“María Sabina, mujer espíritu” de Nicolás Echevarría (1979) [FULL TRANSCRIPT]

Maria Sabina was an indigenous woman born in the 1800’s in the town of Huatla de Jiminez, Mexico. She lived a very difficult life of extreme poverty but over time embraced her role as a curandera, or healer. Her primary methodology was holding a ritual ceremony in which she served psychoactive mushrooms and channeled the spirit of Jesus Christ and the Saints to cure various ailments of the body. The ceremony combined elements of Catholicism with the ancient Aztec practice of consuming teonanácatl, which Sabina referred to as “the children”, “little saints”, and ‘nti-ši-tho (pronounced n-ti-she-toe; Mazatec dialect roughly translated to “Little-One-Who-Springs-Forth”).

The following is a full transcript of the 1978 documentary directed by Mexican filmmaker Nicolás Echevarría, who is widely respected by Mexican indigenous communities for his authentic portryal of culture and tradition. I could not find the original Spanish version beyond this 8-minute clip, but I found this full English version on YouTube and wrote a Bash script to compile the timestamped transcriptions into a readable text.

There is also another companion translation by Max Dashu (Thanks, Max!) that you can read on a blog post on his website. It’s quite good and takes a few liberties which I appreciated.

I did a quick cross-check of the English translation and found a few noteworthy instances where the translation was incorrect. For example, when Sabina explains which questions she asks the sick, the English version says “I ask them where they were going” but the Spanish is “[Les pregunto] a donde fue” which means “I ask them to where they were going”. This is small mistake but changes the meaning of the sentence entirely. It also makes me distrust the entire English translation.

The Bash script

This is the script I used to extract the timestamped transcriptions into a readable format.

(Scroll down farther for the transcript)

#!/bin/bash

# Check if a file name is provided
if [ "$#" -ne 1 ]; then
    echo "Usage: $0 <file>"
    exit 1
fi

# The file to be processed
file="$1"

# Remove lines with timestamps and combine lines to form complete sentences
awk '
    /:[0-5][0-9]$/ { next }            # Skip lines with timestamps
    {                                  # For all other lines
        printf "%s", $0                # Print the line without a newline
        if (!/[.!?]$/) { printf ", " } # If the line does not end with ., !, or ?, add a comma and a space
        else { printf "\n" }            # If the line ends with ., !, or ?, start a new line
    }
' "$file"

Transcript legend

The following transcript contains three types of content:

• Voice-over narration (the “Narrator” 📖): A woman reading Sabina’s quotes in English dubbed over compuled video footage of Sabina holding a mushroom ceremony, Sabina sewing, Sabina walking in the mountains on a beautiful day, Sabina sweeping her dirt floor, etc.. The source is unknown for the quotes, though I guess the director conducted an interview.
• Subtitled speaking segments (the “Speakers” 🗣️): Two women speak during the documentary: Maria Sabina and her patient who is identified as Maria Roberta. I use “Sabina” and “MR” to indicate their speaking.
• Singing (the “Chanting” 🎵): Sabina sings a variety of songs and chants which are often not subtitled at all by YouTube or the makers of the documentary.

The transcript

[Chanting 🎵]

[Narrator 📖 ] I do not know the date of my birth, but my mother Maria Concepción told me I was born the morning of Saint Magdalena’s Day in Rio Santiago in the district of Warwick. None of my ancestors knew the dates of their births. The place where I now live is called Sarah 14, at the top of the barrio mystical, where you can look down upon the small town of Well Glass. I didn’t know my father well. I was only three years old, and my sister Maria Anna was only four or five months of age when he died. Not even the sorcerers, the healers, neither wise men could cure him. Poor man, he died looking like a turkey. He had boils covering his neck. My sister Maria Anna and myself were the only children of our parents. We suffered very much because we had nothing, only hunger, only cold. I think that our will to live was very strong, stronger even than the will of many men. Our life wish kept us struggling every day just to get a piece of bread to quiet our great hunger.

