Season 3, Episode 1
Teresita
Teresa Urrea, Curanderismo, and the Borderland uprisings
November 19th, 2024
ICuranderismo originated in Central and South America and is a form of folk healing that merges Catholic and indigenous ideas into its own unique practice. Today, curanderismo is practiced in many Mexican American communities throughout the United States. A curandera or curandero not only treats physical ailments, but also supernatural ones, and often serves as an important community leader. The curandera Teresa Urrea was a prominent figure in the Mexican-U.S. border uprisings of the 1880s and her story bridges the physical and metaphysical border between these two young nations.
Featuring Brett Hendrickson, Jennifer Koshatka Seman, and Grace Sesma.
FEATURING
Brett Hendrickson
Professor of Religious Studies at Lafayette College
Brett Hendrickson is a Professor of Religious Studies at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania. His teaching and research is in the areas of Latinx religious history, religion and healing, and religion in public life. Hendrickson's most recent book is Mexican American Religions: An Introduction published with Routledge in 2022.
Jennifer Koshatka Seman
Lecturer in History at Metropolitan State University in Denver, Colorado
Jennifer Koshatka Seman received her Ph.D. from Southern Methodist University and is currently a Lecturer in History at Metropolitan State University of Denver where she teaches courses in U.S. and Latin American history. Jennifer’s first historical monograph, Borderlands Curanderos: The Worlds of Santa Teresa Urrea and Don Pedrito Jaramillo, came out on University of Texas Press in 2021. Jennifer has also published articles in scholarly journals including “Laying-on Hands: Santa Teresa Urrea’s Curanderismo as Medicine and Refuge at the Turn of the Twentieth Century” in Bodies and Their Care in an American Secular Age, Special section of Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses (2018) and “‘How do I know…prayers don’t do more good than…pills’: Don Pedrito Jaramillo, Curanderismo, and the Rise of Professional Medicine in the Rio Grande Valley, 1881-1900,” in Journal of the West (2015).
Grace Sesma
Curandera and Community Work
Grace Sesma is regarded as a curandera in her community. Grace encourages a thoughtful blending of traditional Indigenous healing and complementary, holistic practices with a doctor's conventional medical treatments, as appropriate. Grace has lectured on Curanderismo at Pepperdine University, San Diego State University, the International Society for the Study of Subtle Energy & Energy Medicine Conference, Children’s Hospital-Denver, CSU San Marcos, SDSU School of Social Work, and many other institutions. Grace contributed to the book, "Meditations for InterSpiritual Practice: Practices and Readings Drawn from the World's Spiritual Traditions," published in 2012. She also contributed to the book Voice of the Ancestors: Xicanx and Latinx Spiritual Expressions and Healing Practices. As part of her community responsibilities, she has been asked to participate in baby blessing ceremonies, offer opening prayers for gatherings and social justice actions, provide spiritual assistance to persons during end-of-life transitions, perform house purification rituals, and facilitate family and community conflict transformation circles.
CREDITS
Host: Heather Freeman; Producer: Amber Walker; Editor: Lucy Perkins; Associate Producer: Noor Gill; Sound Design: Jennie Cataldo; Fact Checker: Dania Suleman; Executive Producer for PRX Productions: Jocelyn Gonzales; Music: APM Music and Epidemic Sound; Project Managers: Edwin Ochoa; Advisors: Helen Berger, Danielle Boaz, Yvonne Chireau, Chas Clifton, Abel Gomez, Daniel Harms, Corey Hutcheson, Sean McLeod, Sabina Magliocco, Thorn Mooney, and Meg Whalen; Guests: Brett Hendrickson, Jennifer Koshatka Seman, Grace Sesma; Additional Thanks: Dr. William Davis; Funding and Support: The National Endowment for the Humanities and The University of North Carolina at Charlotte.