Traditional medicine and popular religiosity in two chronicles of Carlos Monsivais

Abstract

The conception of medicine in the Latin American society is permeated by a syncretic identity in which tradition and religion play a role. In “La hora de las convicciones alternativas ¡Una cita con el Diablo!” and “Protagonista: el Niño Fidencio. Todos los caminos llevan al éxtasis”, Carlos Monsivais portrays some healing practices rooted in Mexican popular culture in the twentieth century. In the first chronicle, the Sierra de Catemaco in the region of Los Tuxtlas is the scene where the warlock rituals Gonzalo Aguirre displays that recreate and redefine popular belief, promoting more than just the body healing. In the second, the Niño Fidencio stands as a symbol of myths and rituals, pilgrimages and source who through methods for treating diseases favors a mysticism of marginality. Both monsivaisianos portraits of traditional medicine and folk religion put in between that logic and modern Western view of medicine, while discussion of ways that takes the tradition in capitalist society to twentieth century.