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Papers by Jennifer K Seman, PhD
University of Texas Press eBooks, Dec 31, 2021
Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses, 2017
This essay examines the ways Teresa Urrea – a curandera or Mexican faith healer – was understood ... more This essay examines the ways Teresa Urrea – a curandera or Mexican faith healer – was understood by those she healed as well as the popular presses of the turn of the century as she moved out of the US–Mexico borderlands and into urban centers of San Francisco, New York City, and especially Los Angeles. Santa Teresa’s curanderismo was a cultural refuge for ethnic Mexicans who faced an increasingly racialized and antagonistic public health system in Los Angeles. At the same time, her curanderismo – exemplified by the practice of “laying on hands” – shared epistemologies with scientific medicine and other healing modalities, such as Spiritism, allopathic medicine, and indigenous healing arts. For those who lived in the liminal space between two nations and two cultures, Santa Teresa’s curanderismo provided both practical and magical medicine for the body and spirit.
The West Texas Historical Association year book. West Texas Historical Association
The West Texas Historical Association year book. West Texas Historical Association
begins Jane's Window: My Spirited Life in West Texas and Austin (2013) by describing her great-gr... more begins Jane's Window: My Spirited Life in West Texas and Austin (2013) by describing her great-great-grandmother, Mahala Milligan, who in 1860 "lighted the lamp" and read Shakespeare to her children while Comanches surrounded her home and killed her husband (2). This opening vignette sets the stage for what follows-the story of a strong and cultured Texan woman, Jane Dunn Sibley, a patron of the arts, philanthropist, and historic preservationist who shared the light of civilization and culture with many of the people and institutions of Texas. Perhaps most well known for her role as president of the Austin Symphony from 1972-1997, in the pages of Jane's Window, Sibley emerges as a woman passionate about preserving culture and beautifying the world around her. For example, she describes how, when living in Fort Stockton, she and her women friends (all physicians wives) agreed to dress elegantly in order to bring some urban sophistication to the rural community of Fort Stockton. However, noting the lack of options to purchase said clothing locally, Sibley demonstrates the kind of takecharge attitude she would exhibit throughout her life and orders the appropriate garments from Neiman Marcus in Dallas (92-93). In a later chapter Sibley describes one of her most substantial contributions to the culture and history of Texas, the formation of the Rock Art Foundation, an institution dedicated to the preservation of indigenous rock art in Texas. Jane's Window reveals much about the time, place and underlying tensions in Texas during the second half of the twentieth century. Jane's move from Fort Stockton to Austin illustrates the shift from a rural to urban way of life, while racial tensions specific to Texas-especially the Texas-Mexico border region-are addressed in Jane's description of employing Mexican migrant workers to build her home in the Glass Mountains. Texas emerges a complex world in the pages of Jane's Window, a place once dominated by the Comanches in her great-great-grandmother's day, but where, in Sibley's day, Anglo philanthropists fight to preserve ancient indigenous art. Jane Dunn Sibley succeeds in telling her story of being an energetic, vibrant, strong Texan woman engaged in a culturally rich and racially complicated world. I recommend Jane's Window for those who are interested in the history of Texas, historic preservation, and arts patronage.
I recently took a research trip to South Texas to further investigate the turn-of-thecentury cura... more I recently took a research trip to South Texas to further investigate the turn-of-thecentury curandero (faith healer) Don Pedrito Jaramillo, one of the subjects of my dissertation. The main purpose of this trip was to look at the J.T. Canales Estate Papers at the South Texas Archives at Texas A&M-Kingsville. I told myself that if I had time, I would travel to the place Don Pedrito lived from approximately 1881 until his death in 1907: Falfurrias, a town of about five thousand people, forty miles southeast of Kingsville and 120 miles north of the Brownsville-Matamoros border. I thought that a day would be adequate as I mainly wanted to visit the Don Pedrito Jaramillo Shrine I had discovered the previous summer on a similar research trip, and experience the place where Don Pedrito spent part of his life healing people. Although I did not plan to find "factual" historical evidence in Falfurrias that would prove useful for my dissertation, the day spent in Falfurrias turned out to be invaluable to my research in ways I did not foresee. The visit changed the way I think about history and about the stories we tell as historians.
