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The Curing Woman | Introduction

Alejandro Morales’s short story ‘‘The Curing Woman’’ was first published in 1986 in The Americas Review. It was reprinted in the anthology Short Fiction by Hispanic Writers of the United States (Houston, 1993). ‘‘The Curing Woman’’ draws on the traditional Mexican folktale, but it also possesses elements of social realism and magical realism. Set in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in Spain, Mexico, and California, it describes the life of Doña Marcelina Trujillo Benidorm. Marcelina is a young woman who leaves her home at the age of thirteen to be reunited with her mother. Her mother, who is a traditional healer or curandera, trains Marcelina in the healing arts. Marcelina then travels to Mexico, where she apprentices herself to two more master healers. She then makes her way to Simons, California, where she becomes widely known for her practice of the art of curanderismo. The story centers on one cure in particular, that of a boy named Delfino, who suffers from a malady that cannot be explained or cured by other doctors.

The Curing Woman Summary

‘‘The Curing Woman’’ tells the story of Doña Marcelina Trujillo Benidorm. Marcelina is born into a rich, aristocratic family in Spain. Her mother is one of the family’s servants. When her mother is forced to leave the service of the family at the end of her ten-year term, Mrs. Trujillo Benidorm, the wife of Marcelina’s father, refuses to let her take nineyear- old Marcelina with her.

Marcelina is heartbroken. When she looks at her mother’s face as her mother is leaving, she realizes it is like looking into a mirror; it is as if her mother had given birth to her own twin.

For four years Marcelina is well cared for and receives a good education. Then one morning a servant brings her a piece of paper, and the information contained on it leads Marcelina to travel to a place called Alhambra. In one of the caves in the hills that overlook the town, she meets her mother again, whom she has not seen or heard from for four years.

Marcelina spends seven years with her mother, learning the art of healing. When her mother realizes Marcelina has learned everything she has to offer, she sends her away. Marcelina, now age twenty, travels on a ship to Veracruz on the Gulf Coast of Mexico. In Veracruz she is met by a man called ‘‘El Gran Echbo,’’ who is a teacher and a healer. Marcelina is apprenticed to him for several years. Near the end of that period, she meets María Sabina, a saintly woman... » Complete The Curing Woman Summary