“Traditional Mexican Medicine: Understanding and Curing Espanto”
Espanto, along with the evil eye and empacho, is considered by specialists as a culturally delimited illness, meaning it has a cultural background and affiliation that prevails only in certain regions of Mexico and Latin America. This traditional ailment is not recognized by academic or Western medicine, and is often cured through traditional medicine remedies.
While fear is suffered in both rural and urban areas, it is more common in territories where the Zapotecs, Nahuas, and Otomíes live. The Nahuas, in particular, believed that the soul was made up of three soul entities, and that when the tonalli (solar heat and vigor) left the body due to a sudden experience of fear, it caused illness and weakness.
Symptoms of espanto include insomnia, sadness, anxiety, loss of appetite, headache, cold, hypersensitivity, and stomach and intestinal problems. Traditional remedies for this condition include rituals, herbalism, and “spirits to drink” and “spirits to spread” that are sold in pharmacies in popular areas.
There are similarities between espanto and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in the Western world, although the methods to cure them are very different. Despite the lack of recognition from Western medicine, espanto continues to be a culturally significant illness in Mexico and Latin America.