This essay examines the ways Teresa Urrea – a curandera or Mexican faith healer – was understood ... more This essay examines the ways Teresa Urrea – a curandera or Mexican faith healer – was understood by those she healed as well as the popular presses of the turn of the century as she moved out of the US–Mexico borderlands and into urban centers of San Francisco, New York City, and especially Los Angeles. Santa Teresa's curanderismo was a cultural refuge for ethnic Mexicans who faced an increasingly racialized and antagonistic public health system in Los Angeles. At the same time, her curanderismo – exemplified by the practice of " laying on hands " – shared epistemologies with scientific medicine and other healing modalities, such as Spiritism, allopathic medicine, and indigenous healing arts. For those who lived in the liminal space between two nations and two cultures, Santa Teresa's curanderismo provided both practical and magical medicine for the body and spirit. Ré sumé : Cet article se penche sur la manière dont Teresa Urrea – une curandera ou guérisseuse religieuse mexicaine – a e ´té comprise par ceux qu'elle a guéris de même que par la presse populaire du tournant du siècle alors qu'elle déménageait des zones frontalières des E ´ tats-Unis et du Mexique aux centres urbains de San Francisco, New York et spécialement Los Angeles. Cet article affirme que le curanderismo de Sainte Teresa e ´tait un refuge culturel pour la population d'origine mexicaine qui devait faire face, a ` Los Angeles, a ` un système de santé publique de plus en plus radicalisé et hostile. Parallèlement, son curanderismo – illustré par la pratique de « l'imposition des
In this article, I examine how ethic Mexican folk healing, curanderismo, vied with Anglo controll... more In this article, I examine how ethic Mexican folk healing, curanderismo, vied with Anglo controlled professional medicine at the end of the nineteenth century in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. Focusing on Don Pedrito Jaramillo (1829-1907), I argue that curanderismo was the preferred treatment of many ethnic Mexicans living in the South Texas Rio Grande Valley at this time, despite efforts by the state and professional medicine to shut Don Pedrito's practice down. Ultimately, the defense of Don Pedrito by influential advocate of Mexican American rights, J.T. Canales, demonstrates the viability – even superiority – of Mexican culture and customs, like curanderismo, in the Texas-Mexico borderlands.
This is an essay I published for borderlands history blog about doing research on the curandero D... more This is an essay I published for borderlands history blog about doing research on the curandero Don Pedrito Jaramillo in Falfurrias, Texas.
This is a review published on borderlands history blog of Nicole Guidotti-Hernández, Unspeakable ... more This is a review published on borderlands history blog of Nicole Guidotti-Hernández, Unspeakable Violence.
This is a review of Luis Alberto Urrea's novelization of Teresa Urrea, "Queen of America."
This review of "Discovering Texas History" will be published in the West Texas Historical Review ... more This review of "Discovering Texas History" will be published in the West Texas Historical Review in 2016.
This review of a famous West Texas arts benefactor was published in the West Texas Historical Rev... more This review of a famous West Texas arts benefactor was published in the West Texas Historical Review.
University of Texas Press eBooks, Dec 31, 2021
Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses, 2017
This essay examines the ways Teresa Urrea – a curandera or Mexican faith healer – was understood ... more This essay examines the ways Teresa Urrea – a curandera or Mexican faith healer – was understood by those she healed as well as the popular presses of the turn of the century as she moved out of the US–Mexico borderlands and into urban centers of San Francisco, New York City, and especially Los Angeles. Santa Teresa’s curanderismo was a cultural refuge for ethnic Mexicans who faced an increasingly racialized and antagonistic public health system in Los Angeles. At the same time, her curanderismo – exemplified by the practice of “laying on hands” – shared epistemologies with scientific medicine and other healing modalities, such as Spiritism, allopathic medicine, and indigenous healing arts. For those who lived in the liminal space between two nations and two cultures, Santa Teresa’s curanderismo provided both practical and magical medicine for the body and spirit.
The West Texas Historical Association year book. West Texas Historical Association
The West Texas Historical Association year book. West Texas Historical Association
begins Jane's Window: My Spirited Life in West Texas and Austin (2013) by describing her great-gr... more begins Jane's Window: My Spirited Life in West Texas and Austin (2013) by describing her great-great-grandmother, Mahala Milligan, who in 1860 "lighted the lamp" and read Shakespeare to her children while Comanches surrounded her home and killed her husband (2). This opening vignette sets the stage for what follows-the story of a strong and cultured Texan woman, Jane Dunn Sibley, a patron of the arts, philanthropist, and historic preservationist who shared the light of civilization and culture with many of the people and institutions of Texas. Perhaps most well known for her role as president of the Austin Symphony from 1972-1997, in the pages of Jane's Window, Sibley emerges as a woman passionate about preserving culture and beautifying the world around her. For example, she describes how, when living in Fort Stockton, she and her women friends (all physicians wives) agreed to dress elegantly in order to bring some urban sophistication to the rural community of Fort Stockton. However, noting the lack of options to purchase said clothing locally, Sibley demonstrates the kind of takecharge attitude she would exhibit throughout her life and orders the appropriate garments from Neiman Marcus in Dallas (92-93). In a later chapter Sibley describes one of her most substantial contributions to the culture and history of Texas, the formation of the Rock Art Foundation, an institution dedicated to the preservation of indigenous rock art in Texas. Jane's Window reveals much about the time, place and underlying tensions in Texas during the second half of the twentieth century. Jane's move from Fort Stockton to Austin illustrates the shift from a rural to urban way of life, while racial tensions specific to Texas-especially the Texas-Mexico border region-are addressed in Jane's description of employing Mexican migrant workers to build her home in the Glass Mountains. Texas emerges a complex world in the pages of Jane's Window, a place once dominated by the Comanches in her great-great-grandmother's day, but where, in Sibley's day, Anglo philanthropists fight to preserve ancient indigenous art. Jane Dunn Sibley succeeds in telling her story of being an energetic, vibrant, strong Texan woman engaged in a culturally rich and racially complicated world. I recommend Jane's Window for those who are interested in the history of Texas, historic preservation, and arts patronage.
