The Tradition of Herb People

In recent centuries the progress of scientific medical research
and the discovery of so many reliable cures for man's various
ailments by dedicated doctors, have largely supplanted, among
modern people, the general need tor widespread knowledge of
herb medicines.

One of the few remaining places where I have had the

opportunity to observe a lingering interest in herb medicines

and similarly useful plants, is the desert regions of the

southwestern United States and northern Mexico. Here, in spite

of our space-age advancement and miraculous medicines, the

native people continue to display a proud knowledge of their

flora and its many practical uses.



In Mexico particularly the outdoor people such as ranchers, miners, and

fishermen of lonely coastal waters, early inherit a superb

education in the use of herbs and plants; then they proceed to

expand upon that knowledge throughout their lifetime.

I know nothing of the science of botany and very little about

herbs. It is the people — those who display a fascination for the

flora which surrounds them and who possess a keen knowledge

of the medicinal, structural, or nutritional values of this plant

life — who command my attention and respect. My interest in

this subject, therefore, stems not at all from the desire to

become an authority on herbs and shrubs and vines, but

mainly from the enjoyment of recalling the pleasant memories

I hold of nightly visits around late campfires with my friends

of Mexican and Indian descent. Now, almost every useful plant

I recognize in the Southwest serves to remind me of a certain

instance when my Mother give me lecture on its particular virtues.

The manner in which certain herbs and plants are invariably

used identically as remedies for sickness, as tonics, or for other

practical purposes, regardless of distances or different

languages involved, has to me become the object of fascinated

reflection. In the many Indian dialects of southern California,

for example, a single herb may have half a dozen different

names, as well as one in Spanish and two or three in English;

yet always it is used in an identical manner and for identical

reasons.


My friend David form Mexico is a outstanding hunter and tracker and knows mining, timbering,

and a lot about the sawmill business. His knowledge of herbs

and useful plans is encyclopedic.

Angel Lopez, formerly of Ixclan, Nyarit, is also a man of selfreliance

and unusal capabilities. He attributes the cure of his

stomach ulcers, shortly after he came to the United States, to

the herb teas he took while he was working as a section hand on

the railroad. He now has a few head of milk cows, some poultry,

and a good many beehives from which he derives his principal

income. He is the gentlest person with livestock I believe I have

ever seen and is so considerate of his bees that his actions seem

to border on the ridiculous.   I have watched him hunting  about his place on cold,

spring evenings, carefully gathering up those bees too

chilled and too heavily laden with pollen to fly.

He gently puts them in his old felt hat,

and after searching until he's sure that none will be left

out to suffer further from the cold, he carries them to

his car and closes them in for the night. He is an

enthusiastic student of  natural things and a man of

infinite patience. I once  visited with him as he dug a

colony of ants out of the  ground near his house, put

them all in a fruit jar, and  transplanted them several miles away,

rather than exterminate them, that's how ancient people exterminate lot's of plagues.

That's the kind of relationship with nature I admire.

My own great grandfather, my grandfather, Great grandmother, my Grandmother, My Mother.
 All showed and passed along a respect for Nature and not so much by words.
As a child all this seem really natural, until I left home and I realize not  everybody act that way. I think I never watched a lot of TV or movies, so I was a little bit naive.
Today I am so proud of them and my heritage.

That is may be the reason why I couldn't get ride of the chili plant my  neighbour gave me last summer when it got a plague "the white fly' which is impossible to get ride of (Is that what the general opinion says). I was attached to the chili plant, I couln't get ride of it. I took care of it, and today still alive.. no plague.
That's why I celebrate the science behind the Univera products I get for my family, because it share the same vision about nature and it powerful propeties with the same respect and enjoyment I learned from my ancestors