CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — In the late 1800's, when the sick could find no help for their ailments, they would turn to Don Pedro Jaramillo.
Affectionately known as Don Pedrito, Jaramillo was a curandero -- or folk healer.
He settled in the area of Los Olmos, on the east side of modern-day Falfurrias.
He had no medical training but cured the ill with simple homemade remedies that called for herbs, vegetables, mud and even water.
Lourdes Treviño Cantu, curator at the Heritage Museum in Falfurrias, shared a story about how Don Pedrito discovered his healing touch.
One day while traveling, Don Pedrito stopped to rest under a tree. A branch fell on his face, hit his nose and cut it open.
"He had such excruciating pain, he went to a nearby creek and put his face in the water and the mud, I suppose, stop the bleeding," Treviño Cantu said.
Jaramillo applied this treatment for three days and three nights and on the final night, he had a vision and heard God's voice, telling him that he was going to have the power to heal through people's faith.
The first person Don Pedrito helped after acquiring his healing powers was his boss.
"He went and he gave him some kind of receta (prescription) and the story goes that the boss got well", Treviño Cantu said.
The word spread quickly and soon hundreds of people would visit Don Pedrito's jacal, or hut. Others would send him letters, all in search of a solution to whatever issues they were dealing with, both physical and spiritual.
Cantu's grandmother Marcela Galindo was one of those who experienced Don Pedrito's powers. She was his neighbor and when she started losing her eyesight, she went to him.
"If you see all the pictures that we have of my grandmother, she's not wearing glasses and she lived to be 80 something," she said. "I would attribute it to fulfilling the suggestion by Don Pedrito".
Don Pedro Jaramillo passed away in 1907 and there is a shrine at his burial site on FM 14-18 in Falfurrias. People leave flowers and pictures and to this day, they still pray for his healing powers.
Though many consider Don Pedro Jaramillo a saint, he is not. The church has never recognized him as such.
"He himself said, "This is not my power that I have to heal, it is God's power," Treviño Cantu said.
Unlike other curanderos, Don Pedrito never charged for his services, but accepted money to buy food for the poor and those who came to see him.
He never married but adopted two boys and on the day he died, more than $5,000 in 50 cent pieces were found in his jacal.
What's more fascinating is the belief that he continued helping others even on his death bed.
"He never stopped healing. The faithful never stopped coming".
People from all over still visit his shrine, hoping Don Pedrito will hear their pleas more than 100 years after he died.
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