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Albert Estrada

Professor Batty

English 101

31 May 2017

A Saint Within a Healer

What better way to start a book about a saintlike healer than describing Jesus. The person

I am talking about is no other than Perla Maria Portillo. She is as sweet as they get. Always

helping people in need whether its advice or actual remedies. Sometimes she would go even

beyond her duties as a healer to help. Dont believe me? Let me tell you why. Although some

would argue she is just a normal person, Perla is the most saint like because she helped many

people with their personal problems as a healer, helped people beyond her healing abilities and

lastly hoped for the best even though the odds were not in her favor.

I would like to start off by giving some insight on Perla and who she is. Perla is a

Mexican woman with the inability to have children. She is married and was a house wife for

the early parts of her life. She would soon meet this man named Dario from the shop

Botanica Oshun. Dario saw something special in Perla. He said she had "El don" meaning the

gift. He would soon convince her to let him train her and work at his shop. Perla considered it

and was bought over because she felt lonely at home, so she thought she

could accommodate her loneliness by working in the botanica. One unexpected day Dario

gave her critical news and told her he was leaving elsewhere to start another botanica. Perla
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was left as the owner of the Botanica. She would soon gain clients and proceed to help them

even though her dad and husband had passed away.

Now that we know about Pela, we will talk about her healing remedies that she has used

to help many people with countless problems. One of the customers that came in was named

Nancy. Nancy did not go for her health though. Her mom had asked her to go to see

if there was anything Perla could give them to help with Nancy's father because he was

suffering from diabetes and was going to get his foot amputated. Nancy's father was what my

mom calls a "Machista" he would not let people help him and would refuse to go to the

doctor. Thus, they asked Perla to give them something discreet. What she said was surprising

because one wouldnt expect to get told that cactus would help. One would expect some pills

or a tea, but Perla said cactus would help. The narrator stated in the book Still Water Saints

by Alex Espinoza " Nopales. When she's removed the thorns and washed the patty, have her

blend it until it turns to pulp. Mix that with some water and stir it with a spoon."(Espinoza

126) When there was no one else that Nancy's family could turn to, so they went to Perla.

Besides her telling Nancy to use nopales, she also told her to give him massages on his foot

because it would help keep the blood flowing in his foot. It was a little late to save his foot

because he had already grown a huge cyst, but now they could prevent another tragedy. That

is just one example of Perla's healing abilities. This shows her saint like qualities because she

understands the situation and gives them a solution as a botanical healer.

Speaking of botanicas, I found an article named (Botanical Medicine) in the

Gale Encyclopedia of Alternative Medicine that gives more meaning to Perla's healing

methods. It talks about the benefits of herbal medicine and why in some cases it can be better
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off for the patient. The article states " Botanical medicines, when administered properly and

in designated therapeutic dosages, can be effective, trigger fewer side effects for many

patients than pharmaceutical drugs, and are generally less costly than prescription

pharmaceutical drugs."( Hanrahan) This shows that there are better ways to cure your

problems. For example, one could already have a damaged liver from pharmaceuticals and

alcohol, so they must use herbal remedies. It also helps with your financing because they are

significantly less expensive. Overall, I believe herbal remedies are a better way to cure

yourself because it is good to your body and your wallets.

Not only did Pela help people with her healing abilities, she would also help people

who would seek her help regardless if it was counseling or teaching. In one occasion, on a

rainy day, this boy showed up to the shop in seek of her help. The boy's name is

Rodrigo. What he wanted was for her to teach him English. He said that she was

very smart and that she could teach him. At first, she said she couldnt. Not because she

didnt want to, but because she didnt feel confident. She said she wasnt a teacher, but

Rodrigo was persistent. He said he saw her reading books all the time. Finally, Rodrigo

convinced Perla by saying "Please, okay? You talk to me in English so I can learn. Teach it to

me. You?"(Espinoza 64) She agreed to teach him to talk English. She gave him a heads up

and said that she didnt go to college, but Rodrigo was fine with that. He said he wanted to

learn English to keep his mind busy because he would always be thinking terrible things.

Taking on the task as a teacher isn't easy though. In the article (Teaching English is Not an

Easy Job) by Quality Time-ESL the author states "Our task as teachers is indeed difficult,

because we not only need to teach our students a foreign language, but we also have to make

them speak that language correctly."( Raynaud) This shows that Perla was willing to take on
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the challenging task of being a teacher. What really speaks to me is that she decided to teach

a boy she did not know English. Therefore, making Perla the most saint like person because

she goes beyond her abilities to help people.

When helping people you must set an example and that's exactly what she

was doing when Rodrigo went missing. How do you plan on helping someone if you need to

help yourself first? Thats why Perla was always positive, so her clients can see her as a role

model, or have some one that can believe in them. Times did get rough though and it did

affect Perla. She worries just like the rest of us. At one point Rodrigo went missing in action.

Perla kept worrying about him. What made things worse is that Perla saw on the news about

how people were getting held hostage and murdered. This made Perla worry a lot more, but

even though things weren't looking so good she kept a positive mind set. The narrator said

"He'll be fine. If he really needs me, he'll show up. It can't be that bad if he hasn't showed up

since he left the note."(Espinoza 133) This shows that Perla is trying to stay positive. She

knows she has other people that need her help. This shows how strong Perla is and how she is

a positive person.

Unfortunately, she was not able to help him as much as she wanted to. Rodrigo had

become a victim of male prostitution while crossing the border. He was violated by a male

pedophile. Crossing the border can be very dangerous. This is a tragedy that is out of reach

of one's hand and Rodrigo fell victim to one of these tragedies. Even though people will say

she isn't the most saint like person because she couldnt help Rodrigo, she was able to help

many more people. It will be unfair to generalize her over one case in which she did her

best.
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Overall, I do believe Perla is the most saint like person for her kindness and effort

to help people. She even went beyond her job to help. It was just in her nature. It was her

"Don." Even if she couldnt help, she would try to the best of her abilities to help. Thus,

making her the most saint like person.

Works Cited

Hanrahan, Clare, and Tish Davidson. "Botanical Medicine." The Gale Encyclopedia of

Alternative Medicine, edited by Laurie J. Fundukian, 4th ed., vol. 1, Gale, 2014, pp. 340-

347. Gale Virtual Reference Library,

library.lavc.edu:2077/ps/i.do?p=GVRL&sw=w&u=lavc_main&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE

%7CCX3189900133&asid=3f919611dc75840f17ad30ba2a12ca7b. Accessed 10 May 2017.

Raynaud, Marianne. "Teaching English Is Not An Easy Job (1)." [QualityTime-ESL]. Quality

Time-ESL, 07 Aug. 2010. Web. 10 May 2017.

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