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7 1 The Miracle Tree A curious thing happens when my Tejano friends gather around a table. We might start off griping about work or family or the pinche traffic,butsoonerorlaterourconversationtakesaturn.Someonewillmention a dream from the night before, about a lost little girl in a long white dress who kept running away, and how he’s had that same dream every few months for years now, and what could it mean? Then someone will say that, a few weeks ago, she heard someone creaking up the stairwell and thought it was her husband , pero no: he was away on a business trip; she was home all alone. And then someone will confess that she removed the antique ­mirror hanging in her hallway last week because her six-year-old kept seeing a strange lady in it. Suggestions are made for cleansings (“Sage is supposed to be good for that”) andcurings(“Ifmyabuelitawasstillaround,she’dslideabowlofwaterbeneath your bed”) and purifications (“Have you tried that egg thing yet?”), each preceded with an earnest, “Not that I believe in this, but . . .” When we finally take our leave, shuffling en masse out the door, someone notices that the moon is waxing, which means one thing, or that it’s waning, which means something else, and we half-walk, half-run to our cars and quickly lock the doors. Greg and I haven’t been here five minutes when I sense it will be another oneofthosenights.Forstarters,we’revisitingtheranchoftheacclaimedpainter Santa Barraza, whose very name means “saint” in Spanish. Growing up, one of her tías was a curandera who brought her along to Mexico for trainings and eventuallyopenedahealingchapelinSouthTexas.1­Post-college,Santastarted travelingtoMexicoherself,studyingAztec,Mixtec,andMayanart,pictographs, 1. Throughout the seventies, people traveled to Tía Eva’s chapel from all around, Santa says. Eventually, however, she started getting ill from handling so many spirits and had to stand in a pan of water while conducting her healings to avert the negative energy. Then the Catholic church accused her of witchcraft, so she closed the chapel altogether. Though Tía Eva has since passed, she lives on in the mystical elements of Santa’s work. 8 The Texas-Mexico Borderlands and philosophy. She then taught at places like the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and exhibited around the world before deciding she missed the desert landscape that inspired her work. In 2006, she bought ­nineteen acres near Kingsville and created a homestead with a studio. Decking its walls are life-size portraits of the icons of this region: La Virgen de Guadalupe pulsing a blue-veinedheartinsideherchest;LaMalincheinafieldofmagueywithafetus curled at her breast; La Llorona rising from a pool of water; Selena emerging fromahouse.Eachwomanshimmersbeneathaspotlightinanexplosionofred, yellow, purple, and blue, a monument to heritage and to dignity. In high school, I bought postcards of Santa’s work at an art museum and havehungthemonthewallsofeveryresidenceIhavelivedinsince. ­Entering her studio, then, feels like stepping into a memory palace, a labyrinthine space that is both fantastical and familiar. This sensation intensifies when, in U.S.-Mexican border RIO GRANDE VALLEY U N I T E D S T A T E S M E X I C O N 0 0 40 60 20 80 km 30 40 20 10 50 mi Corpus Christi Robstown Premont Concepcion Kingsville Sarita Falfurrias Mission Hidalgo McAllen Harlingen San Benito Brownsville Edinburg Laredo Matamoros Nuevo Laredo Reynosa Progreso GULF OF MEXICO T E X A S T E X A S Río Bravo Rio G rande Map Area [210.158.71.88] Project MUSE (2024-09-26 07:53 GMT) The Miracle Tree  9 the midst of an otherwise ordinary conversation, Santa asks if we’ve visited the miracle tree. Shaking my head, I ask what makes it miraculous. “It talks,” she says with the same nonchalance she might have said, “It sways.” “With—words?” Santa stares at me with her large dark eyes. “Yes, words.” “What . . . does it sound like?” “Real ugly. Like a demon. But it cured my sister Frances.” Years ago, Frances suffered a stroke in Austin. Santa and their­ninety-year-old father hurried to her bedside, carrying a Bible, a crucifix, a bottle of olive oil,2 and a leaf shed by the miracle tree. For hours he massaged theoilwhileSantarubbedtheleafacrossFrances’sbody,murmuringprayers. Then one of Frances’s toes began to wiggle. “Suddenly, her leg lifted straight up in the air,” Santa says, flinging up an arm for emphasis. “The nurses couldn’t believe it. One ran into the room and said...

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