Folk Healer Practices Ancient Art Social Worker From Wenatchee Is Fifth-Generation ‘Curandero’

Some say he can heal with a mere touch, a bit of herb and a whispered prayer. He’s a “curandero,” and tradition holds that the community gives him that distinction.

“I don’t consider myself a folk healer,” Jorge Chacon said in Spanish, his head bowed slightly.

“A person in this tradition never self-proclaims. It is the community which designates him as such.”

Chacon was in Tacoma recently for a demonstration on “curanderismo,” or folk healing, an ancient art that spans several cultures and bridges the natural and supernatural worlds. About a dozen people attended.

A social worker for Catholic Child and Family Services in Wenatchee, the 53-year-old comes from five generations of curanderos in his native Mexico. He said his grandmother picked him and his sister Flora when they were children to carry on the tradition.

Chacon does not charge for his services.

Valerie Navarro, 42, came looking for solace after learning of her daughter’s thyroid tumor a week ago. The 17-year-old girl will undergo surgery March 16.

“His presence was very holy, and I was struck by his respect for all faiths, when he said that they all go to the same source, to the creator,” said Navarro, who lectures on Spanish culture and civilization at the University of Puget Sound.

A close friend had said her daughter’s illness might be rooted in a stressed spirit and unspoken need. And, Navarro’s fiance, Daniel Erickson, an ordained Buddhist priest, saw several parallels between Chacon’s curanderismo and Eastern healing philosophies.

So Navarro volunteered for a “limpia,” a cleansing ritual intended to rid her of evil or pain.

She laid down on Chacon’s embroidered smock, which he’d spread on the floor. And he bent over her with fragrant branches and oils, chanting a prayer and encircling her head with his hands. An uncooked egg served as “stethoscope,” diagnosing her spiritual and physical ailments.

“The aroma of the branches was five times as strong as normal, and I felt safe, as if in a very holy place, like when I pray,” said Navarro, who was brought up Catholic.

“I felt power coming from his hands.”

Chacon admits the power is not God-like.

“A good curandero knows his limits and will not go beyond them,” he said. “He or she will refer to doctors, psychiatrists, therapists. But very seldom is it the other way around.”

For Chacon, it is a link his indigenous past.

“All nations, Native Americans, those from Thailand or Vietnam, at one time had healers,” he said. “The theory and the thinking are basically the same. But much has been lost in these modern times.”