Story by Zuleyma, Summer 2020
Last year my family had to face a difficult situation. My mom decided to get plastic surgery and her surgical area was done poorly. It was hard on all of us to see her wound since we could see her muscles that are under the skin. The difficult part was purchasing medicine since it was expensive. Other doctors did not want to touch the wounded area until it completely healed. Arnica is an herb that my mom suggested to use. This helped my family in assisting my mom’s wound. We used Arnica to help the wound heal faster. It was inexpensive and it was found in almost every mexican market. I was concerned that my mom relied on arnica because I had more trust on western medicine than a herb. I had to ask her why she chose this herb.
Bringing up arnica with my mother brought back vivid memories of her childhood. She remembers collecting arnica with her family when someone got injured. Arnica is a flower found on the mountains of Michoacan, Mexico. The yellow flower likes to grow in scattered areas. My mom explained that this herb was used in her pueblo because many people couldn’t afford to travel long distances to a hospital or purchase medication. Many like to boil the petals from the arnia and drink it as tea or crush the petals and place it on their wound. According to my mom, this herb is used to prevent infections on the wound and helps the body heal faster. She learned how to use this herb from her mother.
Overtime, she kept drinking arnica tea and her wound healed. I can’t underestimate the strength of a flower's properties and second guess the teachings of my mom. This plant helped me learn the ideas and innovations created by people from impoverished communities used to overcome adversities. This flower is significant to my family because it was able to help someone we all love, my mom. Each time I go to a mexican market I make sure to walk to the isle of the arnica flowers packaged in bags to thank them for helping my family.