Mexican Bark Paper Manuscript: Healing Diseases and Afflictions Induced by Witchcraft

Tellez, Alfonso Garcia

[MANUSCRIPT OF TRADITIONAL MEXICAN HEALING PRACTICES]. Historia de la curacion de Antigua de San Pablito Pahuatlan Puebla

San Pablito, Puebla, Mexico: 1978 (but later). Square format, original amate bark covers with overlay. 18 x 14 cm. 28 numbered "pages," all but three featuring cutouts of deities as per the iconographic program. Leaves pasted "accordion" / "concertina" style in the Aztec tradition, two pair of orange ribbons (NB: the "shine" of the glue along the edges of the ribbons and covers suggests that this example may have been made in the 1990s). MS title on front cover, the date of the original composition of the text, and what appears to be the genuine signature of Alfonso Garcia Tellez. In excellent condition, suitable for exhibition and study. Very good. Item #4605

TRADITIONAL HEALING PRACTICES OF THE ANCIENT ONES AGAINST DISEASES AND AFFLICTIONS INDUCED BY WITCHCRAFT. THIS HAND-MADE MEXICAN MEDICINAL CODEX ALMOST DEFIES DESCRIPTION AND SHATTERS ALL PRECONCEPTIONS OF A "MEDICAL BOOK." THIS EXAMPLE WAS A GIFT FROM GARCIA TELLEZ TO CAROL OLIN OF THE UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO, PUEBLO, IN THE 1980S AND -- UNLIKE ALMOST ALL EXAMPLES THAT HAVE BEEN ON THE MARKET OF LATE -- SEEMS TO BE ENTIRELY IN HIS AUTOGRAPH.

The present manuscript demonstrates the continuity of traditional practices of papermaking, book arts, and mystical healing in the everyday life of ancient and contemporary indigenous Mexican peoples. The book itself is a manual of ritualist cures / mystical healing for diseases induced by witchcraft; included are potions derived from amate wood itself. The cutouts are figures from the indigenous mythology, including the Lords of the Night, Lords of the Mountain, and of the Nagual. The final pages describe rituals honoring Mother Earth, with offerings of native foods and the Christ Child with the burning of incense and wax.

The amate "paper" for the cutouts, and the pages on which they were pasted, are made from the inner bark of the ficus tree; the primary amate producing village, San Pablito, Pahuatlan (Puebla) is the home of Garcia Tellez himself. The Spanish text is written by hand in reddish-brown ink, and illustrated with the complete component of 25 amate bark paper cutout figures of the "spirit poppets." Garcia Tellez's text is practical and direct, and was written expressly for other curanderos in need of such a medicinal manual. Some special topics include, but are certainly not limited to:

¶ Religious healing ceremony and protection against witchcraft. For the people that believe in the ancient custom, this is the sickness of seizure (attack), for example: If a man finds a sickness in the field, this sickness is called an attack. To heal this sickness, we have to call a Healer and the Healer will do a spell (cure). [Illustration: The bed of the attack].

¶ The Spell (cure / divination): The Healer is going to ask the heart of the mountain what sickness (sorcery) this person has. If it is witchcraft, an offering must be done in the following manner: make 24 beds (reams) of amate paper, 24 spirits of amate paper that are achieved by guns, machete, or hand-knife, and 24 good spirits that died by fever, vomiting, diarrhea, 24 bad Shadow Spirits (sic).

¶ Prescription: First layout 12 beds (reams) of amate paper inside the house of the sick person. Form a frame over the bed of the spirits. Extend and put four drops of boiling water, and light four cigars so the Shadow Spirits can smoke them. Cut a chicken and the blood that comes out falls over the bed of the dolls. Add more boiling water, that way the Shadow Spirits may be baptized. Light four candles so that they can illuminate the Shadow Spirits and the dolls and that way they will leave the home.

To our knowledge, this is one of only two "medical books" in which the text was literally written on the curative materials prescribed for physical and spiritual maladies, namely the amate bark paper itself (see below). The other book was likewise authored by the famed brujo/curandero Alfonso Garcia Tellez, namely his "Historia de una Vivienda para Hacer una Ofrenda al Santo Tecuil." Actual curandero books are unrepresented in many important libraries worldwide; they should be recognized holistically for both their traditional medicinal craft and indigenous spiritual beliefs.

The practice of the Latin American brujo/curandero is greatly misunderstood by students and scholars of "modern" medicine. The term "witch-doctor," while not technically inaccurate, may be seen as derogatory or even cartoonish. Indeed, a brujo/curandero is more appropriately described as a ritual specialist who has undergone years of training in order to administer shamanistic and spiritistic remedies for mental, emotional, physical and spiritual illnesses.

Our copy of the "Historia de la curacion de Antigua" is accompanied by an unpublished English translation of the Spanish text -- please inquire. Alan Sandstom, "Traditional Curing and Crop Fertility Rituals among Otomi Indians of the Sierra de Puebla, Mexico: The Lopez Manuscripts," provides an elegant translation on pp. 25-53 along with an insightful discussion of the significance of this text.

Over the last ten years (or more), Garcia Tellez’s daughter and others in his immediate family helped to construct his books for the tourist trade; indeed, several scribes can be discerned among various published examples. Unlike almost all other examples on the market of late, ours seems to be in Garcia Tellez's autograph, as the handwriting and signature are correct, and the manuscript has a long and unbroken provenance since the 1980s.

In 2018 a major work on the subject was published in France: "Ecrits: Manuscrits à miniatures otomi Alfonso M. Garcia Tellez." The present text appears on pp. 43-102 (a later manuscript written by someone other than Garcia Tellez). NB: Of all the manuscripts reproduced in the Ecrits only one seems to be Garcia Tellez's own hand (Annex II, History of the Symbol of the Eagle, ridiculously reduced in size - why?)

We note that the text of our manuscript occasionally varies from the one published in the Ecrits, in some instances significantly so, thus offering opportunities for textual criticism and paleographical study.

MUST BE SEEN TO BE FULLY APPRECIATED.

PROVENANCE: Carol Olin (1930-2020), formerly a professor of literature and theater at Univ. Colorado Pueblo, later of San Tan Valley, AZ. Olin met Garcia Tellez in his hometown of Pahuatlan, Puebla in the 1980s. -- Her gift to her granddaughter Danielle Duran of San Tan Valley, AZ. -- Acquired by us directly from the preceding.

LITERATURE: Alan and Pamela Sandstrom's colossal 2022 monograph "Pilgrimage to Broken Mountain" is positively epic and must be consulted by all persons interested in the field. Pierre Deleage, "Les livres d’Alfonso García Tellez" in: Traverser. Chantier littéraire. Bois-Colombes: Carnets Livres (2015), p. 118-129. Bodil Christensen and Samuel Marti, "Witchcraft and pre-Columbian Paper / Brujerias y Papel Precolombino" (1979). "Amate manuscripts of the Otomi of San Pablito, Puebla," Mexicon, Journal of Mesoamerican Studies – Revista sobre Estudios Mesoamericanos, Vol. XXXIV, Nr. 6, December 2012. Sandstrom, Alan R., and Pamela Effrein Sandstrom. Traditional Papermaking and Paper Cult Figures of Mexico. University of Oklahoma Press: Norman, OK. 1986.

Price: $3,000.00