Post #3

Some scholars have referred to Seman’s book as microhistory, an approach to historical research that focuses on small, specific stories to make larger points about historical trends in cultures and societies. Would you describe Seman’s work as a microhistory? Why or why not?

I would describe Seman’s work as microhistory. In the book Borderlands Curanderos, many of the people that Santa Teresa and Don Pedrito healed or came across made a huge impact on their lives and other’s lives. Although Santa Teresa and Don Pedrito are deceased many still go to their resting place in hopes that their wishes come true. Many of the people would leave notes of prayer asking Don Pedrito to cure cancer, restore employment, save an alcoholic spouse, reunite families, guide wayward children, or simply “take evil away.” (Seman, 2021, pg. 2)

What specific insights about faith, healing, culture, and society in the borderlands do the life stories of Santa Teresa and Don Pedrito provide us as we look back on their lives from our moment in time?

Santa Teresa and Don Pedrito became idols of strength and hope along the borderlands due to oppression going on within the United States and Mexico. The healers obtained popularity and fame through their curanderismo. “Through their practice of Mexican healing, they provided culturally resonant healing and spiritual sustenance to ethnic Mexicans, Indigenous people, Tejanos, and others in the borderlands who faced increasingly oppressive, exclusionary, and sometimes violent forms of state power deployed by both nations.” (Seman, 2021, pg. 3)

To what extent do their stories provide windows into larger issues in the borderlands during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century?

The stories provided windows into issues that were happening on the borderland during the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The United States tried to push the tribes out of the borderland to accomplish them gaining more territory. Santa Teresa and Don Pedrito were there to help cure and heal the wounded. Teresa “represented the opposite of the progressive modernity the cientificos wanted to promote in terms of medicine and public health.” (Seman, 2021, pg. 48) Due to Don Pedrito’s successful cures it drew attention to a new era of medical establishment, in which many decided to go to a curandero rather than a physician. (Seman, 2021, pg. 83)

In what ways are their stories not illustrative of the larger trends and issues of their day?

The stories that Seman provides give us the back story of many. Although many may not believe these stories it gives us a deeper dive into the larger trends and issues that many faced during that time. She was able to give these people a voice and to be heard. It represented the struggles and experiences that many faced.

Jennifer Koshatka Seman. (2021) Borderlands Curanderos: The worlds of Santa Teresa Urrea and Don Pedrito Jaramillo: Vol. First edition. University of Texas Press.