Eliseo Torres, the UNM vice president for Student Affairs, will travel to Cuernavaca, Mexico this summer to teach a course in what he calls his passion, Mexican folk healing.
The course, offered in conjunction with the Institute of Traditional Medicine and the Universidad de Morelos, is called "Our Ancestors' Medicine: A Traditional Integrative Medicine Approach." It is sponsored by the UNM Women Studies program.
"A lot of it will be what we refer to as integrative medicine," Torres said. "It is incorporated not only on the material level, through massage, but it also works on the mind, soul and spirit."
The course will also incorporate the use of natural juices, energy work and herbal remedies with instruction by healers from Mexico and the Yucatan peninsula.
"This is really a unique opportunity for people to learn about a long neglected but valuable part of Mexican history and culture," Torres said.
He added that working with the traditional healers will offer students the chance to study the medicinal arts of the Mayans, Aztecs and other indigenous people.
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Torres said he has had an interest in the subject for more than 20 years.
"It has really been a passion of mine," he said. "A lot of it is a combination of what the Spaniards brought from the Moors when they arrived that has blended with the native techniques. It has changed with every generation and a lot of Asian techniques are now incorporated."
Torres has written two books on folk healing, The Folk Healer: The Mexican American Tradition of Curandismo and Green Medicine: Traditional Mexican American Herbal Remedies. He said a third book, Healing From the Heart, is currently in progress.
Folk healing has its roots in necessity, Torres said, because people from other generations did not have access to modern medicine.
"There were no corner drugstores," he said. "Our ancestors relied on traditions and remedies because they didn't have a choice."
