Charles R. Garcia, Director
Keep busy and challenged enjoying our online content, which offers a free introduction to Hispanic Herbalism.
Five Sessions. Students will learn the fascinating history of herbal medicine as practiced by Hispanic healers by making teas, washes, medicinal vinegars, and some healing foods. The class is taught by third generation curandero Charles Garcia. "I'll be covering Native Californian and Spanish European healing plants. Every week there will be a hands on lesson. Teas/Infusions, vinegars and tinctures, salves, and various healing foods. Mmmmm." The course will be one Wednesday evening for five consecutive weeks. Bring notebooks, camera if you have one, or a recorder. Healthy snacks will be provided along with teas and soft drinks. This course is a prerequisite for all other classes offered at the school. There is no prerequisite for this class. Three student minimum. $225 Advance registration is required. Register via e-mail: curandero50@gmail.com. Dates: Starting Wednesday, August 14th, 2019 Times: 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Duration: Five Sessions
The class is taught by third generation curandero Charles Garcia. "I'll be covering Native Californian and Spanish European healing plants. Every week there will be a hands on lesson. Teas/Infusions, vinegars and tinctures, salves, and various healing foods. Mmmmm."
The course will be one Wednesday evening for five consecutive weeks. Bring notebooks, camera if you have one, or a recorder. Healthy snacks will be provided along with teas and soft drinks.
This course is a prerequisite for all other classes offered at the school.
There is no prerequisite for this class.
Three student minimum. $225 Advance registration is required.
Register via e-mail: curandero50@gmail.com.
Dates: Starting Wednesday, August 14th, 2019 Times: 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Duration: Five Sessions
Eight Sessions. A popular class among past students, Ten Herbs will cover well known and less known plants used in Hispanic California healings both from Europe and Native American cultures. Ten herbs, some well known, some a bit more esoteric, are discussed in detail with an occasional companion herb. Whenever possible the herb will be made into a medicine, food, by the students. This course will focus on multi-purpose herbs and their use in various types of healing; physical, psychological, and spiritual when appropriate. Introduction to California Hispanic Herbalism is a recommended prerequisite for this class. Three student minimum. $350 Advance registration is required. Register via e-mail: curandero50@gmail.com. Dates: Starting Wednesday, September 25th, 2019 Times: 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Duration: Eight Sessions
Ten herbs, some well known, some a bit more esoteric, are discussed in detail with an occasional companion herb.
Whenever possible the herb will be made into a medicine, food, by the students. This course will focus on multi-purpose herbs and their use in various types of healing; physical, psychological, and spiritual when appropriate.
Introduction to California Hispanic Herbalism is a recommended prerequisite for this class.
Three student minimum. $350 Advance registration is required.
Dates: Starting Wednesday, September 25th, 2019 Times: 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Duration: Eight Sessions
From your requests and suggestions, courses may provide new focuses, on request. For example:
An experimental course focusing only on the plants used by California Natives, with less input from European herbs. This will be more hands on.
Especially for the Prepper and Survivalist Community, because you can only stock up so much medicine for so long until it goes bad! From Co-Director Lori Pino, this course will be an Intensive based on the survival techniques in Forever Faire and the sequel Return to Faire.
Weekend classes in disaster preparedness, teach students how to create Go-Bags, Get Home Bags, and Stay At Home Bags. Learn how to make these life-saving items from scratch, using handy items from a spare backpack or book bag to something as small as carry cases for eye glasses. Compared to commercially available Go-Bags, students can can create their own for less and tailored to their own requirements.
What was wrong with Tiny Tim? (from Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol)
There are couple of scholarly papers on the topic. Some researchers believe Tiny Tim was based on Dickens' brother Arthur who did at a young age from a possible kidney ailment. Others suggest rickets: A survey of London children at the time was 60% had rickets. 40% of the adults had it. A Gresham College lecturer says tuberculosis. Which was it?
The students in this class will review the symptoms and come to a diagnoses. They will need to save Tiny Tim, because Tim did NOT die. Scrooge manages to save him with medicines, herbs, etc of that time period.
This course will be offered with Charles in Victorian costume. Charles will stand in for the artist Walter Richard Sickert who suffered terrible health problems from botched surgeries as a child but lived into old age.
Here again the students will need to heal the artist if possible, as they are from the future. Then after being "healed" the artist will ask, "are my paintings still honored in the 21st century?" "Do people know me by my nome de guerre?"
The California School of Hispanic Herbalism officially opened its doors in January of 1998 in the San Francisco East Bay city of Richmond, California, to teach and preserve the healing traditions of the Hispanic curanderos and curanderas (folk healers) of California. Many of these classes had been informally taught for two years prior to the creation of the school.
Primarily offering classes in herbalism, the school also stresses an understanding of Curanderismo, the healing techniques and philosophies of Native-Hispanic California. The cross-cultural influences of European and Asian herbs, along with the use of native plants, made California Curanderismo a unique and potent healing medium. These practices also include the use of intuitive diagnosis skills, psychoactive plants, ritual and magic.
Clients: curandero50@gmail.com (510) 672 7849
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