Health & Healing
19
the woman with the white shirt and red sun visor came back with a plate full of food. My
heart began to beat even faster when I thought I saw a look of annoyance on her face
when she saw me. She sat down in her chair and began to eat her food. She looked up at
me expectantly. It is then that I realized that I had no idea how this worked. For lack of
something else to say, I tried to introduce myself. I also told her that the man across the
Zocolo told me that she was a curandera. The reader frowned and asked me to repeat
again who had told me that she was a curandera. When I did, she had no idea who I was
talking about, and I got the very direct impression that I had offended her. I repeated that
I was looking for a curandera, and asked her if she was one. She said, “No, no, you need
Isidro, the Shaman,” simultaneously motioning to someone behind me.
I wanted to scream “No! I have already seen a shaman and it went badly.” But
before I could say a word, there was a man with dark skin and hair in blue jeans and a t-
shirt standing in front of me. He motioned for me to get up and sit in a stool that was
about 2 feet behind the tarot card reader. I told Isidro that I was looking for a curandera.
When he asked me what was wrong, I told him that I have asthma. He said that he could
cure me, but first I would have to have my cards read. My fifty pesos started to burn a
hole in my pocket, reminding me that it was all the money that I had. I knew the tarot
card reading only cost between 20-40 pesos, so I had enough for that, but I didn’t have
enough for another shaman cleansing, too. I asked Isidro how much the cleansing would
cost, trying to politely squeeze in that I only had 50 pesos, so I would probably have to
come back another time. He said that the tarot card reading and the cleansing would cost
about 100 pesos.
Convention