Week 5 Post - Curandera by Carmen Lomas Garza (Torres, Jacqueline)

 

Carmen Lomas Garza's gouache painting on cotton paper Curandera (1977) reveals a relationship between her religion and practices that her family and herself utilized for healing. This piece hints at the complexity of Carmen Lomas Garza's work because even though catholicism and the practices of curanderas may seem to clash or contradict each other, Garza is able to highlight how there is a broader culture that exists through this relationship. The use of catholic icons in this piece are juxtaposed with the ruda ritual to heal in order to reflect on how these can coexist, as they did in the artist's life. I can relate to this picture because I am Mexican American and I grew up with catholicism in my household, yet in my household we also heavily practiced these sorts of rituals as well. Even without an official curandera, my mother would pass ruda by our bodies as other family members watched. Some other practices that my mother would practice on us without a curandera while still being a firm believer in catholicism is passing an egg over ourselves as well. The egg was also a means to cleanse ourselves from bad energy or to see if there is any bad energy around us. Since I am not as religious, I do not know if there is a contradiction between being catholic and practicing these healing rituals, but since my mom does it, I would think that it is okay and it just speaks to what Carmen Lomas Garza was probably trying to reveal through this art piece. I think there is a stigma behind curandera practices as being a part of witch craft, but to me, it is much more complex than that. Through the artist's usecatholic icons and other curandera practices it reveals the nature of a broader culture as a Chicana.