Curandero Conversations
El Nino Fidencio, Shamanism and
Healing Traditions of the Borderlands

Antonio Zavaleta and Alberto Salinas Jr.
Published by Authorhouse 2009

About the Book

Curandero Conversations offers something for everyone.  Following an introduction by renowned Native American healer and author, Jamie Sams, the book examines 190 actual email-based consultations with the curandero, followed by the anthropologist’s commentary.  The book also offers three major appendices including information for understanding cultural competencies in the delivery of health care, Internet resource links for continued study, and the most complete medicinal plant herbal used by curanderos/as on the U.S.-Mexico border.

About the Authors

Anthropologist, Antonio “Tony” Zavaleta and curandero, Alberto Salinas Jr., have teamed up to deliver the most important look into the heart and soul of U.S.-Mexico border and Latino/a healing and spirituality ever published.  Tony Zavaleta lives in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas and has dedicated his professional career to the health issues confronting transborder populations.  Alberto Salinas Jr. has done the same by dedicating his life to the service of his community as a traditional healer, or curandero.    

Praise for Curandero Conversations

“Here at last, the Age of Faith meets the Age of Google.  With the Internet as its medium, Curandero Conversations blurs what was once the traditional boundary between medicine, religion, and culture, demonstrating that we need all three to heal our bodies and souls.”

                                                            Oscar Casares, author, “Brownsville” & “Amigoland”

“An intrinsic look at a rich world where healing, spirituality and faith all merge together, this work literally lends its ear to the fascinating “curandero conversations” that define the increasingly important U.S.-Mexico border region.  And those conversations are ones that should be heard—they are pieces of living history that serve as signposts to the future.”

                                    Bill Minutaglio, clinical professor, The University of Texas at Austin

“Curandero Conversations reminds us on every page that faith and prayer are the mystical, healing ingredients and preventative medicine that many people have forgotten to use on a daily basis.  An authentic curandero must often times be a shaman, a diagnostician, a psychologist, a seer, an herbalist, as well as an interpreter of dreams.”

Jamie Sams, Native American healer and author

“Curandero Conversations helps us to understand our Latino and curandero religious healing heritage and to have empathy and compassion for these practices that are often either misunderstood or missing altogether from the health care delivery system.”

                                                                                    Miguel Alemán, M.D., physician

“American health and social service professionals must recognize the importance that culture plays in the delivery and quality of their services.  Curandero Conversations helps us to understand that role and is an invaluable resource for all those who provide services to Latinos in a clinical setting.”

                        Joseph Spielberg Benítez, anthropologist, Michigan State University, retired