Healing Landscapes: Indigenous Curanderas and Ecosystem Adaptation in Mexico and California

Students: Edgar Munoz, Rosemary Marshall, William Gabbert, Phillip Sparkes

Faculty Mentor: James V. Mestaz

History

College of Humanities, Social Sciences, and the Arts

Curanderismo, or Indigenous healing, constitutes a vital epistemological and medicinal tradition in both Mexico and California, rooted in ancestral relationships with land, plants, and cosmology. While extensive scholarship from medical anthropology has documented the cultural, spiritual, and therapeutic dimensions of curanderismo, few studies have interrogated the environmental precarity faced by curanderas as a result of climate change and neoliberal development. This interdisciplinary research project examines the adaptation strategies of Indigenous curanderas/healers in Mexico and California as they respond to shifting natural ecosystems from the 1990s to the present. Combining oral history, archival research, media analysis, and GIS mapping, the project explores how curanderas have sustained traditional healing practices amid environmental change and the disappearance of native flora and fauna. By integrating historical methodologies with geospatial analysis, the study aims to: (1) uncover the contributions of Indigenous healers to the preservation and proliferation of natural remedies; (2) map ecosystem changes that impact healing practices; and (3) document how these adaptations reflect broader socio-environmental resilience. A team of undergraduate researchers from History and Geography, Environment & Planning (GEP) will lead individual research tasks and collaboratively share findings through public forums and a campus workshop. Project outcomes—including interviews, spatial data, and cultural analysis—will be archived at Sonoma State University’s Special Collections to support future research in Indigenous studies, health, and environmental justice.