I recently took a research trip to South Texas to further investigate the turn-of-thecentury cura... more I recently took a research trip to South Texas to further investigate the turn-of-thecentury curandero (faith healer) Don Pedrito Jaramillo, one of the subjects of my dissertation. The main purpose of this trip was to look at the J.T. Canales Estate Papers at the South Texas Archives at Texas A&M-Kingsville. I told myself that if I had time, I would travel to the place Don Pedrito lived from approximately 1881 until his death in 1907: Falfurrias, a town of about five thousand people, forty miles southeast of Kingsville and 120 miles north of the Brownsville-Matamoros border. I thought that a day would be adequate as I mainly wanted to visit the Don Pedrito Jaramillo Shrine I had discovered the previous summer on a similar research trip, and experience the place where Don Pedrito spent part of his life healing people. Although I did not plan to find "factual" historical evidence in Falfurrias that would prove useful for my dissertation, the day spent in Falfurrias turned out to be invaluable to my research in ways I did not foresee. The visit changed the way I think about history and about the stories we tell as historians.
This essay examines the ways Teresa Urrea – a curandera or Mexican faith healer – was understood ... more This essay examines the ways Teresa Urrea – a curandera or Mexican faith healer – was understood by those she healed as well as the popular presses of the turn of the century as she moved out of the US–Mexico borderlands and into urban centers of San Francisco, New York City, and especially Los Angeles. Santa Teresa's curanderismo was a cultural refuge for ethnic Mexicans who faced an increasingly racialized and antagonistic public health system in Los Angeles. At the same time, her curanderismo – exemplified by the practice of " laying on hands " – shared epistemologies with scientific medicine and other healing modalities, such as Spiritism, allopathic medicine, and indigenous healing arts. For those who lived in the liminal space between two nations and two cultures, Santa Teresa's curanderismo provided both practical and magical medicine for the body and spirit. Ré sumé : Cet article se penche sur la manière dont Teresa Urrea – une curandera ou guérisseuse religieuse mexicaine – a e ´té comprise par ceux qu'elle a guéris de même que par la presse populaire du tournant du siècle alors qu'elle déménageait des zones frontalières des E ´ tats-Unis et du Mexique aux centres urbains de San Francisco, New York et spécialement Los Angeles. Cet article affirme que le curanderismo de Sainte Teresa e ´tait un refuge culturel pour la population d'origine mexicaine qui devait faire face, a ` Los Angeles, a ` un système de santé publique de plus en plus radicalisé et hostile. Parallèlement, son curanderismo – illustré par la pratique de « l'imposition des
In this article, I examine how ethic Mexican folk healing, curanderismo, vied with Anglo controll... more In this article, I examine how ethic Mexican folk healing, curanderismo, vied with Anglo controlled professional medicine at the end of the nineteenth century in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. Focusing on Don Pedrito Jaramillo (1829-1907), I argue that curanderismo was the preferred treatment of many ethnic Mexicans living in the South Texas Rio Grande Valley at this time, despite efforts by the state and professional medicine to shut Don Pedrito's practice down. Ultimately, the defense of Don Pedrito by influential advocate of Mexican American rights, J.T. Canales, demonstrates the viability – even superiority – of Mexican culture and customs, like curanderismo, in the Texas-Mexico borderlands.
This is an essay I published for borderlands history blog about doing research on the curandero D... more This is an essay I published for borderlands history blog about doing research on the curandero Don Pedrito Jaramillo in Falfurrias, Texas.
This is a review published on borderlands history blog of Nicole Guidotti-Hernández, Unspeakable ... more This is a review published on borderlands history blog of Nicole Guidotti-Hernández, Unspeakable Violence.
This is a review of Luis Alberto Urrea's novelization of Teresa Urrea, "Queen of America."
This review of "Discovering Texas History" will be published in the West Texas Historical Review ... more This review of "Discovering Texas History" will be published in the West Texas Historical Review in 2016.
This review of a famous West Texas arts benefactor was published in the West Texas Historical Rev... more This review of a famous West Texas arts benefactor was published in the West Texas Historical Review.