The University of Arizona Press
Curandereando
Sacred Decolonial Healing
Curandereando: Sacred Decolonial Healing reclaims curanderismo as a living and revolutionary practice of ancestral wisdom, resilience, and renewal. Blending poetry, Spanglish storytelling, oral histories, and testimonios, this hybrid work illuminates healing as both a sacred tradition and a decolonial act of resistance.
The book traces curanderismo’s survival under colonial oppression, its adaptations across diasporas, and its vital role in addressing contemporary struggles for ecological balance, cultural survival, and social justice. By centering diverse healers and community voices, it resists folkloric portrayals and instead presents curanderismo as an evolving practice deeply relevant to today’s crises.
Accessible yet scholarly, Curandereando bridges sacred traditions with academic discourse, challenging Western medical dominance while offering holistic frameworks grounded in ancestral knowledge. This book is an essential resource for Chicana/o and Latina/o studies, ethnic studies, Indigenous studies, gender and sexuality studies, and environmental justice. It will also resonate with community healers, educators, and readers seeking decolonial approaches to wellness, spirituality, and cultural renewal.
“Curandereando: Sacred Decolonial Healing is a multilingual poetic invocation that honors the legacy of curanderas/os/es through historical research, oral history, and ethnography. Following the traditions of feminist of color activist-scholarship, Lani Cupchoy offers a beautifully written, creative, analytical work that unearths sacred memories and invites readers into a consciousness that seeks healing, interconnectedness, and wholeness. This book offers a vital remedio for (re)connection.”—Amber Rose González, co-editor of Mujeres de Maiz en Movimiento: Spiritual Artivism, Healing Justice, and Feminist Praxis
“This book contributes to the field of curanderismo by calling our attention to a new generation of healers, queering curanderismo, and the curanderismo fusion that happens with the transnational curanderas in the United States. . . . This is a healing text.”—Marisol Ruiz, California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt
