in effect, a "limpia". We can say, actually, that they part wherein the "mal" (evil, or sickness) is drawn out of the person is the actually limpia, whereas the rest of the activity is a diagnostic technique.
In the first part of this, I am asking him if he performs cures with a cross, and he says that the main "instrument" is actually an egg, but that a cross is involved in this. First, he shows me a very old cross that belonged to his grandparents, but he said that he does not use it for cures, but rather as a type of protection. The cures are done with the use of a cross that is carved from the wood of the ocotillo plant. He explained later that not just any type of ocotillo can be used. It has to be a variety that grown in the bottom of the Copper Canyons in Southwestern Chihuahua State.
This type of ocotillo, which is also known as "ocote" and as "lagrimas de san pedro" is also used as a remedy for the control of diabetes, and has other medicinal, spiritual, and magical properties.
When he places on hand on the chest and the other on the back of his patient, this is part of his diagnostic practice. He feels points on the body that have connections to organs or to muscles, nerves, an other tissues, and diagnoses conditions by means of this technique.
He then looks at the egg and gets more information about the conditions that they person suffers, and he tells them what their diagnosis is.
He holds it up to a source of light so that he can see inside of it, or see signs on the surface of it which show up more clearly when it is illuminated like this.
Then he does the actual limpia to draw out the sickness, or the mal ("evil"), from the patient.
He might recommend an ongoing treatment or a further treatment such as the use of medicinal herbs,
He also performs the diagnosis while the patient has the egg in one hand and the cross in the other just by placing a hand on the patient's shoulder, and he also does so just by standing there and watching the patient, at which time he is actually communicating with the affected parts of the body through the egg, as he commands the illness or "mal" to pass through the body into the egg.
At the end of my limpia, I asked him if we would flush the egg down the toilet, and he said this could be done, but later he recommended that burning the eggs was better. As we burned them, he was able to tell how successful we were with the limpia by the nature of the smoke.
Bryant "Eduardo" Holman
Fausto's Art Gallery
Ojinaga, Chihuahua, Mexico
http://ojinaga.comClick here to see some photos taken at a meeting of a national organization of Mexican Indian curanderos that Antonio attended in representation of the curanderos of the Tarahumara Nation, in Culiacan, Sinaloa.