Miguel Perdomo Neira: healing, culture, and power in the nineteenth-century Andes

Inlate April, 1872, the curandero (healer) Miguel Perdomo Neira
arrived in Bogotá amid widespread rumors that he had come to heal
the terminaIly ill, or lead conservatives in rebellion. The lay healer
had traveled from town to town for the previous six years, performing
operations and cures that sorne viewed as miraculous. Professional physicians on the faculty ofthe Universidad Nacional received him with so much hostility as to spark a minor riot. In this event, broad segments of the people fought medical students and parts of the official political community. At first, the social conflict evident in this event seemed to locate the uorest within the norms of a turbulent period of Colombian history.

In late April, 1872, the curandero (healer) Miguel Perdomo Neira arrived in Bogotá amid widespread rumors that he had come to heal the terminally ill, or lead conservatives in rebellion. The lay healer had traveled from town to town for the previous six years, performing operations and cures that some viewed as miraculous. Professional physicians on the faculty of the Universidad Nacional received him with so much hostility as to spark a minor riot. In this event, broad segments of the people fought medical students and parts of the official political community. At first, the social conflict evident in this event seemed to locate the unrest within the norms of a turbulent period of Colombian history.