July 15, 2015
I had
the honor of accompanying Physician Assistant Patricia Ferrer and Nurse Practitioner
Jennifer Eldred on a tour to San Juan Chamula with Don Sergio Castro one
beautiful sunny day in July 2015. Patricia had told me Sergio's story and how
he came to be known as "St. Sergio of Chiapas" through his selfless
dedication to poor communities in the region. But words fail to transmit all
that St. Sergio means to the people he has served.
Sergio's life work and his
way of being in this world is best understood in the presence of the emotions
he elicits from people in communities such as Chamula. As we walked through the
streets on our way to the spiritual centerpiece of the town, the church of San
Juan Bautista, Don Sergio brought smiles, laughter, and reverence from all the
men and boys in the church square.
It seemed all felt a special connection to
Don Sergio in his unassuming blue handkerchief and cowboy hat. I felt I was
walking alongside a ray of hope in the world, a reminder that although good seems
to disappear for some time, it will always return. But it was the embrace in
the main streets with an elderly woman that moved me to tears. This woman could
not speak and I do not know sign language, but her gestures, the look in her
eyes, and the way she nestled so closely into Don Sergio’s arms told me
everything I needed to know. Her hands up to the sky, then to her heart and
mouth, and then melting into Don Sergio’s arms, she told me how Don Sergio
saved her life with his medicine and that he was pure love. A love that heals you
because it tells you that you are not alone in the world and that we are all
here to care for each other.
Inside
the church, the floor covered with fragrant pine needles and lit candles, Don
Sergio explained in his soft and gentle manner what St. John the Baptist
represents to the people of Chamula, the history of the church, and the native
view of healing through “curanderos,” elder men and women healers who are
thought to have a heightened ability to communicate with the saints.
With
nothing but reverence for this indigenous way of life so different from how he
was raised, Sergio explained how the curanderos come to the church with their
patients, light candles, offer sacred pox (a liquor made from corn) and now coca-cola,
pray, and wait for the message from the saints about the best course of action.
They use the fizzy drinks to expel gas, and thus metaphorically, expel the
spiritual disharmony that ails them. The message from Don Sergio was simple and
profound: This is their cosmovision and their reality is as legitimate as any
other. In this way Don Sergio walks among the curanderos of the indigenous
peoples of southern Mexico, utilizing resources he has from Western Medicine,
but always humbly recognizing that there is something greater than all our
scientific knowledge, and that the sometimes the best we can do is just simply
care for others.
Adriana M Manago is an assistant
professor of psychology at Western Washington University, specializing in
cultural developmental psychology. She conducts research in the Maya community
of Zinacantán, studying how sociocultural changes associated with modernization
and the proliferation of communication technologies are connected to patterns
of change in social development during adolescence and the transition to
adulthood.
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