[Chanting 🎵, muffled]

[Narrator 📖 ] Maria Anna and I watched our hens on the hill closely to protect them from sparrow hawks and foxes. One day we were sitting under a tree when I saw several mushrooms within reach. I remember that our grandparents talked about these mushrooms with great respect. They called them little things or sinked. I call them holy children. I put the mushrooms in my mouth and began to chew them. Their taste was not good; on the contrary, they were bitter, with a taste of roots of Earth. My sister Maria Anna had been watching me and had just eaten some too. After eating the mushrooms, we felt somewhat dizzy, as if we were drunk, and we began to cry. Later on, we were all right. We felt that the mushrooms talked to us because we heard a voice, a voice that came from the other world. It was a pleasant voice, but at the same time, an authoritarian voice, like the voice of a father who loves his children but is firm. I felt that everything around me was God himself. I felt that I touched the light and that my words were beautiful. Long afterwards, I learned that the mushrooms produce wisdom, that they cure sicknesses, that they have power, and that they are Christ’s blood. For these reasons, our people have been eating them for many years. The holy children must be respected. Persons who pick holy children must be pure in body and spirit. They must not have had sexual relations and they must not have been near a dead person because the impure air of the dead would contaminate them.

[Chanting 🎵]

[Narrator 📖 ] One day my mother without even asking me, ordered me to gather up my clothes, telling me from this moment on you no longer belong to us. Now you belong to this young man who will be your husband. Go with him, take good care of him. You are now a woman. Although these are the customs of our people, I was fourteen years old. On the first days of my new life, I was frightened because I didn’t know what was happening to me. Later on, I became resigned. His name was Setapu Martinez. He was a young man, 20 years old. I can say with pride that he knew how to read and write. His business was to sell the red and black yarn used to embroider the weepils that our women wear. He was my husband for only six years. Like my mother, I was a widow when I was 20. I had three children. I never ate the holy children while I lived with Setapu. According to our beliefs, a woman who heals must not have sexual relations. Those who participate must have no sexual contact four days before and four days after the night ritual. This requirement must be strictly followed.

Twelve years after becoming a widow, a man named Marciano Carrera began to court me. I had no need of a man because I knew how to support myself. I knew how to work. Marciano Carrera was insistent and as the days passed, I was worried because he didn’t seem to be a working man. In fact, he was famous for his irresponsibility and drunkenness. At last, I agreed but I set my conditions. If Marci wanted a woman, he should live at my house because I was not going to move my mother and my children, my sleeping mat, my pots, my hose, and my machete his house. He beat me frequently and made me cry. He didn’t work in the fields. During the 13 years that I lived with Marciano, I had six children. All of them died, except my daughter Laura. They died either of sickness or were murdered. Both Marciano and my first husband, Setapu, liked to have other women. The sons of one woman with whom he had relations beat him and wounded him with a machete. He died bleeding on the road.

Becoming a widow for the second time helped me to face my fate. My fate was determined even before I was born. My fate was to be wise, to heal, to heal through the language of the Holy Children. But something had held me back, as if I were afraid to give in to my destiny. The holy children talked to me; they advised me. They tell me the way to heal the sick, and they teach the language that I speak during the ritual. All my language is in the book that was given to me. I am the one who reads, the interpreter. That is my privilege.

People look for me to cure those who are sick, those who have been bewitched by spirits, those who have lost their souls because of a shock on the mountain, on the river, or on the road. This is why I ask the sick: on which day were you wounded? Where was it? What happened? Did you feel that your body had lost its own, that your body was empty? When you dream, where do you go? Because when we sleep, our spirit wanders. It goes where it wants to go. The spirit changes itself into a possum, a tiger, or a buzzard. Transformed into an animal, it can travel to faraway places. The spirit returns when we awaken. The holy children cure the ulcers, which are wounds of the spirit. The soul’s condition causes one’s sickness. The mushrooms must be eaten at night; that is why the ritual, which we call La Velada, is held at night. Before we begin the La Velada, I ask the name of the sick person. “Maria Roberta,” an old friend and neighbor, burned her foot with boiling water. If the sick person can’t tell me the real cause of the sickness, it is revealed to me. My words force the evil spirit to come out. My words make the dying arise. I begin the ceremony in front of the images of the Saints. The sick person and myself eat pairs of mushrooms. Sometimes, people who are present also eat mushrooms. I let myself be led. I don’t resist. And I fall in a deep, endless well. I feel somewhat dizzy. When the holy children work inside my body, I talk to them. I ask them a favor. I ask them to bless us, to show us the way, the truth, the healing. I asked them to give us the power to follow the tracks of evil in order to kill it. I tell the mushrooms, “I will drink your blood. I will eat your heart because my conscience is pure. It is clean, like yours, because there is no witchcraft within me, nor anger, nor lies. Because there is no filth, no dirt within me.”

