El Niño Fidencio and the Fidencistas
Folk Religion in the U.S.-Mexican Borderland
by
Book Cover & Preview Text
Mexican Curanderismo This book is the story of the famous Mexican curandero/folk-healer El Niño Fidencio (1898-1938) and how the benevolent healing cult known as Fidencismo developed after his death continuing to this day. It is also the story of a half-century of the study of anthropology on the U.S.-Mexico border. It has been a wonderful and mysterious journey filled with adventures that never fails to amaze those who have traveled the path with me. Early in this journey a friend remarked, “Oh, so you are going to study the strong dream man, a colloquial name for Fidencio. He will come to you in your dreams and direct your life,” and he has. While this book does not attempt to describe or explain the practices of curanderos, it does provide the reader a tremendous amount of information about them. Anthropologist George M. Foster enlightened us in the 1960s with the publication of his Hippocrates’ Latin American Legacy: Humoral Medicine in the New World. His book begins our understanding of curanderismo,with the understanding of hot and cold, of wellness and illness. This is a descriptive ethnographic study of the Mexican folk-healing system known as curanderismo, examined through the actual life experience of its greatest practitioner, El Niño Fidencio. The Niño did not consider himself a curandero although that is the anthropological category that best fits him. To others he might have been a shaman or a medicine man. There are many descriptors for his miraculous cures; my favorite being that he was a taumaturge. Fidencio was spiritually anointed by God to provide a service to man by leading a solitary and humble life on the desert in a Christ-like fashion. He did not travel to the ill and infirm, they came to him. They made the journey to what would come to be called the New Jerusalem and to the Avenue of Pain or Avenida Sagrario. This simple metaphor developed not only his healing ministry but also the religious cult that followed him throughout his life and after his death to this day. It is important to note that many of the Niño’s followers considered him the actual “second coming” of Jesus Christ and in fact some were convinced that he was Jesus Christ. It is clear however, from his Escrituras or scriptures that the Niño Fidencio was a man like any other who was born with certain peculiarities and abilities and that he received visions and revelations throughout his life. After his 20th birthday he began a ministry of miraculous healing and a community of followers grew up around him producing a religious cult. Whatever the case, Fidencio was a remarkable healer or curandero. What exactly is a curandero? The Mexican National Institute of the Indigenous defines curanderismo “as a system of knowledge, beliefs, and practices which are intent on the prevention and treatment of illnesses or the management of causes of misbalance, which is perceived as pathological for the individual or the social group.” It is important to note that there is no single uniform system of curanderismo; the indigenous practices of southern Mexico are different from those of the north, which are unlike those practiced in Texas. Curanderismo is an eclectic healing system in constant flux adding and deleting healing modalities, practices, rituals, and beliefs, a passing trends while retaining a cultural core that is fixed. In fact, Carlos Viesca Treviño describes the class of curanderos as the sole perpetrators of resistance against the European invasion of the 1519. Continuing that curanderos and brujos/witches continue the resistance today as a direct affront to the Roman Catholic Church.
Formats
Book Details
About the Book
El Niño Fidencio and the Fidencistas: Folk Religion on the U.S.-Mexican Borderland, is an biographical ethnography examining the life of Mexico’s most famous folk healer as well as the folk religious healing cult that has followed him since his death in 1938. Dr. Zavaleta examines curanderismo, the transmigrational patterns of Mexicans in the United States as well as Latino/a social psychology and importance of folk beliefs and practices in their daily lives. In 2009, Zavaleta’s lifetime of research supporting Mexican nationals living abroad, “Mexicanos en el Extranjero” earned him the prestigious Ohtli, a Nahuatl(Aztec) word meaning pathfinder. The Ohtli is regarded as the highest community-minded awards which the Republic of Mexico bestows to non-Mexican citizens for their service to Mexico. In 2010, Zavaleta was appointed by President Obama to the Good Neighbor Environmental Commission of the EPA which reports directly to the President and dedicated to observing and analyzing ongoing events within the cross-border eco-systems of the United States-Mexico borderlands. Zavaleta studied anthropology at The University of Texas a Austin completing a doctoral degree in 1976. For the past 40 years he has been a faculty member and administrator at The University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College and The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. Dr. Zavaleta retired in 2016 and lives in Brownsville, Texas.
About the Author
El Niño Fidencio: Folk Religion in the U.S.-Mexican Borderland, is an historical ethnography and the result of more than 30 years of study and fieldwork in Mexico and along the U.S.-Mexico border. In the mid-70s, Dr. Antonio “Tony” Zavaleta initiated his interest in border folklore including the oral history of the followers of José Fidencio Sintora Constantino recognized as El Niño Fidencio. He spent three decades learning from a diverse group of Mexican folk healers known as curanderos/as, who were ardent disciples of El Niño Fidencio. Zavaleta studied Anthropology at the University of Texas at Austin, completing his doctoral degree in 1976 and has served as a faculty member and administrator at the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College. In 2009, his collected body of research in support of Mexican nationals living abroad, Mexicanos en el extranjero, earned him México’s prestigious Ohtli award. In 2010, he received a Presidential appointment to the Good Neighbor Environmental Board. In 2009 he published, along with South Texas curandero Alberto Salinas, Jr., Curandero Conversations: El Niño Fidencio: Shamanism and Healing Traditions of the Borderlands, a book that utilizes actual case studies with a curandero (Salinas) to explain how curanderismo is practiced in the Latino community. In 2010, Zavaleta published Medicinal Plants of the Borderlands: A Bilingual Resource Guide, the product of more than 40 years of study of the curative plants along the U.S.-Mexico border. In 2013, Zavaleta published El Nino Fidencio: Libro de las Sagradas Escrituras, that represent the life, works and holy scriptures of the Niño Fidencio while practicing his healing ministry in Espinazo, Nuevo León (1925-1938).