This is a story that was told to me by a good friend. It is a personal account.
Just a few weeks ago, as I had a chance to visit with our friend, D. I asked about her family. She told me that they have had lots of stuff happen. She
told me that I wouldn’t believe her, that she barely believed it at first, and then
she proceeded to tell me the following.
Just after she got home to her family, her sister M. got
sick. M. had had a baby a month
earlier. One night, when D. checked on her sister in the next
room, she said she had a very strong pain in her side. There was nothing visible on the skin where
she said it hurt. The next morning,
M. began to have a high fever. They
took her to the doctor, and the doctors told her that
it was appendicitis. They wanted to operate right away. However, the parents
did not want them to operate. The family believed that it was the “sobreparto,”
a sickness that a woman can get after childbirth, especially if she leaves the
house within the first 40 days—the time period that she is supposed to rest and
recover, and basically stay in her bed, or at least her house. The only time that her sister was out of the
house was the 2 nights that she spent in the hospital for the delivery. M. thought back to the time when she was
in the hospital and she remembered a nightmare that she had. She dreamed that someone was sticking a big
needle in her from her head all the way through her whole body to her
feet. They believed it was the “Pishtaco”—the
name given to a fat sucker in an Andean legend. Only the people don’t consider
this to be a legend; they consider it to be fact.
The family decided to take M. from the hospital, with
the doctors still recommending a surgery.
They consulted with her brother’s new girlfriend who was specialized in “healings”
(basically she was a shaman or witch doctor). In order to diagnose the problem, she told them to get a young ginnea pig. She was to sleep with this for a few hours. Then the shaman cut open the ginnea pig to examen it. She then told the family that it was Pishtaco and that they would need to do
certain things so that she would survive.
These steps were necessary not only for her survival, but also to
replace the fat that was stolen from her.
They had to take some fat from a cow and boil it into a
broth for a soup. M. was to eat
that. Then, they needed a vial of human
fat. The shaman had a small bottle that
she sold to them for s/.1,000, about $380.
They were to heat this up by rubbing it in their hands, and then take a
dropper and put 3 drops in a hot cup of water.
M. was to drink this, several times a day, for several days, until
the pain was gone. My friend
described the smell as absolutely horrible.
She couldn’t stand the thought of having to drink it, but she prepared
it and gave it to her sister, hoping that she would get better.
M. did get better after a few days. She then traveled an hour away to see her
boyfriend, and she got a fever again.
She returned home sick and drank the hot water with human fat concoction
for a few more days, and she was then well again.
This story was told to me 2 weeks after she was better.
This family also claims to be believers.
Even for many believers, there is always a mix of the old
practices and the underlying beliefs.
This is the syncretism that exists in the Andes.
P.S. My friend said that the family is guarding the little vial of human fat like gold, just in case they need it again in the future.
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