They All Want Magic: Curanderas and Folk Healing (Rio Grande/Ro Bravo: Borderlands Culture and Traditions)

Curanderastraditional healers in Mexican culturebridge the gaps between multiple planes of existencespiritual and material, modern and pre-moderndispensing medicinal herbs, prayers, and instruction. Elizabeth de la Portilla writes of the world and practices of San Antonio curanderas. As a scholar, an ethnographer, and a curandera in training, her parallel perspectives uniquely aid readers in understanding this subordinated culture. Retelling the stories various healers have shared, interpreting their answers to her probing questions, and describing the herbs and recipes they use in their arts, the author vividly illuminates the borderland context of San Antonio. Scholars and readers of anthropology, sociology, Chicana and Chicano studies, and women's studies will savor the many layers of meaning and application in They All Want Magic.