Description
Therapeutic goals: promoting acceptance and understanding of the female role, love and partner acquisition, healing abilities of other people
Recommended age group: women 15-60
Form of work: individual, group
Brief content of the literary work:
The author of the work, a university-educated Indian, turned to his father, a natural healer – a curandera, after doctors failed to cure him of a serious illness. After his recovery, he himself began to devote himself to the magical, healing and religious teachings of the ancient Andean healers. He put his experience and knowledge into the story of the book’s main character, a future teacher named Kantu.
This girl, struck by lightning, is brought back to her feet by a curandero, even though she did not trust him at first. While studying, Kantu falls in love with a white man who charms her. She was beautiful, but an Indian, and although she wanted it very much, the marriage with him did not take place. He left her and Kantu took it very hard. She turned to the curandero for help. He found out that Kantu has hidden abilities, which if she used, she could win her beloved man back.
Kantu was determined to do whatever it took to win her chosen man. She will leave her job as a teacher, her family, her home. In the mountains, she becomes a pupil of the extraordinary “Fiery” curandera Condori, who subjects her to demanding training, and later also a pupil of the wise curandera Mama Maru. This will train her according to the rules from the ancient past, when matriarchy reigned in Peru. He will subject her to strict tests to become the so-called A snake woman, she managed her fears, understood animals, elements, earth, water. He teaches her to understand love, sexuality, to understand the differences between men and women.
In this direction, the practical teaching of Kantu continues with Condori. With him, she will develop into an exceptionally strong woman. She will understand and master unconditional love, gain the ability to lead the man she chooses to spirituality, light, love and Mother Nature. When Kantu finishes her training with Condori, she respects him deeply, he too bows before her.
After returning to Cuzco, Kantu meets the man for whom she passed all the difficult and deadly tests. She is confident and calm. The flighty Juan realizes her change, he is interested in her, but Kantu does not want a permanent relationship with him, just an occasional one. Juan will understand – after his experience of expanded consciousness, what is love and does not want to give it up, he will accept its condition. They will not bind each other, but their relationship will become permanent and irreplaceable for both.
In the end, Kantu gets a house from Condori and takes care of his patients as a curandera when Condori retires to the mountains for his spiritual development. Juan loves his work in the mines, but he still goes home to Kantu.
Description of the possibilities of professional treatment-pedagogical/therapeutic practice:
For younger clients, after reading the first chapters, we recommend working with the topic of love, falling in love, sexuality, and the relationship with men. It is appropriate to focus on disappointment in love, poor communication with men, because of which a young girl/woman often does not know how to create an objective image of them and prevent disappointment. She cannot evaluate whether the relationship with a man is about love or just sex. (The influence of the home environment is questionable, or whether the client has the opportunity to talk about her relationship with more experienced people.) It is advisable to let the client read the first chapters alone, even repeatedly, and later talk to her about what interested her. It is important to recognize what her experiences with love are and what her expectations are. Getting over the trauma of a breakup is usually painful, you have to give the girl time to grieve. The body can heal from trauma by shaking, this process is also described by Kantu (if necessary, a psychotherapist can also help). If the trauma happened during high school or college, girls can be led to try to finish their studies in order to gain economic security. It is possible to mention how Kantu managed it, which was advantageous for her future. (If the client is a believer, of course she has the opportunity to turn to God in such a situation). It is important for a woman to understand how powerful she is and that with patience you can conquer the world (topics for conversation especially with girls who were underestimated at home).
In the next chapters and in the training, self-knowledge, understanding your role on earth, building self-confidence in handling difficult situations is important. It is possible to talk about what the girl has managed to manage so far, what she could be proud of in her life. (Check if she can brag).
The first steps in the training could have been less difficult for Kantu, e.g. she was able to obtain harmony in nature. What Condori explains to Kantu about love and the role of a woman in relation to a man cannot be reproduced, only read slowly – that’s why Kurandera is really a self-help book. Every woman can find answers to her most important life questions in it. That’s why even a mature woman can understand from her what she couldn’t do in her youth and what is worth constantly thinking about in order to feel happier. As he concludes in the book on p. 204 experienced curandera Mama Maru “a real woman does not need to fight with a man. She faces the future with love, devotion and acceptance. She has a calm gaze and speaks lovingly and respectfully. Her heart is full of tenderness. Her energy has gentle vibrations that lift her to a higher the spiritual level. Thus woman opens the door to eternity for man. The true woman is the demigoddess, daughter of Pachamama, the Great Cosmic Mother, the source of eternal life.”
The reader can do several of the exercises listed in the book privately, but they can also be practiced in a group with a trained therapist. More challenging exercises are in the last chapters – which is probably why women like to participate in courses after reading the book, which have been organized by the book’s translator Lucie Chaya for years (see http://modernikurandera.cz/kurzy/moderni-kurandera-1/cit. 2023 -02-24).
At the end of the book, on p. 303-308 there is a brief description of the University of Life and Peace Project, from which Mamani’s lecture was added to the book by Women from the INCA Association. This project needs to be seriously thought about and talked about today. Professor Mamani, the author of the project and Kurandera, has several students in the Czech Republic. As a first step in this project, he has already established the School of Life and Peace for children from kindergartens and primary schools in Arequipa, Peru. The most important thing in it is education based on love, the search for truth and respect for other living beings, which is related to a change in thinking. Andean culture focused on the development of human spirituality. It was able to solve all social, political, economic and educational problems. Without such education, according to Mamani, the human race is doomed to disappear from the face of the earth.
More information about H.H. Mamani’s work can be obtained from the Cultural Association Mamani INCA Itali, at: mamani@tiscali.it, or www. mamani-inca.com.
Description of experience from own work with a literary piece:
According to Kurandera, I inspired my former students of the Pedagogical Faculty of the J. A. Comenius University in Bratislava with the interview method in how they should work on themselves in order to become real healers and wise advisors to women in solving their personal and physical problems. The book also proved useful in the search for a way out of unhappy love in teenagers.
It didn’t pass language editing!
The recommendation of literary piece created by:
PhDr. Viera Diešková, CSc., Bratislava, Slovakia, Last update: February 24, 2023
The recommendation from Slovak to English translated by: Mária Trechová, Workplace: PRO SKIZP – Association for support of Slovak Chamber of Physicists, Laboratory Diagnosticians, Language Speech Therapists and Therapeutic Educators, c. a. Bratislava, Slovakia
Recommended citation procedure:
Diešková, Viera. 2023. Professional reference and sharing of experiences to the literary work of the author Hernán Huarache Mamani Kurandera – Searching for the essence of female power. In Kotrbová, K. et al: Biblioterapia.sk. Bratislava: PRO SKIZP – Association to support the development of the Slovak Chamber of Clinical Physics, Laboratory Diagnosticians, Language Speech Therapists and Therapeutic Pedagogues, 2023. ISBN 978-80-974667-0-1 Available on: https://www.biblioterapia.sk/en/publikacia/professional-reference-of-the-literary-work-kurandera/
The contribution was created thanks to support from the European Union Erasmus+ program, Key action 2 – Cooperation between organizations and institutions, KA210 – Small partnerships for cooperation in the field of education and training. Project name “Prototype of online teaching aid for bibliotherapy”, project number 2022-1-SK01-KA210-VET-000082483. It represents the opinion of the author and the European Commission is not responsible for any use of the information contained therein.