[Chanting 🎵] Holy Mother, Father Jesus Christ. Holy Ghost. lord saint Peter. Lord Saint Paul. I’m the eagle woman, the owner. I am the swimming woman. I am what swims in holiness. Father, holy mother. I am the eagle woman, the owner. I, the sparrow hawk woman. The “Tlacuache” woman. The holy “Tlacuache” woman. Is it a zit? An itch? A cramp? Maria Roberta. Father, holy mother. Father Jesus Christ. I am the watch woman, because you have a watch. Father Jesus Christ, God and Son. Holy, holy. I am the woman who looks inside and examines. Father, holy mother. Father Jesus, god and son. Holy Ghost. aye, Maria. Holy, holy. Father, holy mother. Father Jesus Christ, god and son. Lord saint Peter. Lord Saint Paul. Hoy holy holy. Holy mother.

[🗣️- Sabina ] Do you have the effect?

[🗣️- Maria Roberta]: Yes! Speak. Speak, that’s why you’re here.

[🗣️- Sabina ] My heart can’t cope. I’m tired.

[🗣️- Maria Roberta , smiling warmly ] Talk to God, so that he grants us a favor.

[Narrator 📖 ] My daughter, Apolono, helps me to pray or to repeat my language during the ceremonies. She speaks and tells what she knows.

[Chanting 🎵 – Daughter)] Sacred man of the house and shade. Maria Sabina. Road of your steps, of your feet. On the road on your hands. Maria Sabina. Even underneath your hands and your feet, Maria Guadalupe. Even underneath your eyes and mouth. Even under your fingerprints and nails. Even under your cane. Cross star, big star. Mother Guadalupe, mother Magdalena, maria Sabinita. Mother of milk and fresh dew. Mother of milk and breasts. Our lord heya Christ. Even underneath your hands and feet, mother Guadalupe. Mother Magdalene. Maria Sabinita. Mother of milk and fresh dew. Mother of milk and breasts. Maria Sabinita. The road of your footprints and your feet. And your hands Maria Sabinita.

[Chanting 🎵 – Sabina ] sparrow hawk woman. Eagle woman. How was it born? How did it fall? Let’s throw everything on the ground. By your hearth, by the stones of your hearth. With our saint Peter, and our saints. Is Maria Sabinita. There in your hearth, by the stones of your hearth. With our saint Peter and our saints, is Maria Roberta. There in your hearth, in the stones of your hearth. There in your house, within your shade. Woman of toil, woman of love. Salt water woman. woman of sweat, selling woman. A

Ay Saint Antonio. Ay saint Antonio. How did this disease come about? How did this happen to you?

[[🗣️- Sabina ] Poor thing. Why?

[🗣️- Maria Roberta] I don’t know.

[🗣️- Sabina ] You asked for it to happen? Gods eyes will see there’s nothing. Holy, holy, holy father.

[Muffled chanting about Saint Peter and the Holy Spirit. Sabina touches Maria Roberta and applies a poultice to collar bone area]]

[Narrator 📖 ] The sick are anointed with San Pedro. San Pedro is a tobacco mixed with lime and garlic. It gives the sick strength and courage.

[Chanting 🎵 – Low quality audio] Holy holy holy. Father Christ. How did its root spring up. How did it fail? Woman of the hearth. Woman of the stones of the hearth. Sparrow hawk woman. Hunter hawk woman. How did it spring up? How did it fail?

