ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) More than 200 traditional healers from across the country and Latin America are in Albuquerque for a conference on curanderismo. The healers, also called curanderos, are attending workshops at the University of New Mexico to teach the art of traditional medicine widely used among indigenous populations.
Conference organizer Eliseo “Cheo'' Torres says this year's event drew healers from Africa who wanted to share their healing methods and religious practiced with those from the Americas.
Curanderismo is the art of using traditional healing methods like herbs and plants to treat various ailments. Long practiced in indigenous villages of Mexico and other parts of Latin America, curanderos also could be found in parts of New Mexico, south Texas, Arizona and California.
