curandero

[koo-rahn-de-raw, koor-uhn-dair-oh]

noun

Spanish.

plural

curanderos 

1. a folk healer or medicine man who uses herbs or hallucinogenic plants, magic, and spiritualism to treat illness, induce visions, impart traditional wisdom, etc.

Example Sentences

April Mayes: “We need more professional, trained, educated people now we're going to call doctors instead of the curanderas and the curanderos.”

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It wasn’t until her 40s that she was ready to begin her apprenticeship with a curandero in Tecate, Baja California, and understand how to heal a whole person.

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The contents of Abuelita’s bulto looked like it may have belonged to El Niño Fidencio, the famous curandero of olden times, and I watched in awe as she sorted the ingredients for Pita’s treatment.

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Ingrid Rojas Contreras goes on to explore her family’s history as curanderos — South American shamans like her grandfather, whose bones the family decides to disinter in accordance with his spectral request.

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When I told Colombians and other South Americans that my grandfather was a curandero, I often received a story back: “Oh, my grandma used to say this,” or “In my family we do this.”

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