[several minutes of muffled singing to Maria Roberta]

[Narrator 📖 ] The sickness leaves if the sick person vomits. He vomits up sickness. He vomits because the mushrooms want it. If the sick person does not vomit, I vomit for him. In this way, the evil is expelled. The mushrooms have this power because they are God’s flesh. Those who believe are healed; those who do not believe are not.

[🗣️- Sabina & others ] [vomiting] Pray for me! Bora, bora, bora, bora [Many muttering chants similar to Rosary, Sabina chanting over the muttering, clapping each time ]

[Narrator 📖 ] There is a moment during the ritual when the candles are put out. Darkness serves as a background for the visions. It is not necessary to close the eyes. It is enough just to look at the infinite depth of darkness.

[Chanting 🎵] Santo santo santo, mama mama mama mama, Christi.

[🗣️- Sabina ] When I learned about this, I was about 8. I took them every day. It’d be different if I were a shaman woman or adult. There were plenty of them. I took them because I felt nice.

[missing translation, Mazatecan unclear]

[🗣️- Sabina ] Both of us took them in the fields. We knew them when an uncle got sucks a healer cured him [with the mushrooms]. He talked to them and we liked that. “And if we eat them,” we would wonder. So we took them [with my sister]. They used to spring up everywhere. Here, where we came to live. They were big. Now people leave none. My sister, Rosalia’s mom – do you know Rosalia? My sister got sick and almost died. The healers couldn’t cure her. They came and filled my house with eggs. The house with the tin roof. I decided to cure her myself. I took 30 pairs of holy children: I must have been 25 years old. Maybe 30, because I already had my 3 kids. I cured my sister with the 30 pairs of Children.

[Narrator 📖 ] I never went to school. I never learned to read or write or to speak Spanish. My mother and father spoke only Mazateco, and I never learned any other language. The word school had no meaning for me. I didn’t know such a thing existed, and even if I had known, I wouldn’t have gone. There was no time for such things; we had to work too hard.

[Narrator 📖 ]Many foreigners visit me. They take my image and my voice with their gadgets. Some say that they are scholars; others say that they are important people in the city. Writers come to ask me questions about my life. There have been many foreigners seeking God. Young people have been disrespectful. They eat the holy children, no matter when or where. They do not do it during the night, nor under the guidance of the wise, nor do they use them to cure a sickness. It is difficult for me to explain to them that the rituals are not known just to feel the effects of the mushrooms because they can become insane. The only purpose of the ritual is to heal the sicknesses suffered by our people. The rituals are not a game for me. Our ancestors always ate the holy children doing rituals led by a wise man.

[violin melody]

[Narrator 📖 ] There are serious illnesses which require more than one ceremony in order to be healed. I use wax candles and flowers, white lilies, and gladiolas. I burn copal incense and with this smoke, I purify the holy children in my hands before eating them. There are different kinds of children: those that grow on sugar cane, those that grow on trees covered with mold, and those that grow from the damp earth. When the children work inside my body, I pray and ask God that they might help me cure. I get close to the sick person. The Saints guide my hands to press and to massage where there is pain. I speak and sing. I feel that I sing beautifully. I say that the holy children make me say, “I am God’s daughter, chosen to be wise. On the altar in my house are the images of the saints. They help me to cure and to talk. During the rituals I clap and whistle, and at that moment I am transformed.

[🗣️- Maria Roberta] The medicine you gave me will cure me.

[🗣️- Sabina ] Holy mother. Holy medicine wise man. Holy wise herb man, medicine man. Your healing leaves, the leaves of your hands. Father, holy mother. Father Jesus Christ. God, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Holy, holy holy. I am Saint Peter’s woman. I was born where they grow St. Peter’s tobacco. I was born where the echo is born. God knows. Our father Christ knows. He gave me a book, not a book of lies. A book of truths. A book that says what is true.

[🗣️- Someone ]:: God gave it to you?

[🗣️- Sabina ] That’s right. I’ll fight however the evil powers want to. If I told you what I’ve done in my life. Jesus! It makes me laugh.

