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.

"Curanderas"--traditional healers in Mexican culture--bridge the gaps between multiple planes of existence--spiritual and material, modern and pre-modern--dispensing 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."

This four-volume set documents the complexity and richness of women's contributions to American history and culture, empowering all students by demonstrating a more populist approach to the past. Based on the content of most textbooks, it would be easy to reach the erroneous conclusion that women have not contributed much to America's history and development. Nothing could be further from the truth. Offering comprehensive coverage of women of a diverse range of cultures, classes, ethnicities, religions, and sexual identifications, this four-volume set identifies the many ways in which women have helped to shape and strengthen the United States. This encyclopedia is organized into four chronological volumes, with each volume further divided into three sections. Each section features an overview essay and thematic essay as well as detailed entries on topics ranging from Lady Gaga to Ladybird Johnson, Lucy Stone, and Lucille Ball, and from the International Ladies of Rhythm to the International Ladies Garment Workers Union. The set also includes a vast variety of primary documents, such as personal letters, public papers, newspaper articles, recipes, and more. These primary documents enhance users' learning opportunities and enable readers to better connect with the subject matter.

20+ Diverse Traditions from New England to the West Coast Drawing on the expertise of twenty-four renowned practitioners, this book features contemporary folk traditions from all over North America. Diverse as the landscapes they thrive on, these authentic practices will expand your worldview and inspire you to enrich your own spirituality. Explore the history, tools, and spiritual beliefs of many different paths of folk magic from Mexico, the United States, and Canada. You'll tour the continent's rich and varied cultures region by region, taking an insider's look at more than twenty traditions, including: Appalachian Mountain Magic • Brujeria Curanderismo • Detroit Hoodoo Florida Swamp Magic • Irish American Folk Magic Italian American Magic • Melungeon Folk Magic New England Cunning Craft • New Orleans Voodoo Ozark Folk Magic • Pennsylvania Powwow & Braucherei Slavic American Folk Magic • Southern Conjure Stephanie Rose Bird • H. Byron Ballard • Starr Casas • Ixtoii Paloma Cervantes • Kenya T. Coviak • J. Allen Cross • Alexander Cummins • Morgan Daimler • Mario Esteban Del Ángel Guevara • Lilith Dorsey • Morrigane Feu • Via Hedera • Cory Thomas Hutcheson • Melissa A. Ivanco-Murray • E. F. E. Lacharity • Dee Norman • Aaron Oberon • Robert Phoenix • Jake Richards • Sandra Santiago • Robert L. Schreiwer • Eliseo “Cheo” Torres • Benebell Wen • Brandon Weston

The Shamanic Plant Medicine series acts as an introduction to specific teacher plants used by shamans in a variety of cultures to facilitate spirit communion, healing, divination and personal discovery, and which are increasingly known, used and respected in Western society by modern shamans as a means of connecting to spirit. Other books in the Shamanic Plant Medicine series include Ayahuasca: The Vine of Souls, Salvia Divinorum: The Sage of the Seers and San Pedro: The Gateway to Wisdom.

Santa Teresa Urrea and Don Pedrito Jaramillo were curanderos—faith healers—who, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, worked outside the realm of "professional medicine," seemingly beyond the reach of the church, state, or certified health practitioners whose profession was still in its infancy. Urrea healed Mexicans, Indigenous people, and Anglos in northwestern Mexico and cities throughout the US Southwest, while Jaramillo conducted his healing practice in the South Texas Rio Grande Valley, healing Tejanos, Mexicans, and Indigenous people there. Jennifer Koshatka Seman takes us inside the intimate worlds of both "living saints," demonstrating how their effective healing—curanderismo—made them part of the larger turn-of-the century worlds they lived in as they attracted thousands of followers, validated folk practices, and contributed to a modernizing world along the US-Mexico border. While she healed, Urrea spoke of a Mexico in which one did not have to obey unjust laws or confess one's sins to Catholic priests. Jaramillo restored and fed drought-stricken Tejanos when the state and modern medicine could not meet their needs. Then, in 1890, Urrea was expelled from Mexico. Within a decade, Jaramillo was investigated as a fraud by the American Medical Association and the US Post Office. Borderlands Curanderos argues that it is not only state and professional institutions that build and maintain communities, nations, and national identities but also those less obviously powerful.

Religion and Politics in America's Borderlands brings together leading academic specialists on immigration and the borderlands, as well as nationally recognized grassroots activists, who reflect on their varied experiences of living, working, and teaching on the US-Mexico border and in the borderlands. These authors demonstrate the groundbreaking claim that the borderlands are not only a location to think about religiously, but they’re also a place that reshapes religious thinking. In this pioneering book, scholars and activists engage with Scripture, theology, history, church practices, and personal experiences to offer in-depth analyses of how the borderlands confront conventional interpretations of Christianity.

A Companion to American Environmental History gatherstogether a comprehensive collection of over 30 essays that examinethe evolving and diverse field of American environmental history. Provides a complete historiography of American environmentalhistory Brings the field up-to-date to reflect the latest trends andencourages new directions for the field Includes the work of path-breaking environmental historians,from the founders of the field, to contributions frominnovative young scholars Takes stock of the discipline through five topically themedparts, with essays ranging from American Indian EnvironmentalRelations to Cities and Suburbs

Led by a UCLA-trained health psychologist, a team of experts describes non-traditional treatments that are quickly becoming more common in Western society, documenting cultural variations in health and sickness practices to underscore the diversity among human society. This unique two-volume set describes the variety of cultural approaches to health practiced by people of varying cultural heritages and places them in stark context with traditional Western approaches to health care and medicine. Examining health practices such as Ayurveda, an ancient system of medicine that focuses on the body, the sense organs, the mind, and the soul; and traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), the author examines why these different approaches can explain some of the cultural variations in health behaviors, differences in why people get sick, and how they cope with illness. Traditional health care providers of all kinds—including clinicians, counselors, doctors, nurses, and social workers—will all greatly benefit by learning about vastly different approaches to health, while general readers and scholars alike will gain insight into the rich diversity of world culture and find the material fascinating.

With the publication of La Maravilla (1993), Alfredo Véa entered the world of letters in full possession of his craft as a novelist, blending narrative fiction and engaging anecdotes with allusions to art (music, paintings, poetry) and autobiography (e.g., his tour of duty in Vietnam), written in the poetry and prose of the world with penetrating reflections on America (as an ideal), and the United States (as a country). Véa’s narrative trilogy was recognized for its attention to language, ingenious conception at the level of plot and theme, and broad reflections on American society, its history (politics, art, religion, the entertainment industry), and its role as a world power in the twentieth century, specifically during the Vietnam war. Although recognized as a writer of great intuition and exceptional creativity, until now, no book-length study has been written on Alfredo Véa as a novelist. In this book, each one of the novels in the trilogy is analyzed and interpreted from an interdisciplinary perspective and with the general reader in mind, as well as college and university professors and students of US and world literatures.