We dance in a circle, some of us with our bundles of herbs and
escobitas, our little curing brooms. The sweeping of the roads
ceremonial cycle has just begun. Long ago in this sacred count, the
midwives and traditional healers danced with bundles of marigolds and
tobacco and little brooms of herbs. The sweeping of the roads comes
with fall winds, the milpas are cleaned for the next harvest. The Do–a
Predicanda Perea Encuentro de Medicina Tradicional in Albuquerque,
N.M. fell in this ceremonial time. There is a continuity as the dance
leaves its footprints on time and earth. We are still carrying our
brooms for sacred work.

About 20 healers are called to the circle to be blessed by la jefa
Josefina and Do–a Predicanda, who are elders to the event organizer
Kalpulli Izkalli. La jefa Josefina, who was initiated into
the Aztec dance ceremony at age 16 and continues to withstand the
all-night ceremonies even now that she is well into her seventies, is
well known for her powerful smudgings with copal smoke. Do–a Predi
tiene sus manos de poderes, has the powers in her hands. In spirit
are other legendary women known for their medicine <ETH> la famousa
Maclovia Zamora of Rupee's drugstore, who shelves are lined with roots
and herbs gathered from the mountains and river walks of New Mexico;
Enriqueta Vasquez, the author of Enriqueta Vasquez and the Chicano
Movement: Writings from El Grito del Norte, is also honored as a long
time luchadora and ceremonial keeper. She wrote of the santa tierra in
1971: "Man comes/man lives/man passes on through earth/through time/
man forgets/but the earth/the land/remains/the earth/the land/knows."

People stand in line for hours waiting for a limpia. La gente es muy
necesitada, the people are in need. All the month of September and
October, stories circulated throughout Mexican communities about the
families separated from their children during raids. Mothers and
fathers arrested on the way to pick up the irchildren and U.S. born
children are left with no one to care for them here. Stories of
migrants prosecuted for illegal entry, who are brought in chains and
shackles to immigration court <ETH> protocols of homeland security. The
people are filled with susto, fright, trauma, soul loss, soul wound.
There are many remedies for susto. Some herbs are better for susto of
the back while others are good for susto of sight. There are rites to
cleanse the soul with candles; there are remedies of an extremely hot
nature and ceremonies based on Sun and Moon.

I think of the four elements during these ritual times as we head
towards honoring those in the spirit world. Tierra/earth: Mayan woman
left unburied in the desert sands. Water: giving water to the migrants
in the desert is a threatened offense, and many homes in Arizona bear
the banner, "Humanitarian aid is not illegal." Fire: is it the desert
heat that is unforgiving? Or the policies that have funneled more
than fifty percent of undocumented immigrants into the Arizona desert?
Wind: los aires, the energy of the airs, they bring the spirits, they
warm us, they cool and encircle us, they penetrate us, we must respect
them. Soon on the winds we will feed the spirits of those who passed
this year: Corbin Harney, you told us to pray for the water; Vernon
Bellcourt, you threw your blood on the Guatemalan embassy; Trinidad
Sanchez, your poetry was so brown.

La jefa Josefina leads us in a prayer song, la Divina Providencia. I
paraphrase its verses: Divine Providence, we do not know where you
come from as we start the day, at the feet of your plants, among your
four winds, you surround us, protect us, console us. The grandmothers
come in medicine dreams, dancing with their gourds. The men's regalia
bells still ring in my ears.

(c) Column of the Americas 2007