Category: Definitions

Proscriptions are collectively assumed societal regulations that insist certain behaviors are prohibited.

It is probably not acceptable for a Frenchman to cheek-kiss a Norwegian.  Norwegians are known for their stoicism, Frenchmen for their love of emotionally liberating wine. But, I learned right-cheek-kissing from Hispanic culture, and I do it to everybody, regardless of their culture.

An American from the States–well, at least WASPs–turn a wary eye upon worshipping a dead folk saint like Ni~no Fidencio is worshiped in the Rio Grande Valley Mexican Folk Culture.

Some proscriptions are stricter than others. Proscriptions are probably most important to teenagers, who can be stricter than adults about it, for it determines top dog popularity.

Regarding myself, these days, not eating sugar is one of my proscriptions. But my not eating sugar has never been suppressed like my desire to cuss. Fortunately, not eating sugar is not rigidly repressed, since my personal unconscious fondly remembers how many times I have never been rigid about this particular proscription.  Tonight I had ice cream at Jason’s Deli.

Consider rebels and revolutionarios.

excerpted from The WASP and El Curandero

As Fr. Bob, Episcopal priest, once explained, The Other is that entity that is so completely not me, so unknowable because it is so foreign, that it carries the numinous qualities of the divine.  Moses met The Other in the burning bush and then later came down off Mt. Horeb with white hair to prove it.  We attract that which we fear.”

~~~

When referring to my The Other I am basically referring to Alberto Salinas, El Curandero.  He lived in and breathed the air of Mexican Folk Culture.  Well, I did too, as I crawled into bed with that culture (acculturated).

What created the condition of “The Rub” (the transcendent function), by which I hoped to individuate, was Alberto’s connection with a Magical World View-especially since he channeled the spirit of the dead Mexican folk saint, El Ni~no Fidencio, which practice qualified him as a shaman.  To my way of thinking, this made him a card-carrying member of The Other World.  And he was my spiritual director.

The Other in The Other World tensioned against me as the WASP in McAllen, Texas.  Forbidden desire was powerful.  Something had to give.

Mexican Folk Culture is constituted by Mexican immigrants in the USA, legal and illegal, and are predominantly those who don’t have medical insurance.  Culturally, they are often called the poor ones, or el pobres. Their faith in the old ways—old stories, old medicine, old religion (and witches, demons, and spirits), mediated by curanderismo—is sometimes all that gives them esperanza y salud, hope and health. And perceived control operating from within their situation of poverty.

(excerpted from The WASP and El Curandero)

The still suffering Mestizos—the genetic mix of Native Americans (of all the Americas, not just the U.S.) and the sixteenth century conquistadors, (the conquering Spaniards)—are the ones that really count, as far as Mexican folk culture goes.  The first thing Mestizos in Mexico do when their babies are born is to check their skin color and report it to l the extended family members in the waiting room, for they know the darker the skin all, the more discrimination the child will face.  They pray for lighter skin.  One can pretty well guess why Mestizos struggling in Mexico want to come to the U.S. where all men are created equal and the minimum wage is more than double.  When they cross the border into the U.S.—some across the international border bridges, some across the Rio Grande River—they become known as el pobres, or the poor ones.  They have suffered physically from poverty and mentally from alienation.  It is through befriending el pobres that I can confront my awareness of existential guilt.  Why should I have money and they don’t?