Dozens of curanderos in NM for healing conference

Traditional healers and students of alternative medicine are at the University of New Mexico this week for an annual conference on curanderismo. The healers from the United States and Latin America are meeting on campus for two-weeks for demonstrations and hands-on activities about traditions, rituals, herbs, and remedies. Curanderismo is the art of using traditional healing methods like herbs and plants to treat various ailments. Long practiced in indigenous villages of Mexico and other parts of Latin America, curanderos also could be found in parts of New Mexico, south Texas, Arizona and California. Anthropologists believe curanderismo remains popular among poor Latinos who didn't have access to health care.  AP