Mario Lopez Says He Owes His Life to a Mexican Curandera Who Brought Him Back From the Brink of Death When He Was a Baby

Mario Lopez health problem pushed him to believe in the power of alternative medicine. The actor and TV personality recently made an appearance on the podcast, “Pardon My Take,” where he revealed he credits a bruja for saving his life when he was a young boy.

The podcast host asked Lopez if it was true that he owed his “entire life to a witch doctor?” Right away, Lopez launched into a story about how he came close to death from a childhood illness and was only brought back to life through the power of a bruja.

@pardonmytake

Mario Lopez owes his whole life to a witch doctor and milk #MarioLopez

♬ original sound – pardonmytake

“When I was little, my stomach wasn’t fully formed or something. I was born eight-and-a-half [pounds] and I the whittled down to four [pounds] because I couldn’t hold anything in,” he explained.

Lopez even revealed that his illness was so dire that a Catholic priest visited him to give him his last rights in case he died. Luckily, Lopez’s father refused to let this be the end of his son’s story.

“It sounds crazy, but my dad sort of kidnapped me from the hospital and took me to this bruja which is like a Mexican witch doctor down in Ensenada in Mexico…”

The new gen/younger Latinx started reclaiming the Bruja/Brujx to go against colonization. See, any woman (back in the day) in the indigenous community who was strong, a healer, a matriarch or warrior was called a Bruja by conquering forces and sentenced to death.

— Escobar Mami (@Psychedelichola) July 16, 2020

Lopez explained that his father trusted this particular bruja because she had previously helped him when Western medicine couldn’t.

“The lady had fixed my dad’s leg that he thought was going to have to be amputated earlier because of some accident, but she ended up squaring it away,” he said.

But, by far, the highlight of the story was the poción the woman mixed up for Lopez. “She had [my father] mix this crazy concoction into Carnation Milk and she gave it to me. And slowly, I started getting better.” Of course it was Carnation Milk — is there any better cure-all in the world? (next to Vicks VapoRub, of course)

Lopez concluded by saying that the experience made him “a believer in alternative medicine.”

Lopez’s anecdote went viral on TikTok, prompting hundreds of commenters to share their thoughts and opinions as well as their own stories of brujería.

Some people wanted to clarify that it is likely that a curandero helped heal Lopez. “As a Mexican, a Curadero [sic] has also helped me in the past & I think it’s crazy too,” said one TikTok user. “But our indigenous ancestors were smart.”

Others shared their own stories of being helped by healers. “I had a healer help my uterus so I could have babies. Couldn’t get pregnant besides miscarriages. Got pregnant with my son 3 months later,” revealed one commenter.

And of course, many people in the comments were giving much-needed history lessons on how the word “bruja” was used to oppress and control women. “‘Brujas’ or ‘witches’ were the holistic healers that were burned and killed by capitalism,” said a TikTok user. “Women weren’t allowed to become doctors but they could heal.”

And although they were once viewed as scary or dangerous in Western society, curranderas have gone significantly more mainstream in recent years. After dealing with the after effects of centuries of colonization, many Latinos embrace curranderas and the age-old wisdom they bring. Just ask Mario Lopez!