Celebrating 100 Years of the Texas Folklore Society, 1909-2009 Page: 302
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302 THE FOLK: WHO WE ARE AND WHAT WE'VE DONE
of her teachers, Chivez Leyva is blessed with the don (the gift) for
healing through the channeling energy and a strong sensitivity to
other people's energies. As she says, "I had to be very careful not
to pick up people's illnesses, not to pick up whatever negative
things were happening to them ... [For many years] I didn't know
how to protect myself." By the time she reached forty, she finally
met teachers who taught her how to protect herself and use her
don to help others. In May 2008, I had the privilege of attending
the ceremony where she officially became an Elder at the age of
fifty-two, and where she celebrated more than a decade "of pursu-
ing, learning, and doing healing work."
Before I knew Chivez Leyva as a traditional healer, I knew her
as Dr. Leyva, a Public Historian. The combination of a history pro-
fessor and a traditional healer is one that deserves special attention.
First of all, with Chivez Leyva's story, as well as with Avila's, the
generally accepted notion that Mexican and Mexican-American
folk healers lack formal university studies ceases to be a given
assumption. The story of Chivez Leyva's journey as a healer and
her healing practices are often framed within historical contexts,
which illustrate the deep cultural roots of curanderismo. Finally,
her story can offer us, "logical, rational-minded" people, a way to
integrate the two worldviews often presented as separate: the intel-
lectual and the spiritual.
Chivez Leyva admits that for a long time she struggled with
these two views by which to engage in the world. When I asked her
how being a traditional healer and a professor of history intercon-
nected, she responded with this story:
A few years ago I was studying, just for the week-
end, with this man who could see energy really
clearly. He could see colors. He was training me
how to see energy. He didn't know me; we were
total strangers. But he came up to me and said,
"Over your head I see two paradigms. You struggle
with them because you don't know which is true."
I knew exactly what he was talking about because I
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Texas Folklore Society. Celebrating 100 Years of the Texas Folklore Society, 1909-2009, book, December 15, 2009; Denton, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc271470/m1/315/?rotate=90: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Press.