News Archives - 2010

The balance between humans and nature

Augsburg College presents the 2010 Counseling and Health Promotion convocation on Friday, Feb. 12 and Saturday, Feb. 13. This year's presenter, Elena Avila, will share her concept of medicine as a curandera (healer).

Avila is a first generation Chicana born in the barrios of El Paso, Texas. Her parents were born in Mexico and brought their medicine with them out of Mexico — medicine passed down through time. Her family's health care included Curanderismo as well as Western medicine.

Avila is a practicing psychiatric nurse and renowned practitioner of Curanderismo, the traditional Mexican/Chicano folk medicine. She is also the author of Woman who Glows in the Dark, the only published title that reveals the ancient traditions of Curanderismo from a practitioner's point of view.

These lectures are open to the general public and are presented free of charge.

Friday, Feb. 12 at 3:30 p.m.

Conversation: Woman Who Glows in the Dark

Marshall Room, Christensen Center

Saturday, Feb. 13 at noon

Convocation: A Curandera's Concept of Medicine

Hoversten Chapel, Foss Center

When the natural and the spiritual are not torn apart into disjointed entities, there is a balance between human and nature. Human beings have a spiritual nature as well as an individual soul, and the body cannot be cut away from the soul and spirit. Humans are members of the natural world—animals, plants, minerals, earth, and all living things found on earth. Illness occurs when one does not live in harmony with all these aspects of "self."