Читать книгу Ringside Seat to a Revolution - David Dorado Romo - Страница 32

him to believe that such a marriage will

occur. I have only met him 2 or 3 times and

my occupation gives me no time for love

affairs. Mr. Rodríguez has spoken several

times with my father. I know not on what

subjects. I can only imagine my father has

not a good opinion of him and therefore has

not encouraged his matrimonial pretensions.

I would thank Dr. Rodríguez for his preten-

sions if they were sane, but I believe he makes

them to injure me before the public.”³²

But Teresita was not

just a celebrity at the local

level. Her fame spread

like wildfire throughout

the rest of the United

States as well. Newspaper

correspondents came to

the border from San

Francisco, Austin and

New York to interview

the young Mexican mira-

cle worker. Later, when

she left El Paso and

toured throughout the

United States, she also

made headlines wherev-

er she went. Journalists

were almost always

struck by Teresita’s mod-

esty and sincerity. “She

doesn’t pose; she doesn’t

persuade; she only

answers questions in a

straightforward, unhesitating way never dodging,

never resisting, never for a moment trying to hide

anything or explain away anything,” wrote Helen

Dare of the San Francisco Examiner. “The glance of

her beautiful brown eyes is half sad and wholly intel-

ligent, without any of the cunning or the sleepiness

or the furtive watchfulness of the ordinary Mexican or

Indian,” the reporter added using racial stereotypes

typical of her day.³³

Many of the out-of-town journalists who visited

Teresita in the Segundo Barrio reported that they

thought some kind of healing was actually taking

place, but they all had different explanations for this

phenomenon. Maud Mason, a news correspondent

from Austin, Texas, declared Teresita, without knowing

it, was using the techniques of some of the best known

hypnotists in the world. Although Teresita “does not

have any education, and could not have read Delenze,

or Mayor, or Tester, or Carpenter, or could have ever

heard of Franz Anton Mesmer,” Mason wrote with a

mixture of admiration and condescension, “her

method is theirs.”³⁴ Another “unprejudiced” observer

who claimed “some knowledge of physics” concluded

that Teresita’s powers

were based on “animal

magnetism combined with

electricity and Odyllic

forces, of which any stu-

dent can inform himself

by perusing the latest

works on physics and

electricity.”³⁵

Many of Teresita’s heal-

ing methods, however,

were grounded less on

“Odyllic forces” (whatev-

er that means) and more

on the indigenous culture

that she had grown up

with. She had been a

healer since her early

adolescence. While at her

father’s ranch in Cabora,

Teresita had been the

apprentice of a Yaqui

curandera named Huila.

From her, Teresa learned

the medicinal uses of more than 200 herbs and folk

remedies. Teresita’s half-sister, Anita, recalled Teresita

putting yerba galandrina on the back of her head

after she had been bit by a scorpion.³⁶ Many of these

natural remedies are still used among the Indian com-

munities along Mexico’s northern border today. Yerba

del indio from the mountains of Chihuahua is said to

relieve stomach ailments; yerbanís works for coughs;

yerba del arriero with a bit of pomegranate rind is

excellent for child’s diarrhea; yerba de la víbora, to

this day, is used by the Tarahumara to offer relief

from the common cold.³⁷

27

“The glance of her beautiful

brown eyes is half sad and

wholly intelligent…she has in

her modest, fragile person and

her quiet manner such a

dignity, such earnestness, and

sincerity and gentleness and

serenity that one cannot deny

her respect.”

—California journalist Helen Dare

32

El Paso Times, November 20, 1896.

33

“Santa Teresa, Celebrated Mexican Healer, Whose Powers Awe Warlike Yaquis in Sonora, Comes to Restore San Jose Boy to Health,” the San

Francisco Examiner, July 27, 1900.

34

El Paso Times, September 9, 1896.

35

El Paso Times, June 17, 1896.

36

Anita Urrea Treviño, interview by William Holden, Nov. 23-24, 1961. Holden Collection, Texas Tech University.

37

Osorio, Tomóchic en llamas, p. 43.