CURANDERO HISPANIC ETHNO-PSYCHOTHERAPY & CURANDERISMO

About the Book

Curandero: Ethno-Psychotherapy & Curanderismo Hispanic Mental Health in the 21st Century, is the product of more than 50 years of the study of curanderismo and Hispanic mental health. In this book, Dr. Zavaleta examines curanderismo and the folk beliefs carried by immigrants across the U.S.-Mexico border. In the United States, the Hispanic population is notoriously underserved in both physical and mental health care. In Curandero, Dr. Zavaleta reviews the history of curanderismo, beginning with pre-Columbian populations, and traces the development of curanderismo over the past 500 years. He also examines the history and practice of psychiatry and the emergence of ethno-psychotherapy as well as psychiatry’s historic failure to incorporate culture in the treatment of the mental health of Hispanic populations. Dr. Zavaleta seeks to introduce curanderismo to psychiatry with the intention of incorporating its important aspects in the treatment of Hispanic mental health.

About the Author

Antonio Noé Zavaleta studied anthropology at The University of Texas at Austin, completing a doctoral degree in 1976. He retired in 2016 as Professor Emeritus after 40 years in the classroom and as Acting Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs at the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College. Dr. Zavaleta has defined his career in anthropology with the study of Mexican folk healing known as curanderismo and is internationally renowned for his work on the U.S.-Mexico Border, poverty and immigration. In 2009 Zavaleta was awarded the Premio Ohtli, the “Pathfinder” award by the government of Mexico for his lifetime study of the border and in 2016 he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters by Wolsey Hall School of Theology, in Oxford, England. In 2016 Dr. Zavaleta published, El Niño Fidencio and the Fidencistas: Folk Religion in the U.S.-Mexican Borderlands, the result of more than 30 years of study of the Niño Fidencio and folk religion. Dr. Zavaleta currently serves as an elected member of the Texas Southmost College Board of Trustees and lives in Brownsville, Texas.