Garlic tea for the stomach and intestines. “What are you talking about?” said doña Berna. “Everybody knows corn water cleans out the kidneys.” “Not water from the boiled corn but from the corn silk!” another insisted. And yet another recommended only mesquite water for kidney and urinary problems—and don’t waste your time with nothing else!

Well, all of these healers had lived in the Rio Abajo region, that is, in Los Lunas, Belen, Tome, on the Isleta Pueblo, from Alameda to Socorro, all around on their own little no-name rancherías, and up in the Manzano Mountains away from everybody for a very long time, not to mention that most had learned their remedios from grandmothers who had learned from grandmothers. And all who had lived on that tierra of thistle and tumbleweed knew that every cactus and thorn had a purpose and reason, once put into a pot to boil.

Failing that, there was little that an aspirin wouldn’t take away overnight to make you new and strong the next morning when the rooster crowed and it was time to start all over, aches and pains and all.

There were other remedies born of sheer ingenuity, and not growing out of the earth, but still in a farfetched way related, so that if you felt bad enough, you’d try it, like that of doña Fermina. Doña Fermina swore by her “estampas de tabaco” remedy. Although they were getting harder to find, the revenue stamps used to seal tobacco can lids—the canceled ones, naturally—placed at the temples were a sure cure for severe headaches.

And speaking of severe, doña Severa, la sobadora de Belen, insisted on doña Felicia’s giving Loca a lard-and-salt rubdown. “You cover her whole body with the manteca y sal to bring down her fevers,” doña Severa insisted. “And give her te de inmortal!” Immortal tea was commonly used for women in labor but also for all fevers and all kinds of headaches, and not just for women either—so why not?

Oshá, which flourishes in the Manzano Mountains just east of Tome, as many a sheepherder discovered ages ago, practically became a staple in Sofi’s household, used alternately as a spice, medicinal tea, suppository, and enema. Oshá de la Sierra was a general all-purpose plant, and Teresa of Isleta added that it could also be used to treat sores.

Although la doña Felicia did not recommend it, more than one of her colleagues suggested a drop of mercury for Loca’s severe stomachaches—but only a drop, since everyone knew how dangerous mercury was. “But that’s exactly why it works!” doña Severa insisted.