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Chapter 11: Angel of deathHerbal remedies are put to the testBy Carmen DuarteThe Arizona Daily Star In 1929, Nala was stricken with fever. Word traveled quickly to her abuelos in San Antonio. Grandparents Nana Leonarda and Tata Florentino, once again, quickly readied the buggy. Nana Leonarda's horrendous wails - similar to those of a wounded cow - let all know that tragedy had struck as the buggy made its way to the home of Don Juanito and Dolores in Duncan.
Nana Leonarda needed to be by Nala, her consentida - her special grandchild, her namesake. Twelve-year-old Nala drifted in and out of consciousness while her weakened body battled the fever for days. Dolores' herbal remedies, including hot teas made from wild plants and a poultice to sweat out the fever, were not working. They had always worked before. ``Dios, por que no ahora? Por que?'' (God, why not now? Why?) Dolores kept making the poultices, using the recipe taught to her by Nana Leonarda - kerosene oil, sulfur, lard, red mustard and talcum powder. Desperate to save her daughter, Dolores turned to modern medicine and pulled out tablets sold to her by the kind-faced Anglo peddler who periodically traveled the valley. Dolores tried everything. She boiled a tea made from rose petals and from other wildflowers. The teas would strengthen Nala's dehydrated body. Dolores sliced potatoes and soaked the slices in vinegar to place on Nala's forehead. It would bring some cool relief. She gave her daughter the peddler's tablets with tea that she had cooled in jugs on the porch. Nala went back to sleep. A short time later, Nana Leonarda awakened Nala and gave her more pills, not knowing her mother had already done so. Nala went into a deep sleep, a comalike state that lasted hours. Her skin turned pale yellow and all wondered what was happening. The angel of death was near. Nana Leonarda and Dolores spoke - telling each other that they had given Nala the tablets. Fear took a strong hold of their hearts, and both turned to Santo Niño de Atocha. Surely, the Christ Child would hear their cries and return Nala to them. Surely, he would not forsake them. Nala awoke to find Nana Leonarda kneeling by her bed crying. Nala's fever broke. ``Gracias a Dios'' (Thanks be to God). Relatives filled the house to pray the rosary in thanksgiving. Nala gained strength in the following days, but one strange thing happened. When Nana Leonarda brushed Nala's long, jet-black hair, gobs of it stayed in the brush. Nala lost all her body hair. The hair on her head grew back, but her legs and arms remain hairless to this day. I can laugh about it now, but when I was a freshman in high school, Mama would not let me shave my legs. ``Just give it time. The hair on your legs will fall off like mine did.'' So here I was, this obedient Catholic kid who listened to Mama and wondered when I'd have hairless legs. Then one day my brother, Raymond, told me: ``Your legs are really hairy.'' You know it's bad when your brother notices. I immediately hopped in the shower with a razor, soaped up my legs and off the hair went. I broke the news to Mama when she came home from cleaning motel rooms that evening. ``¨Por qué hiciste eso, Carmen?'' (Why did you do this?), she asked angrily. ``I had to, Mama. Even Raymond said my legs were too hairy.'' Not all in the valley were as blessed as Nala, who lost only her hair. Fever spread like lumbre - a fire that ravages and destroys. Nala's brother Florentino came down with it while tending sheep in the nearby hills. He was nursed by his wife, Mikala, and his mother. Florentino's fever broke after about four days, but he suffered from rheumatism in his knees until the day he died. Sister Gumesinda was not so lucky. The fever struck her husband, Manuel, and on top of that he got the hiccups. Mama thinks the hiccups killed him. The fever made him tired, and the hiccups would not allow him to sleep. They wrapped him in covers and put him on the wagon for the trip to San Antonio. Nana Leonarda would know what to do. The women went to work making poultices, and Nana Leonarda made un te de anís, the best cure for hiccups. Anise is still used to treat hiccups. They also gave Manuel tablets from the pharmaceutical salesman. After about 15 days, the fever broke, but Manuel was very, very weak. Damn those hiccups. The tea was not working. Then he stopped breathing. Gumesinda would not accept it. She ran through the house looking for a mirror. ``He is asleep,'' she cried. ``He is only asleep.'' Gumesinda placed the mirror over his face. She waited for a mist to form on it from his warm breath. ``It will come. It will form, you'll see,'' she repeated to Nana Leonarda and Dolores. But the mist never came. And death was not yet finished with my family.
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Ch. 1: Field of death
Ch. 18: The New Deal
Ch. 24: Cotton pickers and copper miners Ch. 27: The family doubles its size
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