LA CURANDERA

LA CURANDERA

The Healer

Marinella visited him silently, after the family had tucked in for the night. She would appear to him in his room each time more beautiful and captivating than the last. Many of the strange happenings in Ybor one of the oldest cities in central Florida have never been explained. Being a natural born native, I wish to present some of these old tales lest they be forever lost to posterity.

It was the best part of summer. A time for family get-togethers. That trip to the beach, horsing around in the water and on the bleached white sand changed Ralphie's life forever. By nightfall he was experiencing horrific pain in his abdomen. Sometime later—he still suffered the pangs of that day at the beach. Ralphie also learned later that most of his loved ones believed that he was dying.

Finally, every Doctor in town had been consulted, and still no-one could explain why he was slowly wasting away. Just a few weeks ago he was a healthy ten-year-old hardier than both of his sibling brothers. The trip to the beach and the roughhousing had somehow taken its toll. At last resort, his parents began consulting a Witch doctor or at least some said that indeed she was a bon-a-fide Witch and better known in Latin Quarters as ‘La Curandera’ translated ‘the Healer’.

By all accounts when he first met Marinella she did appear to be a bit strange. She was from the East end of the city known as El Barrio. A fully breasted woman with a larger than normal rounded belly. Her long arms reached out for Ralphie’s wasting carcass she flipped him around on the bed as easily as one would flip a burger on the grill. Her crackling voice pierced Ralphie’s brain and traveled down his spine lodging at his rectum. “Here it is” she exclaimed, as she massaged and examined his helplessly unable to protest body with a strength that was amazing. “He has a twist in his intestines.” She massaged awhile longer, then cooked a concoction on the stove that no one was allowed to observe her prepare. Ralphie reluctantly drank the potion, and always remarked that he remembered the taste, complete with the gaging, for the rest of his life.

It was demonically wicked, but he had his last chance to live or to die. Strangely enough he began to recover quickly by the last gulp. By the next day he was eating and playing as normal as ever.

It was on his sixteenth birthday when Ralphie began experiencing visions of Marinella. At night she would come and wake him. At first, she would just stand at the foot of his bed and smile her semi-toothless smile. He could see that the years had not been good to her. If he had been afraid of her before to him this was a nightmare.

Over time though Ralphie became accustomed to her visits, and she in turn began to change. The old Witch started looking better and better even her voice became melodic. The time came when he could not wait for her appearing. He had fallen in love with the beautiful Witch Marinella. She taught him things. Things that did not exactly coincide with what he was learning in his physical world, but she was beautiful, and he believed.

The night of her last visit she informed him that her transformation had been complete, and that she would no longer be visiting. She confessed as she rolled her deep bewitching eyes that she felt the same about him as he did about her. Marinella spoke softly. “I have taught you all the gifts I possess of the healing that conquers death. You must share these gifts with your peers, or they will serve to destroy you. Even now” she continued, “it has become harder and harder to explain the ways of the Curandero’s. For every good thing on this earth even the gift deteriorates, and then you will be cursed to grow old. Your skin will become dry and wrinkled. Your intestines will shrivel, and twist racked with pain. Everyday Science and ignorance prepare roadblocks for the Curandero’s enlightenment. As for myself, I have found you. I am freed from my own suffering. My body has been changed and now I will join the others in eternity.

Do not believe that I am leaving you with a curse. If you are wise, you will pass the gift on quickly then you will join me in unending love We are now beings of the earth but not trapped in the earth. Together we have already conquered the wheel of reincarnation, and now it is up to you to transform. Because now you too have the gift of the Curandero, and death has been eliminated from your path.”

La Curandera Marinella taught Ralphie well. You can find my Brother Ralphie’s shingle hanging on the yellow bungalow just east of the once popular carnival grounds in old Ybor City. It reads “El Curandero Healer of all ailments even unto death. May I help you?”

Lad