Читать книгу Ringside Seat to a Revolution - David Dorado Romo - Страница 34

for days after her recovery. She talked about spiritual

visions she’d had while she was unconscious. Teresita

told her father that she heard voices instructing her to

cure the sick and revealing to her that she had impor-

tant work to do among the Indians.

Teresita’s sudden awakening from her coma

transformed her from a curandera to a miracle worker

in the eyes of the community. Black Elk and other

indigenous healers had undergone similar

transformations. Among Native

Americans, seizures or loss of con-

sciousness often preceded the

discovery of healing powers.

When Teresita resumed

her practice of curanderis-

mo, her patients looked

at her with new eyes.

Word spread through-

out the region that she

had resurrected from

the dead; people

saw her abstracted

demeanor and strange

behavior as evidence

of a mysterious posses-

sion. Even after her

recovery, Teresita fre-

quently fell into short

trances. Upon regaining con-

sciousness, she would make

pronouncements about the

future—she could predict rain, torna-

does, accidents, the arrival of a friend,

Teresita Urrea, ca. 1897.

(Southwest Collection,

Texas Tech University.)

the death of a relative or the birth of a

baby. She had powers that would be

associated today with a psychic. An El

Paso family had a wax statue made in

honor of Teresita for helping them find the body of

their drowned son.⁴⁴ When many of her predictions

came to pass, the villagers took it as another sign that

Teresita was divinely inspired.

Mariana Avendaño witnessed many of these

powers firsthand. Avendaño had promised to

Teresita’s devoted servant for life after Teresita healed

her during a paralysis brought on by a fever.⁴⁵ She

would stick around for more than a decade, accom-

pany Teresita to El Paso and raise Teresita’s two

daughters after her death.

Avendaño claimed Teresita possessed another

extraordinary power that she shared with only her

closest friends—astral projection. Mariana said she

had accompanied Teresita during several out-of-body

voyages herself. At night, after a hard day’s work of

healing, Teresita would appear to her, as if

in a dream, and they would fly hand

in hand over the pyramids of

Tenochtitlán, the beaches of

Acapulco or over the water

lilies of Xochimilco.⁴⁶

Another close

friend of Teresita told

anarcho-communist

historian

José

Valadés a similar

story in the 1930s.

“I’ve accompanied

Teresita in some of

her voyages,”

Josefina Félix said

during an oral histo-

ry interview. “But I

can’t explain how that

happened. She would

wake me up when we

slept together, invite me

somewhere and we would

find ourselves there instanta-

neously. We would stay there a

while, converse and see everything

we wanted to see.”⁴⁷

In the fall of 1896, when a

rebellion broke out in several towns

along the U.S.-Mexico border waged in Teresita’s

name, rumor had it that the young miracle worker had

used her powers of astral projection to lead the revolt

against the soldiers of Porfirio Díaz. Although she was

hundreds of miles away in El Paso, federal soldiers

claimed they saw Santa Teresa leading a group of

rebels at Nogales, Sonora. They said she was riding

upon a white horse that hovered above the ground.

44

Anita Urrea Treviño, interview by W. Holden. Holden Collection, Texas Tech University. “In 1915 or 1916, Anita went to the house of Manuel and

Leberata [sic] Vargas in El Paso. In this house was a wax statue of Teresa, dressed in beautiful garments, and under glass. The Vargas’ had made the

statue, took it to the Exposition in St. Louis where it won first prize. They built their house with the prize money. Anita recognized Teresa’s dress.

The reason for making the statue was that Mrs. Vargas lost her son in the river and asked Teresa what had happened to her son. Teresa told them

where to find the body in the river. They were so grateful they made a life-sized statue of Teresita.”

29

45

Tomasita Urrea García, interview by W. Holden, January 16, 1962. Holden Collection, Texas Tech University.

46

Laura Urrea Van Order, interviewed by W. Holden, January 17, 1962. Holden Collection, Texas Tech University.

47

La Opinión, March 7, 1937.