[🗣️- Someone, off camera ] Yes, it does. God will repay you.

[Sabina nods, proudly, with eyes closed]

[🗣️- Sabina ]Well, I’ve even talked to Benito Juarez. I’m the most manly! [lights a cigar] I’m not kidding! I swim underwater. How did our town change? Look at it now. Only those that walk on this path know the ways of the world. Talk to my son. He is an authority.

[🗣️- Someone, off camera ] Give him the name, let him say it.

[🗣️- Sabina ] Raymundo is his name. Let him go back the way he came. Romando, you come with your three “Tlacuaches” and I come with my 13 “Tlacuaches”. You carry 13 “Tlacuaches” on your way. Holy, holy, holy Romando. I’ve taken notice of it. [smoking cigar] Thus I cure the disease of your foot. That’s all I can do. Why blame anyone else of your disease?

[🗣️- Background, muffled ]: Holy medicine man wise herb man. Good language, good matter, and good saliva.

[Narrator 📖 ]During the rituals, favors are asked of the Lord of the Mountains, the rivers, and the springs. He has the power to capture spirits, but he also knows how to heal illness if I ask him. I offer him turkeys or hens so that he will give back the spirits that he has taken. I pay him with cacao, eggs, cococa, feathers.

[🗣️- Sabina ] [Passing hen to Maria] Holy, holy, Maria Roberta. Wise in language, Wise in everything. 13 trousers, 13 shirts. Name of 13 trousers. [Takes hen back] Poor thing. You’ll heal little by little. [plucks and burns feather, then warms egg with candle and rubs in on Maria Roberta’s face, then puts egg in Roberta’s hands. Roberta rubs it on her feet, one of which is dark and swollen from the burn. Sabina drinks water, then spits it out on the burned foot. She faces Roberta and puts one arm on Roberta’s shoulder and with her other arm pulls Robert’s arm by the thumb, then ring finger, and so on until all fingers have been pulled]

[🗣️- Maria Roberta] By body will heal, little by little.

[🗣️- Sabina ]: It’s true what the language says. You’re not sick, Maria Roberta. [claps a dozen times, slowly] Yes, I am content. War to disease! It comes with generals and corporals. Seargant! Commander! I bring my 13 generals. Raymundo. Isn’t it so? Look. I come with all. I bring my 13 sparrow-hawks. However many there are. I have many Tlacuaches. Man, man, man! [still clapping furiously every 2-3 seconds] I come with 13 generals. I can drink and smoke. But this…blessed [garbled]. Woman of wars. Look. Not anyone is wise. How come I am a wise woman? I auscultate and examine. Holy, holy, holy, holy. [smacks Maria Roberta’s leg above the burn, mumbles something, takes big drag of cigar with eyes closed, clapping a few more times.] Maria Roberta. Maria Roberta. The police dog barks. Jesus Christ. Look now.

[🗣️- Maria Roberta ]: I feel better. That’s enough for me.

[🗣️- Sabina ]: You need more. Now you speak. This is what we greeted each other today for. [shakes Roberta’s hand] What an immense wonder this is! What an immense wonder. Maria Sabina!

[Narrator 📖 ] I’ve had problems all my life. I’ve received many blows and once even two bullets entered my body when I tried to protect my son from a drunken man who was going to murder him. I have survived attacks from neighbors and relatives against my own person. They burned my house, and they steal from me what little I have. I am old and sick. I now breathe with difficulty. I tire quickly, my back aches, and it hurts me very much when I swallow. I do not talk much because I have lost some teeth and I am ashamed to be toothless. I ask God to bless me. I ask for kindness every day. I ask for kindness for the whole world, this world where there is also wickedness and discord, a world where people fight without reason. I know that I will die soon, but I am resigned. The moment God wishes it, I will die. I have suffered and continued to suffer. I have always been poor. I have lived poor, and I shall die poor. I know the kingdom of death because I’ve been there. It is a place where there is no noise because the least sound is disturbing. In the peace of that kingdom, I seek God and Benito Juarez.