Creencias

A friend's baby was recently suffering from a bout of diarrhea. She was looking to see if there were other ways to deal with the problem more swiftly instead of waiting for the BRAT diet to take effect. I told her my mom had told me that giving a baby jugo de guava would help take care of that problem in a jiffy. She looked at me like I was crazy. Sure, anybody would think that juice would be making the situation worse, but from my experience, it was a cure every single time. My mom learned that from a comadre back in the day. My friend said she'd try it but the tone in her voice carried a truckload of skepticism.

I know, we can't play around with a baby's health, but the doctor wouldn't be able to prescribe anything for diarrhea. The only recommendations would be the immediate start of the BRAT diet and lots of fluids. Jugo de guava cured my daughter of many bouts of diarrhea, and she's doing very well now. 

That got me to thinking, how many creencias does my family have? I jotted down a list of those that I've been in close contact with. How many of these have ever crossed your path?

borrowed this pic from DeLaredo.....depiction of sacando el aire

-Para sacar el aire: Roll up some newspaper into a cone, light up the wide end and stick the point into the ear or put it on the hurt area. I had this done to me all the time when I was a kid. I suffered from chronic ear infections and this remedy was supposed to help me. I remember lying on my parent's bed while my grandma had that cono in my ear waiting for the aire to come out. I ended up needing minor surgery on my ears so I'm not all too sure how much effective this method really was....

-Curar ojo con un huevo: Any headache, fever, aching bones...saca el huevo! I constantly saw this scene at home: one of my brothers lying on the bed, struggling not to laugh, while Mom brushed their body with an egg in her hand and chanted prayers under her breath. She would then break the egg into a glass of water and read the huevo to see if they did have ojo. I don't really know how to explain ojo but it's some powerful stuff. To this day, this is our go-to cure whenever we don't feel well. Dunno if it's a placebo effect but it seems to make everyone feel better..

-Como curar alguien de empache: When I was nine, my poor lil brother had problems going to the restroom (Mom blamed it on him eating his chewing gum) and so he was taken to our great-grandmother so he could be cured. She put some olive oil into her hands, rubbed her hands together to make them a lil warm, and went to work massaging my brother's back. When my lil bro looked like he was comfy, she suddenly started pulling his back skin upward. She did this a couple of times until she heard a pop. I was there, I didn't hear anything but my lil bro's wimpers of pain. Well, apparently it helped cure him of his problem because he was back to normal the following day and he never again ate his gum.

-Te de manzanilla: This is the end all, be all, cure for any stomach issue whether it be due to colic or menstrual cramps...te de manzanilla is whipped out all the time. Of course, it's not meant to be used for babies but tell that to any Mexican grandmother and they'd say you're crazy to believe otherwise.

-Como curar un dolor de pescuezo: You know, those nights when you sleep in a bad position and wake up with a pain in your neck; just grab a used pair of dad's underwear, wrap it around your neck and you'll be better in no time! And I mean your dad's underwear, not my daddy's. Alright, I have never had this tried on me, but if I'm not mistaken, I think one of my brothers had to endure this treatment. I guess my lil brother was desperate enough to allow this to happen. I wonder if he remembers, or if he repressed it like a traumatic experience...

-El Vicks: insect bite, a pain on your back, a cough...Vicks works for everything. Combine that with rubbing alcohol and you have a powerful armory against any ailment.

-Savila para la cara: My brother and I had some issues with acne back when we were teens (some of us still do) but instead of going to a dermatologist, we'd go outside, cut a branch of the savila plant growing on our front lawn and put the goo on our faces. In the morning, we'd wake up with much clearer faces. Now this remedy is well-known to actually work. We just preferred the au natural version instead of the store bought products. And these plants were planted there by Mom in order to ward off bad spirits...

Aside from medicinal beliefs, I've also grown up with some superstitions meant to ward off evil, bring good luck, and just to make my brothers and I think 'what the hell!?'

-Water behind the front door: I've seen this at a variety of homes. It's basically putting a glass of water behind the front door in order to make sure no evil spirits come in. Again, never really seen it work but it makes the residents feel better.

-Elephant statues with dollar bills on their trunks: My mom had a bunch of elephant statues back in the day. She had a shrine for them in a corner of the house I grew up in. Now she just has one on her coffee table; of course with the dollar bill in its trunk. Anything to attract money, huh? One day it just might work for my daughter, she's constantly trying to take that dollar bill from that elephant.

-Stack of coins in the corner of the room: I had never seen this before but I recently saw it at a house I visited. I didn't ask what's the reason for it but I'd imagine it has something to do with money. I'm gonna put one in every corner of my apt..see what that brings me...

-No pregnant woman can heal anyone: I didn't know about this until I was pregnant. I tried to cure the ex of some ailment he was having and apparently, due to my pregnant state, I got him sicker. My ex-mother-in-law told me not to touch her son anymore because I was only going to hurt him more than actually help him. I dunno, she said something about que yo tenia la mano mas pesada or something like that. It benefited me; I was released from wife duties for a while. Kinda makes me regret not taking more care of him while I was pregnant.....

-Trolls for luck: Dear ol' Mom and her superstitions. My mom was an avid bingo goer. Every time she'd go, she'd make sure to carry her army of trolls with her. She'd set them on top of her cards and comb their hair whenever she was going for a specific number. No one could touch their hair but Mom. They might've helped though, Mom always had luck at the bingo.

-Turning San Judas on His head: San Judas is the Saint for desperate causes and my ex-mom-in-law would constantly pray to him. But whenever he wouldn't give her what she asked for, she'd turn him upside down on his head until he helped her out. I think I'd be too scared to ever do anything like that. She seemed to do it all the time...can't really say she was doing well...so I would not recommend doing that.

-No sweeping at night: My mom never swept at night. She said that was because she'd be sweeping her happiness away. I think my grandfather was the one that told her that. Hence the reason why I don't sweep at all; just wanna make sure I don't ever run risk the chance of sweeping whatever happiness I have away....kidding, just kidding.

-No chewing gum at night: Again this came from Mom. She told us not to chew gum at night because we were chewing the bones of the dead. I have no idea whether this was passed on by older family members or she came up with this in order to get us to not chew gum at night but believe me, by 9pm, my brothers and I would make sure to throw our gums away.

-Purses don't go on the floor: Mom always tells me not to put my purse on the floor because then my money won't last. I thought the floor to my car wasn't technically the floor since it's elevated but nope, she gets mad at me whenever I put my bolsa there. Money doesn't seem to last either way....

I must say, it's a pretty interesting list. I wonder how many generations have trickled on this information. I gotta thank my mom cuz I don't think my dad would pass on this info to us. He's more the skeptical type. Still,  I don't recommend trying any of these things. I just thought it'd be fun to share what my family turns to whenever we need a quick fix.

Well, the way the economy's going, I'm sure a whole bunch of people are gonna turn to creencias more often.

But, please, stay away from dad's chones...that's just wrong.