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CASIMIRA VALENZUELA
Recorded by Romelia Gomez, Field Reporter
January 3, 1939


Casimira Valenzuela is quite a character in this town. She doesn’t know exactly what her age is, but figures that she is about 82 years old. “Dona Casimirita” is known and liked by nearly every Mexican family in Bisbee. As she has no one to support her, those at whose houses she visits usually give her a few articles of food or clothing and sometimes a few “centavos” with which to buy the necessities of life. She lives all alone in a little room which serves as bedroom, kitchen, dining-room and living-room all in one. The furniture consists of a bed, a small table, two old chairs, an old trunk, and a wood-stove. She has lived here for more than twelve years, paying no rent, for the kindly neighbors who own this house assist her more than anyone else and demand nothing from her in return. She hasn’t a single living relative that she knows of and she is wont to say, “I am all alone in this world, not a single soul cares about me”, but after a moment, adds, “It’s wrong of me to say that, all my friends in Bisbee help me, and I greatly appreciate their bothering about an old troublesome lady who is no relation to them.”

She has lived in Bisbee quite a long time, coming here from Durango, Son., her birthplace, during the revolution of Madero, whose followers were called Maderistas. This is the best she can do in regard to saying in what year she crossed to the U.S. (She is vague about dates and complete details, as her memory fails her, and she can neither read or write). At that time her son was working in Bisbee for Billy Brophy doing some sort of work in his store. He never worked in mines or leases.) Mr. Brophy is supposed to have sent for Casimira to come to Bisbee to live with her son.

On their way over here, near Torreon, the train on which Casimira and her daughter were passengers was ambushed by Maderista revolutionists and riddled by bullets. It was the most terrifying experience in their lives. The train was held up for three hours, while revolutionists and pacifists exchanged gunfire. The smoke-filled passenger cars, the shattering of glass windows, the yelling and curses from both parties, and the wailings of the terrified men, women and children will live always in her memory. Many of her fellow passengers were killed right before her eyes, while she and her daughter cowered under the benches. They were miraculously saved from being shot only, she says, because during those awful hours she continuously prayed La Magnifica, a prayer in which she has the deepest faith. When the revolutionists were out of ammunition they fled, leaving the dead to be taken to Torreon. No further encounter with the revolutionists marked their journey from there on.

Her first residence was at Chihuahua Hill, which she says was thickly populated with Mexicans; then she moved to Zacatecas Canyon, where she lived for many years. She doesn’t remember much about Bisbee then, for she rarely went out, and as neither she or her daughter cared for good times, she knows nothing about the dances, fiestas, songs, etc. (Her daughter never once attended a dance in her life.) The only place they went to, apparently, was the church, for she has always been a deeply religious Catholic, and today is only more so, spending a great deal of her time praying at home and at the church, not having much else to do.

Dona Casimira believes that souls of dead persons come back to this world to haunt people. These she called “Las Animas”, which are souls of people who are doing penance for having broken a promise of a gift or a mass prayed to a certain saint while they were alive and so now go around sad and despairing until some person (usually a relative) who knows about this broken promise complies with it, after which the ghost disappears forever.

She also tells of a ghost which was seen by her son, Juan, one night in Zacatecas as he was going home. The streets were dark and quite deserted except for himself and the tall figure of a man dressed in black who kept walking right in front of Juan and with whom, no matter how hard he tried, he could not catch up. To Juan’s dismay, the stranger suddenly disappeared before his very eyes; seeming to have been swallowed up by the earth. Terrified, Juan ran home the rest of the way. Other persons happened to encounter this same ghost and people say he is the ghost of “El Tejano”, who lived here many years ago and left his money buried somewhere in Zacatecas when he died.

After Casimira’s son died, Maria, the daughter, took on the responsibility of their support, working for a while at the laundry in Tombstone Canyon, then as a domestic wherever she could get the work. Then Maria also died and Casimira was left quite alone, dependent on the charity of people who knew her.

In a measure some of the kindness of these friends has been repaid by Dona Casimira’s knowledge of home-cures and remedies, which she says has been put to use many times. She tells of once practically saving a neighbor woman’s life when she was stung on a finger by an unusually poisonous scorpion. The doctor being quite slow in arriving, Casimira was called and made a plaster of what she calls trementina, mixed with alcohol and applied it to the injured finger. She claims this treatment did the trick and the woman recovered quickly. Another time she treated  a young boy for pneumonia, giving him doses of copal water. Copal, a small dark grain, is first finely ground and added to nine cups of water, which is left to boil down to about three; then given to the patient to drink in small warm doses. It is very important, though, to keep him covered up in bed, so that he will sweat freely, but not a breath of cold air must reach him, for then the treatment will not work. The parents of this boy, who had given up hope for his recovery, were very grateful to Casimira when she cured him. She makes different uses of the pomegranate in using it for home-remedies. In the case of ear-aches, washings with water in which pomegranate peelings have been boiled are recommended. For a sore-throat the pomegranate peeling (dried) is finely ground and injected up into the throat by breathing this powder.

When asked about the palo-loco treatment for headaches she replied that, although a great many families here use it, she herself hasn’t much faith in it and has never used it.

Like most elderly Mexican people Dona Casimira distrusts doctors and hospitals and says all they do is take money away from poor folks and do nothing for them in return.

Dona Casimira doesn’t make use of her home-remedies now except for her own use, for she is too old, her health is poor, and she has forgotten most of these remedies, so she cannot be of much help to other sick people. Instead, when she is sick, kind friends take her to their homes and care for her there. It is surprising, considering her age, to see how much she still gets around, from house to house and to church, then back home, where she spends less of her times, so that it isn’t an easy matter to find her there. (I had to go three times before I found her home.)


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