Dominican Holistic Medicine: Sustainability and Self-Care
“Sana, sana colita de rana, si no sanas hoy, sanarás mañana.”
“Heal, heal little frog’s tail, if you don’t heal today, you’ll heal tomorrow.”
pc: @sirenassecret
By Guest Contributor: Ashley Ferrer
This article was contributed by a member of our beloved Sustainable Baddie community. Sustainable Baddie exists in part to share perspectives outside of our own and to present a rich array of diverse voices. The opinions presented are those of the guest contributor and do not necessarily reflect or represent Sustainable Baddie’s voice, tone, and point of view.
The month after I was born, my grandmother rushed to the Dominican consulate and implored them to let her come over to the United States to meet her granddaughter. Successfully attaining her goal, she soon became my guiding light and branch to my Dominican culture.
Following in her footsteps, I would recite soothing children’s rhymes such as that of the little frog to my friends and younger cousins, brew different teas with lemon as a part of my nighttime regimen, and find myself opting for natural remedies for my headaches.
I’ve always noticed that as Dominicans away from our homeland, we carry our culture into everything we do. Still, I never considered how this trickles into our care and healing practices.
Holistic medicine is an integral part of Dominican culture. According to Merriam-Webster, holistic means “relating to or concerned with wholes or complete systems rather than with the analysis of, treatment of, or dissection into parts.” In terms of holistic medicine, it is a practice that takes a rounded approach to healing, including the physical, mental, and spiritual.
The Dominican Republic has maintained a strong relationship with the natural world for centuries. Plant-derived home remedies and bottled herbal mixtures known as “botellas” have often been used to prevent and treat illnesses and conditions.
This relationship dates back to the Taíno, the indigenous people who inhabited the Caribbean before European exploration. The Taínos believed the natural world to be full of spirits and used its gifts in their medicinal practices and shamanistic rituals. Today, the Taíno are survived by many aspects of Dominican culture, particularly passed-down remedies and our connection to nature.
pc: @sirenassecret
Reyna Delacruz, a Dominican-American woman living in Massachusetts, often taps into her connection with her ancestors. Inspired by this omnipresent bond, Delacruz created her wellness and beauty brand, Sirena’s Secret, which features organic ingredients and herbs native to the Dominican Republic. Growing up, her father would use mashed apples to treat his eczema and psoriasis while her mother used eggs, mayonnaise, and avocado to rejuvenate her hair.
“People are skeptical, like, ‘Can this plant really heal me?’ But [they] fail to recognize that a lot of modern medicine is connected to plants or is derived from plants,” Delacruz said. “Like the chemicals in chemotherapy are connected to plants, [those] in morphine, they're connected to plants. Even aspirin comes from something called willow’s bark.”
Delacruz recently read the book “Taíno Remedies” by Isamar Rivera, which shares Taíno recipes. With this knowledge, she launched a workshop called “Mi Botiquín,” which translates to “My First Aid Kit.” In the workshop, she shares her knowledge with others and teaches them how to use different herbs and oils to heal their bodies.
“It’s important to give people the satisfaction of [self-care] with natural things. You get your hands dirty, indulge in the experience, and really recognize,” Delacruz said. “You know inside all of us, there's probably a viejita (old lady) that knew how to do this, that knew how to make medicine, that knew how to make botellas…I think it's funny, [even] when you're seasoning something, it's like, you stop when your ancestors tell you to stop because that's literally how it is.”
Sirena’s Secret operates on the belief that one’s body and hair are an extension of one’s spiritual self, and thus taking care of the inside will help nurture the outside and vice versa.
If you walk around with your hair undone, your mind will feel undone.
This is a sentiment I’ve heard many times over, particularly by older Dominicans who seem to be in the best shape physically and mentally when they’re unbothered in rural DR. (The Global Mind Project ranked the Dominican Republic #1 in overall happiness and mental well-being in 2014.)
pc: @ocoabeauty
Dominican Americans like Nicol Varona Cancelmo are even using the prominence of holism in our culture to offset and destigmatize another harmful aspect of it. Cancelmo co-founded the natural hair care line, Ocoa Beauty, with her sister Cory to resist the common stereotype of equating curly hair with “bad hair.” Their collection uses post-consumer plastic and their products are inspired by the ingredients and nature of DR, and work to cater to curls that the culture has previously neglected.
“We incorporate the hibiscus flower, commonly known as ‘La flor de la sangre de Cristo’ (the flower of Christ’s blood) in DR. We grew up seeing this flower in every patio back home, and its medicinal features have great benefits to help damaged hair,” Varona Cancelmo said. “We also use mango butter instead of other butters, not only for its outstanding benefits but because it's a fruit that takes us back to our childhood. We grew up eating mangos as a snack every time we visited family.”
The sisters honor their Taíno ancestry in the brand name, “Ocoa,” which refers to their mother’s hometown and means “a place between the mountains” in the Taíno language.
With aspirations and endeavors like these, we sustain our culture's strengths and connection with those who came before us. Through holistic practice, we become aware of how we interact with the environment and how it interacts with us. By seeing my people being intentional with how we nourish our bodies and tend to the whole, I not only learned how to heal my wounds with natural remedies but also heal my soul.
Ashley Ferrer is a Dominican-American writer based in South Florida. Her work centers human connection and understanding, as she loves to explore the passions and minds of other creatives. In her free time, you'd likely find her surveying the world via digital camera, rewatching her set rotation of comfort shows, or hanging out with her grandmother.