Clinics helped reclaim plaza, provide spiritual healing
Plying her skills as a Native American healer, Linda Ximenes worked with people suffering from personal trauma and everyday stress, trying to connect them with their inner spirit.
She said she hopes to soon return to San Antonio’s historic Guadalupe Plaza to continue her work at community health clinics that offer holistic approaches to health. Ximenes, who centers heavily on the deer, a “very strong spirit” in the tradition of the Coahuiltecans of South Texas, was one of several healers of American Indian or Latin American Curanderismo traditions who gathered Sunday to perform spiritual cleansings known as limpias at the last of five free monthly, half-day clinics held in the West Side plaza since May.
Sounding a drum to the rhythm of a heartbeat, and using the smoke of tree resin to spiritually purge the afflicted of their demons, Ximenes helped others free themselves from the grief, anger, guilt, stress and other feelings weighing them down emotionally.
“You can see it on their faces,” she said. “You can see that they left something that they didn’t want any more.”
The clinics, organized by a group called SanArte — Spanish for “heal you” — have assisted people ranging in age from 2 months to 98 years, providing therapeutic dance; healthy food samples and advice on herbs and nutrition; a form of massage therapy developed in Central and South America known as sobadas; and sound healing — a mix of light stretching, deep breathing and music relaxation, using drums and other traditional instruments.
A debate that had lingered for more than two years on whether to keep the plaza open or fenced inspired eight people to form SanArte as a limited liability corporation and hold clinics to activate the plaza in ways that contrast the drug use, sexual assaults and other criminal activity that had
plagued it at night. The plaza now has temporary fencing, with a plan approved earlier this year to keep it continuously open to the public.
“What we proposed was to have an interdisciplinary health clinic that would boost our community from the inside-out,” said Vanessa Quezada, a leader of SanArte and pharmacist at Davila Pharmacy.
Working through Councilwoman Shirley Gonzales’ office, the city funded the clinics with a portion of $100,000 allocated in the 2019 budget for activities in the plaza. Davila Pharmacy and La Botanica were private sponsors.
Discussions continue on how and where the clinics might continue, possibly indoors, near the plaza or downtown, or on the South Side, Quezada said. The number of people served has increased since May to about 250 from 100, even though publicity has been limited mostly to flyers and word-of-mouth.
Teresa Menéndez Myers, Gonzales’ chief of staff, said the clinics have helped the neighborhood reclaim the plaza this summer and reconnect with simple, affordable ways to embrace healthy lifestyles at a time when some think they need an app on their smartphone to do that.
“It’s a great means to kind of slow people down,” she said. “The key to basically taking back your streets is to be in them.”
Visitors were given a bloodpressure screening, then asked some questions about their health. Quezada said the clinics seek to empower them with a more relaxed state of mind and ideas they can take home.
“We were very surprised at the beginning because people are much more sick than we thought,” she said. “When people come here, you can see them stressed out and upset. And when they leave, they’re able to cry it out. We have people that tell us that this is the first time they’ve been able to release.”
She recalled one woman who arrived complaining of sore knees. As Quezada began to give her massage therapy, the woman revealed she had lost her husband three months earlier. She began to cry, releasing feelings she had kept inside, trying to appear strong for her grandchildren.
“It was amazing to see that happen, to see her come out of that and feel good, and make changes in her daily life,” Quezada said.
She is hopeful that SanArte will find sponsors, partners or other groups willing to collaborate and keep the clinics going next year.
“Some of the folks that come here either have had trouble communicating with their physicians, or they haven’t received the care that they need. Or they can’t afford it,” Quezada said.
The clinics don’t attempt to cure people’s physical ailments but provide spiritual and emotional healing that help them get better, Ximenes said.
“Part of what this is about is getting people to understand we’re connected to each other,” she said. “I think it’s exactly what people need.”
For more information, contact SanArte at sanartecommunity@gmail.com or 210-446-8175.